Belgian Blonde

So, do I suddenly have a thing for blondes? The power of summer compels me! Following on the heels of the Centennial Blonde we brewed in June is this tasty concoction inspired by the Belgian beer Leffe Blonde. I originally looked at doing a Trappist style ale but reading up on the brettanomyces refermentation and the 6-8 month secondary requirements I was understandably intimidated and impatient. So Leffe Blonde clone it is. For this recipe I'll be substituting American Two-Row for what is thought to be pilsner malt. The hops also came in at way lower alpha acid content than I predicted so the second hop addition was moved up from 30 to 40 minutes from the end of the boil to help account for the difference. This is also the biggest all-grain recipe I've done so far at 1.069 target OG.

Brew Recipe

Brew Date: 8/04/2013
Style: Belgian Blonde
Batch Volume: 4.5 gal.
Type: All Grain
Color: 5.8 SRM
Target Bitterness: 20.1 IBU
Target OG: 1.069
Estimated FG: 1.017

Grist
9 lb. American Two-Row
1 lb. Light Munich
10 oz. Cane Sugar (Added at 15 min. before flameout)
5 oz. Belgian Biscuit
4 oz. Melanoidin

1 oz. Styrian Golding 3.2%AA (60 min.)
1 oz. Saaz 3.0%AA (40 min.)

1 pkg. Safbrew T-58 Belgian Ale Yeast

Brew Notes

Mash Temp: 158 °F
Mash Time: 60 min.
Boil Time: 60 min.
Pre-Mash Volume: 5.5 gal.
Post-Boil Volume: 4.75 gal.
Mash Efficiency: ?
Measured OG: 1.070
Measured FG: ?
ABV: ?
Calories: ?

It was a lovely 78 degrees out today. After crushing my grain for this recipe I realized the gap setting for the mill was waaay too wide. Set it to 0.030" and re-crushed. With 5.5 gallons of 166 degree water, after adding the grist I was very close to the top of my 7 gallon boil kettle. A lot of grain in this one. Mash temp started at 160 and ended at 158. Added table sugar at 15 minutes left in the boil. Had problems cooling the wort again with the coil chiller. Only able to get down to 90 degrees. Took it inside and ice bathed it down to 84. OG reading was spot on which was good news.

Got impatient during the cooling pricess and transferred it to the carboy and pitched the T-58. I've heard Belgian yeast likes it hot but I think this was too hot. Awoke the next morning to a very vigerous fermentation. No off smells or anything. I'm excited to try this next weekend and see what the warm starting temp for fermentation produced.

Update 8/8/2013 - Couldn't resist pulling a sample today. After four days the gravity dropped down to 1.012 with little activity going on in the fermenter. Taste had a hint of the Belgian character I'm going for but had a pretty strong fusel alcohol taste which I'm sure is a side effect of the high fermentation temps. I'm not sure if this will mellow out over time but it's currently a little too harsh to be enjoyable. Maybe chalk this up as a brewing lesson learned and move on. Must devise a better method for chilling wort quickly to pitch temps in the summer.

Update 8/11/13 - Racked to secondary today. Detected a small hint of that belgian characteristic in the nose from the gravity sample but not quite 'belgian' yet. Very bready still. Gravity was standing strong at 1.011.