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Brewing up a blonde ale today. Was originally going to call it a Summer ale, but due to a 3 month hiatus from brewing it is getting brewed a bit late for Summer. Plan was to do an all Challenger hopped brew, but discovered last night I didn't have as much Challenger hops as I thought! So I have subbed in some EKG instead.

Altonrea Blonde

Date: 11th September 2015

Gyle Number: 39

Fermentable Colour lb: oz Grams Ratio
Crisp MO Pale Malt 5.5 EBC 7 lbs. 11.4 oz 3500 grams 89.7%
Caragold 9 EBC 0 lbs. 7.0 oz 200 grams 5.1%
Carapils 4 EBC 0 lbs. 7.0 oz 200 grams 5.1%


Hop Variety Type Alpha Time lb: oz grams Ratio
Challenger Whole 8.58 % 90 mins 0 lbs. 1.1 oz 30 grams 47.6%
Challenger Whole 8.58 % 10 mins 0 lbs. 0.2 oz 6 grams 9.5%
East Kent Goldings Whole 6.57 % 10 mins 0 lbs. 0.9 oz 27 grams 42.9%


Final Volume: 23 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.041
Final Gravity: 1.009
Alcohol Content: 4.1% ABV
Total Liquor: 35.7 Litres
Mash Liquor: 15.6 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 78 %
Bitterness: 35 EBU
Colour: 7 EBC

Cheers,
Charliemartin

Looks tasty that's for sure

Brewday went okay today except for a few minor problems. I knocked over the hydro sample for the pre-boil gravity check while it was cooling. Had to cut short the boil to 75 mins so got slightly lower OG of 1.038, but 24 litres in the FV. Should still get about 4%, so a nice session beer hopefully, which was the intention anyway.
The run-off from the boiler was incredibly slow. My first blocked hop stopper in 39 brews. The culprit was the Challenger hops which were very dusty and flaky, barely a whole hop amongst them. Must have been the dregs of the bale. I had to keep pushing the hops away from the hop filter to get any flow going. This led to a large amount of trub in the FV.
Pitched the rehydrated yeast (Neale's West Coast) and now awaiting the start of fermentation.

Cheers,
Charliemartin

A few pictures from the brewday: