Sinister Blond Ale - 09/01/2010

[coatesg]

Lining this one up for tomorrow - a Belgian Blond using a pile of yeast from a big starter; the yeast originally made it's way out of a bottle of Chimay Red and I've grown it up in three steps over Christmas and it' now sitting in the fridge all settled out - I think Chimay use the primary strain for their bottling, and it smells pretty Belgian, which is a good sign.

The recipe is based on the Classic Styles one, but with a bit of a change in the hops as the hallertauer is only 2.1%, so adding some saaz in the mix to make up for it:

5.6kg Pilsner 3EBC
400g Lager Malt 5EBC (not quite enough Pilsner malt!)
270g Aromatic
270g Wheat malt

Mash 65C-66C; water is Asda's finest with a tsp CaCl2 added to 40L.

820g Sugar (200g clear candi sugar to use up, 620g cane sugar)

Hallertauer Hersbrucker 50g 2.1% 60min
Saaz 33g 3% 60min

OG: 1069
IBU: 24 Tinseth

Gonna pitch 18C and let it rise to 22C over a week or so, trying to get it down to 1.010-12 with a bit of luck

[leedsbrew]

mmmm sounds awesome. Gonna be any pics?

[coatesg]

I'll try! HLT warming up now, preheating mashtun.

[leedsbrew]

Sweet. Look forward to the results your a few steps ahead of me this morning. My brewing gear is still in the garage

[coatesg]

Well, overshot a little on this one - landed up with 22L at 1.076 and so diluted it back a little to 1.072 (23L). The fermenter is quite full...I predict some leakage here...

Photos:

Grain ready to go:



Mash wrapped up:



Sparge:



Good old boil:



IC in:



Hydro - way over!



Right, onto the next brew of the day!

[WishboneBrewery]

Nice to see a prize-winning kitchen setup

[coatesg]

But by no means a prize-winning kitchen! Luckily the plasterwork that's falling off isn't quite visible...

[bosium]

Looks delicious! Let us know how it turns out, I've had several attempts at a belgian blonde and never quite got it right - been meaning to try the JZ recipe.

[oxford brewer]

What do you do for steam extraction?

[coatesg]

What do you do for steam extraction?

Extractor fan above the cooker which the boiler sits on goes full blast without the oil filters for the whole boil. This doesn't quite work 100% but it's pretty good. I do usually have a window open and have a fair few strategically positioned teatowels to soak up any drips (from the fan hood mainly) and also have to wipe up any drips that form round the window, though it's quite dependent on the weather as to how much condensation there is.

From a hydro measurement earlier, this is down to 1024 (from 1072ish) at the minute and a lot of fizzing still happening.Temperature up to 21C now from the start at 18C. Will leave it there for a day or two before heating it to 22C where it will stay until the end. Fair few estery smells coming off, though fairly hard to tell with all the CO2 being kicked off. Taste is pretty good I think, though a little sweet still

[coatesg]

1014 and still fermenting strongly - much fizzing! ABV 7.7% so far...

Temperature upped to 22C in accordance with the schedule.

[coatesg]

So finally bottled this one yesterday. 40 and a half bottles (in a combination of pints and half-pints) with 1/2 tsp/bottle cane sugar. FG bottomed out at 1007, which I make to be a 65 point drop, or 8.6% by the HMRC's fudge factors

Taste is pretty good (and not that of a 8.6% beer) - bit of pear drop and clove, with some bubblegum and alcohol on the nose - maybe a hint of some solvent, though possibly my nose getting confused with the esters . Spicy and phenolic/clove flavour and already tastes pretty balanced, even though not carbonated yet. Will let it sit in the warm for a bit to carb up, and then into the garage out in the cold - should get a couple of months of cold conditioning out there.