American Blonde (and Questions about aroma hops)

[koomber]

Well, it's based of a blonde ale from Radical Brewing, but I didn't have the grain or the hops so I just decided to use roughly the malt to try and craft something functional and came up with this and it smells pretty good in the primary:
Recipe Specifications

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Batch Size: 23.00 L
Boil Size: 26.33 L
Estimated OG: 1.048 SG
Estimated Color: 10.5 EBC
Estimated IBU: 31.2 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
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Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.79 kg Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (3.9 EBC) Grain 79.17 %
0.47 kg Munich Malt (17.7 EBC) Grain 9.90 %
0.26 kg Wheat Malt, Bel (3.9 EBC) Grain 5.50 %
0.26 kg Melanoiden Malt (39.4 EBC) Grain 5.43 %

25.00 gm Northern Brewer [9.26 %] (60 min) Hops 22.3 IBU
45.00 gm Northern Brewer [9.26 %] (5 min) Hops 8.9 IBU
30.00 gm Styrian Goldings [3.90 %] (0) AromaHops -
45.00 gm Styrian Goldings [3.90 %] Dry Hop Hops -
1 Pkgs East Coast Ale (White Labs #WLP008) Yeast-Ale


Mash for 1 hour at 67.0 C

Very pale ale using an American yeast that is apparently suited to traditional blonde ales and lots of hops (which AFAIK is what American means with respect to beer ) The Melanoidin Malt and Munich gives the beer an ever so subtle red hue, but with this one I want the hops to be the star.

My only concern is that the heap of Styrian Goldings at the end might swap out the aroma from the Northern Brewer. Any thoughts? Short of actually dry hopping with Northern Brewer any other ideas?

[lancsSteve]

Very pale ale using an American yeast that is apparently suited to traditional blonde ales and lots of hops (which AFAIK is what American means with respect to beer ) The Melanoidin Malt and Munich gives the beer an ever so subtle red hue, but with this one I want the hops to be the star.

My only concern is that the heap of Styrian Goldings at the end might swap out the aroma from the Northern Brewer. Any thoughts? Short of actually dry hopping with Northern Brewer any other ideas?

AMerican Blonde and other American beers often use american hop varieites which gives them a particularrly american flavour profile - the C hops are classic (centennial, cascade, chinook, citra, and also simcoe, amarillo etc 0- which get described as either 'citrussy' or 'cat-piss' depending on your liking of and attitude towards them)

This isn't always the case as the American micros do love HOPS and are getting in to NZ and Australian hops but it's a fair rule that trad beer styles are defined in large part by their local hops so that's UK hops for UK ales with goldings and fuggles as the classics, German hops for german ales and lagers with Hallertauer varieites and tettnang as classics, czeech hops for czech beers with saaz as their classic hops and American hops for American beers - especially the 'c' hops. Styrian goldings and saaz seem to break out of these as 'pan-european' hops) These are generalisations and typical cases NOT rules though. (E.G. weissens, berliner weisse, witbier and belgian ales are frequently far more defined by their yeasts athan hopping)

Northern brewer are fairly neutral so I;d guess the aromatics of styrians will dominate - which will be quite nice.

Should be nice, but not especially "American"

[koomber]

Thanks for the advice Steve, thats the sort of tips I need. What do you mean by neutral? Do you mean it won't contribute to the aroma or that it will only contribute a general hoppyness to the flavour?
I kind of went for the American appelation as a slight p*ss take of the American (beer) which is usually seen to be a normal version (Sunkel, Pale Ale, etc) with a LOAD more hops
Love the brewed like monks brewday!

[Barley Water]

Well, the deal with American Blonde ale is that it is the offering most micros have on tap to satisfy the folks that either don't like or have never tried a typical micro beer (ie; IPA's, Amber ales, that sort of thing). Accordingly, it tends to be lower alcholol by American standards and hopped very lightly, again by American micro standards. I would put that style very close to a German Kolsch or a German Helles brewed with ale yeast (and a neutral fermenting strain by the way). The reason I don't mess with this particular style is because if I want a beer like that, I prefer a Helles (and if you do them correctly, they are fairly malty).

Just a couple of comments about your proposed formulation. First of all, if you want something that hits the style guidelines, I would loose most of the specialty grains, it will make the beer too complex. Just go with the base malt and a bit of light crystal, say 20L or so. As far as hops go, I would select something akin to what you would find in a helles, you know German noble hops. Use a bittering charge and small flavor charge only and don't dry hop, that would add too much character. Of course, your beer, just the way it is, will taste way better than a typical American Blonde so don't take any of this as a knock on your recipe but it is more like an American Pale ale than an American Blonde. Oh yeah, I would suggest doing a 1 1/2 hour boil anytime you use a significant amount of pils malt to avoid DMS in your beer, it will screw up the taste. One good thing about brewing these very light beers though is that it forces the brewer to really clean up the brewing process as any screw ups will end up in the glass. Anyhow, good luck, I'm sure your brew will turn out well.

[koomber]

Top Banana! Thanks for the help chaps. I think I'll make this one and one that is within style, using the same hops and see how it turns out, comparisson can be a real helpful tool in learning to improve your brewing game. Thanks once again chaps!

[koomber]

This turned out fantastic, and went down faster than a Barca player. MAking it again tomorrow with a different yeast and pale malt.

[MAF]

went down faster than a Barca player.