Just got this recipe kit for Christmas from a friend. It is a Belgian Blonde. Mash @ 155 for 60-90 minutes 8.75lb Pilsner Malt 1.5lb Munich Malt 12oz Carapils 6oz Biscuit Malt 6oz Melanoidin Malt 60 minute boil 1.5oz Styrian Golding @ 60 .75oz Czech Saaz @ 30 12oz Cane Sugar @ 15 (I assume this is regular white sugar?) 1 Whirlfloc Tablet @15 Yeast: WLP530 Abbey Ale The recipe shows the final outcome of the 5 gal batch: OG: 1.071-1.073 FG: 1.017-1.019 IBU: 19.5 SRM: 7.5 ABV: 7% How does this look to anyone? Is there anything you would add or do differently? The grains are all cruched together so they're basically going to be what they are. I would likely do a starter (more in advance of last time). I am bottling my Dubbel today so I will take a quick taste of that and let you all know too. As always, thanks for you insight.
I did just put this recipe in BeerSmith2 and got the following OG: 1.054 FG: na IBU: 31.1 SRM: 5.8 ABV: 5.7%
8.75 + 1.5 +.75 (12oz) + .75 (6oz + 6oz) = 11.75 lbs 11 lbs 12 oz of grain with an OG of 1.071 - 1.073 (even with the 12 oz sugar)...? Seems optimistic to me, but your efficiency might be WAY better than mine. Other than that, looks like a tasty one. EDIT: beaten to it
Na, my efficiency isn't better than anyone's. Those numbers from the recipe are from the recipe itself. I'd likely get the numbers I posted from BS2 previously. When I add another 4lb of Pilsner Malt to BS2 it bumps the numbers into the green, showing SG of 1.070 IBU 27.7 SRM 6.4 ABV 7.3 Would Pilsner Malt be the way to go or maybe some other malt?
Good yeast choice, though Im not a fan of the muddled grain bill. Not that you can change it, but IF you could, I wound get rid of the munich, carapils, biscuit, and melanoidin, and instead make the grain bill about 60/40 pils and vienna One thing you can change though is to add some dry hops, which I would highly suggest you do, my preference would be strisselspalt, serebrianka, or fuggles
I would stick with pilsner because it's already there, and you wouldn't be muddying it up any further by adding more grain.
Add these Dry hops to a secondary? Or directly into primary? I would be interested in seeing how adding 4 lb of Vienna would make it on BS. Would that be a good choice?
I was thinking of perhaps trying a Belgian soon, so you like WLP530, eh? I was thinking pilsner malt, biscuit, ... tettnanger, maybe some willamette*, ... whoa, wait, maybe I should make a bunch of polls? *ran out of both fuggles and serebrianka recently, so I'd have to wing it on the hops lol
530 aka 3787, its a good yeast, for a blonde i would ferment it cool to minimize some of the bubblegum for your beer I would use 550 aka 3522 ardennes, bitter to about 30-35 and keep the OG around 1050, using willamette, Im also a fan of using raw wheat berries A poll might be a good idea, though you'd probably end up with a belgian dark hopped with chinook
Well fermenting cool, that's easy since everything's at 64 (or sometimes a little cooler if it gets cold enough, but I'll put a light-bulb in there and cover the fermenters with towels if it's going to get much below 60F in there). 550 is easy enough, because I don't know the difference between 530 and 550 anyway. But you're right, I'm using willamette, and I shant be putting it up for any votes. I need to use up some willamette anyway, and I'm fresh out of chinook.
3787 IMO is best in a tripel or a golden strong, 3522 really shines in belgian blondes or my favorite belgian table beers / enkels
A little bit of a highjack, but essentially the same beer so....................................................................... Yeah I've been tinkering on beersmith. Was gonna use 3522/550, mostly Belgian pilsner malt, toying with other ingredients as we speak (sugars? malts? cara-malts?)... not rushing to finalize. Gonna categorize it on BS as Belgian "specialty" because it's neater than "Belgian blonde" numerically. But other than that, it'll be close to a Belgian blonde. Must continue toying...
My favorite ~80% Pils ~20% unmalted wheat berries OG ~1045 IBU's to ~30 1oz @ 10min 1oz @ <170F 1oz dry hop Mash very thick (1qt/lb) @ 150F WY3522
