Recommendation for blonde ale with oaks

First of all, welcome to the hobby! You will definitely have a mix of success and failure as you get going trying to do your own thing, so it helps to have a bit of a tough skin when asking for feedback. That being said...
I don't know that I'd pair a blonde ale with oak aging, but you may have some success with a very light hand. A light, easy-drinker just doesn't tend to have the backbone to balance out the oak. However, if you want to brew a blonde ale that you can crush in the backyard, research brewing an American Blonde Ale. They're light, lowish in alcohol, don't require much in the way of ingredients, and will be much more drinkable than a Belgian Blonde Ale, which tend to be a bit sweeter and higher in alcohol.

 

Also, read How to Brew by Palmer, everyone on this forum will tell you that. There is a free, older version online, or you can buy it. It is an invaluable tool.
A great recipe to start with for an American Blonde Ale is in Brewing Classic Styles.

 

You’ve pretty much written your recipe here. I’d go for something like this for a 5 gallon batch:

8 to 10 lbs pils malt, with exact amount depending upon mash efficiency and desired initial gravity

or

6 lbs pils or very light dry malt extract.

1 to 1.5 oz Hallertaur at beginning of boil.

Chico yeast (us - 05, e.g.).

Then do the oak chip thing. Somebody else will have to address this, as I’ve never used oak chips.

Since you are going to oak this beer, I would recommend just using the malt extract, as any difference in extract and grain will be, l suspect, largely masked by the oak. I also don’t recommend any late hop additions, as they might clash with the oak. Good luck!

Cheers!

 

welcome aboard.

never made a blond ale but have oaked a burton ale. my burton is 9-10 abv with 10 -12 oz of hops. i would oak it with 3-4 oz of medium toasted oak.

for a blond that i assume will be in the 4-6 abv range and probabaly lightly hopped .
perhaps 1/2 to 1 oz of oak. for a few weeks. make sure you boil the wood chips for 5 minutes, then throw the water away. that will remove some tannins which you will not like in a light beer. then keg or bottle.

do you have beers that have been oaked or other wood aged?

 

the only things I would add to what's been said, is that this is one of the few cases to actually consider a secondary fermenter (carboy / better bottle.)
I would recommend, with a light flavored beer like this, go with a half-ounce of oak chips, and taste after a week or so.
Something like this can easily get overpowered by the oak, whereas a bigger stout can take a ounce or more for several weeks for the oak to come through.

 

i secondary whenever i am dry hopping adding fruit wood nibs or anything else. get beer off the yeast, and its in a sanitized new container.

 

Thanks for asking

Guided by your post on home-toasting; recently made a small batch in the toaster oven. Little whittle sticks from home-grown white oak. Rested one week in a retro-60's IPA. Turned out to be the missing ingredient.

 

great how much oak did you add. glad the video helped.

 

I wouldn't start packing thing u till you really get a handle on your process. With little experience there is a high likelyhood that something may taste off when you're finished. Adding one more step like aging on oak is just one more point where you can screw it up.

 

Building off of this, maybe an option would be to keep half of the blond as it is, and only oak half - obviously adjusting amounts to match.
That would be a good way to see what oaking does to a given batch of beer, plus, if it doesn't work, you still have half the batch to drink.

 

1 oz : 5 G

 

nice, just got a call for a blond or ipa so gonna have to try ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,with oak

 

Be careful with oak chips, a little goes a long way. I would have a taste after a couple days vs waiting a week especially for a blond ale.

I also agree with splitting your batch so half has oak and half doesn't, even if the oak version is "too much" you could always combine an oaked bottle with an unoaked bottle.

Not sure I would bother with a secondary since you probably won't want to leave it on the oak too long.