Blonde Ale

For those of you who keep up with this blog, you know that I'm brewing beer for a friend's wedding in January. We decided that one of the beers should be a very light and mild beer for those who are "casual" beer drinkers, so I decided to brew a blonde as a trial. Here's hoping it turns out to be what we're looking for. It was incredibly easy.


Ingredients:

• 6.6 pounds Light LME
• 1 pound Light DME
• 1 pound Table Sugar
• 0.5 pound Crystal 15L
• 1.5 ounces Willamette Hops
• Whirlfloc
• 10 grams American Ale Yeast (White Labs WLP001, Wyeast 1056, or Safale US-05--I used 2 packages of US-05 for a really crisp feel and flavor)

Instructions:

• Steep grains at 150-160 F for about 30 minutes
• Add dry extract, sugar, and hops. Boil for 60 minutes.
• At 15 minutes left, add liquid extract.
• At 10 minutes left, add one whirlfloc tablet
• After one hour, remove from heat. Cool wort and pour into fermenter. 
• Pitch yeast.
• Ferment for 7-10 days.
• *Before kegging, I transferred the batch over to a secondary to remove excess sediment from the beer. I did not let it sit long at all. I then transferred the batch right over to the keg and pressurized it. This beer is supposed to be light and clear, so we don't want a lot of sediment getting in the way.

OG: 1.060
FG: 1.012
ABV of about 6%

It turned out to be a little more alcoholic than I would have liked for a blonde, but we'll see. I'll update in a couple of days to let you know how it turned out.

Until Next Time,
RHSC