Let’s brew a six-pack of beer.

Goal

I am a craft beer drinker. I like the full body and flavors that I cannot find in mass produced beers. That said, there is a time and a place for everything. On a hot day after hard work, or when I just want to quench my thirst, it is convenient to have a good lawnmower beer on hand. Something that is not complex. A clean, simple, balanced, low-alcohol beer. An American Light Lager may be what comes to mind, but lagering is a challenge, especially for small batches, and brewing with adjuncts has never been my thing. So I would really like something similar, but that can be brewed as an ale with simple ingredients. That, my friend, is what the American Blonde Ale style is all about.

Blonde Ales tend to have low to moderate alcohol (3.8–5.5% ABV). Their original gravity ranges from 1.038 to 1.054 SG and their final gravity from 1.008 to 1.013 SG. Shooting for half way in between, would give me a target original gravity of 1.046 SG.

Blonde Ales are balanced towards the malt with low to moderate bitterness (15–28 IBUs) that can come from just about any hop variety. While the style’s vital statistics would allow a BU:GU ratio in the range of 0.28 to 0.74, 0.39 to 0.52 is probably more appropriate.

Blonde Ales range from light yellow to deep golden in color (3 to 6 SRM). To achieve this pale color, use only the lightest malt extracts and take care to avoid caramelization in the boil kettle.

The base malt forms the foundation of every beer. In a Blonde Ale, even that is subdued, so a plain 2-row malt is preferred over a more flavorful pale ale malt. Since this is an American beer, American ingredients are appropriate. Caramel flavors are not typically found in these beers, though some recipes include up to 25% wheat malt.

Blonde Ales have low to medium hop aroma and flavor, reflecting almost any hop variety.

While some blonde ales include honey, spices, or fruit, their contribution should be very subtle.

Fermentables

To make this a really simple beer to brew, and one I can make at a moments notice, I am going to use dry malt extract. Briess CBW® Golden Light dry malt extract seems like a reasonable choice.

Dry malt extract typically contributes about 40 gravity points per pound of extract per gallon of wort. Since I want an OG with 46 gravity points, and since dry malt extract conveniently comes in one-pound bags, if I made a wort with a whole bag of DME, I would need to have 0.87 gallons at the end of the boil.

0.87 gallons = 1 pound × 40 points per pound per gallon ÷ 46 points

To keep things simple, and since caramel flavors are typically not found in Blonde Ale, I will not be using any specialty malts in this recipe.

This will give the beer a color of

color = extract rating (°L/lb/gal) × W (lb) ÷ V (gal) = 4 × 1 ÷ 0.87 = 4.6 SRM

Water

The maltster that made the extract already ensured that it had the right chemistry for the mash. It also already contains all the minerals of the maltster’s water. To not complicate things by adding my own minerals to the mix, I plan to use either distilled or reverse osmosis water.

I am going to use a standard 60 minute boil.

Since I am shooting for a six-pack of beer. I will need at least 72 ounces of beer for the finished product. I will lose some in the fermenter so I need to shoot for a little more at the end of the boil. I want a good boil, but not so much that I scorch the wort. A good range is 7 to 12% boil off per hour. I want to make sure I end up with enough, so I will shoot for the high side in my calculations.

If I have 0.87 gallons at the end of the boil to hit my original gravity, a 12% boil off rate would give me a volume of 0.97 gallons at the start of the boil. If I called it an even gallon, that would be close enough, and I will have plenty of beer to fill my six pack.

Hops

Since this style calls for low to moderate hop aroma, I will forgo adding any aroma or flavor hops.

As for the bittering hops, there are many ways to calculate their contribution. All of them tend to be estimates as in practice it depends on many factors, several of which are unique to a given brewers equipment and techniques. The calculations follow this form:

IBU = (0.7489 × Woz × AA% × U%) ÷ Vgal

Where AA% is the alpha-acid content expressed as a percent, Woz is the weight of the hops in ounces, 0.7489 is a constant that accounts for using US customary units and converting percentages, Vgal is the end-of-boil volume, and U% is a factor that accounts for hop utilization. We want to know the weight of hops to add for this recipe. Solving for weight we find:

Woz = (IBU × Vgal) ÷ (0.7489 × AA% × U%)

We want to use a fairly mellow, low alpha American hop like Willamette, which averages around 5% alpha acid content. So now the question is, what utilization should we use? The models vary from around 15% to 30% at 60 minutes. Shooting for the middle, we would be safe with 22.5%.  Again, shooting for half way through the IBU range for the style would give us 21 IBUs.

Woz = (21 IBU × 0.87 gallons) ÷ (0.7489 × 5% × 22.5%) = 0.15 ounces

Yeast

The yeast convert the sugars in the wort to alcohols, but they also produce esters which provide fruity flavors and aromas. I want a clean fermenting American yeast with low ester production. The strain variously known as American Ale or California Ale is appropriate. Again, because I want to be able to make this an impromptu beer, I want to use a dry yeast. Fermentis Safale US-05 is what I will use.  US-05 will generally attenuate in the mid 70s. If I use an average value of 75%, I should be close. With 75% attenuation, the FG would be 1.0115 SG and the beer would be 4.6% ABV.

For this gravity and volume of beer, using a sachet that is up to a year old would only require about 2 grams of dry yeast. We are not going to rehydrate our yeast before pitching, which will take away about half of the viability, so we would really like to start with 4 grams. A full 11 gram sachet of dry yeast is about 4 teaspoons. So, a half tablespoon would be enough.

Fermentation

I will be fermenting this in a one-gallon glass jug that once held maple syrup. I will be using a plain piece of aluminum foil over the top as an airlock.

The recommended fermentation temperature range for the yeast is 59–75 °F. Of course, the higher the temperature the more esters and higher alcohols the yeast will produce. While low to moderate fruity aromas and flavors are allowed by the style and commonly found in many examples, I would like to have a subdued beer which highlights the malt. As such, I would like to ferment on the cool side. A fermentation temperature of 68 °F might work.

I have an inexpensive, adhesive-backed liquid crystal display thermometer stuck to the side of my jug, below the beer line — the kind you might find on the outside of an aquarium, though there are specialized ones for home brewers. If the beer gets a bit too cool because of the room air temperature, I can stick the jug in some warm water to gently heat the fermenting beer. If it gets a bit to warm from the yeast activity, I can use cool water instead. Be careful not to soak the thermometer.

Since this style exhibits no diacetyl aroma or flavor, I will perform a diacetyl rest by allowing the beer to sit at warm room temperature for a few days after fermentation completes.

An American Blonde Ale should be clear to brilliant. To get most of the yeast to drop out, after the diacetyl rest, I will cold settle the beer. My experience is that yeast will drop out at a rate of about a gallon per day at refrigerator temperatures. Since I only have a gallon to start with, it should only take about a day but I will refrigerate it for two days, just to be safe.

Packaging

I plan to package this beer in recycled Grolsch flip-top bottles. To not have to make up a priming solution or siphon the beer to a bottling bucket, I plan to use Munton’s CarbTabs™. These are dextrose and dry malt extract formed into a tablet providing about 510 mg of priming sugars.

The carbonation level in this beer is like that of an American Light Lager, 2.5 volumes of CO₂ would be a good target. Having fermented at 68 °F, the beer will have a residual carbonation level of 0.88 volumes before priming.

Each bottle holds 330 ml.

priming rate (g/L) = N × 0.51 ÷ B = (V – V₀) × 3.7

Where N is the number of CarbTabs, B is the bottle volume in liters, V is the target carbonation, and V₀ is the residual carbonation level before priming.

N = ((V – V₀) × 3.7) × B ÷ 0.51 = ((2.5 − 0.88) × 3.7) × 0.33 ÷ 0.51 = 3.88

I do not plan to use partial tablets, so rounding up to 4 tablets per bottle is in order. That gives us an expected carbonation level of:

V = ((N × 0.51 ÷ B) ÷ 3.7) + V₀ = ((4 × 0.51 ÷ 0.33) ÷ 3.7) + 0.88 = 2.55 volumes

Recipe: Clueless Blond Ale

• Clueless is the name of a movie. Clueless describes the state of unconscious incompetence in which I found myself as a novice home brewer before my first brew session.
• Alicia Silverstone, the actor who plays the protagonist in the movie Clueless, has blonde hair. This is blonde ale.

So, here is our recipe:

BJCP Style: 6B — Blonde Ale
Pre-Boil Volume: 1 gallon
BG: 1.040 SG
Original Volume: 0.89 gallons
OG: 1.046 SG
FG: 1.011 SG
ADF: 75%
Bitterness: 21 IBU
BU:GU: 0.46
ABV: 4.6%
Color: 4.6 SRM — Dark Yellow
Boil Duration: 60 minutes

Fermentables	Quantity
Briess CBW@ Golden Light Dry Malt Extract	1.0 lb
Hops
Willamette 5.0% AA, 60 min	0.15 oz
Yeast
Fermentis Safale US-05	½ tablespoon
Water
Distilled or Reverse Osmosis	1 gal
Other
Munton‘s CarbTabs™	24

Procedure

In a non-reactive, 6-quart pot, carefully empty the contents of the bag of DME. Slowly, add one gallon of water. Stir to dissolve the DME. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat to just maintain a boil. Add the hops. Continue boiling for 60 minutes.

After the boil, remove from heat and cool rapidly to room temperature in a sink full of ice water.

Pour the cooled wort through a sanitized strainer and funnel into a sanitized one-gallon jug. Cover the jug with a sanitized cap and shake for one minute. Sprinkle the yeast over the surface of the beer. Cover the top of the jug with aluminum foil and place it somewhere dark and cool (60 to 65 °F).

After two weeks, refrigerate for two days.

Siphon beer into flip-top bottles. Add four carbonation tablets to each bottle. Cap and store in a warm location for one to two weeks.

When sufficiently carbonated, chill to refrigerator temperature and serve.

References

BJCP Style Committee. “BJCP 2008 Style Guidelines – Category 06.” Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP). Beer Judge Certification Program, Inc., 24 Sept. 2008. Web. 29 Dec. 2011. <http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style06.php>.

Briess Malt & Ingredients Co. “CBW® Golden Light DME Product Information and Typical Analysis.” Briess Malt & Ingredients Co.: Malts & Ingredients for the Food and Brewing Industries. Briess Malt & Ingredients Co. Web. 29 Dec. 2011. <http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Assets/PDFs/Briess_PISB_CBWGoldenLightDME.pdf>.

Daniels, Ray. “Six Steps to Successful Beer.” Designing Great Beers: The Ultimate Guide to Brewing Classic Beer Styles. Boulder, CO: Brewers Publications, 2000. 7-8. Print.

Draper, Dave and Mark Hibberd. “The Prime Directive — Priming Bottled Beer for Consistency and Reproducibility.” Brewing Techniques July 1996: 16-23. Web. 29 Dec. 2011. <http://home.comcast.net/~david.s.draper/beer/Priming.pdf>

Fermentis. “Safale US-05 Specifications.” Fermentis. Fermentis. Web. 29 Dec. 2011. <http://www.fermentis.com/FO/pdf/HB/EN/Safale_US-05_HB.pdf>.

Fix, George. “Nonenzymatic Browning.” Principles of Brewing Science: a Study of Serious Brewing Issues. Boulder (Colo.): Brewers Publications, 1999. 75–78. Print.

Hall, Ph.D., Michael L. “What’s Your IBU?” Zymurgy 1997: 54-67. Web. 29 Dec. 2011. <http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/attachments/0000/2501/IBUs.pdf>.

Manning, Martin P. “Recipe Formulation Calculations for Brewers.” BrewingTechniques Online. Brewing Techniques, Jan. 1994. Web. 29 Dec. 2011. <http://www.brewingtechniques.com/library/backissues/issue2.1/manning.html>.

Morey, Daniel. “Approximating SRM Beer Color of Homebrew Based on Recipe Formulation.” BABBLE Homebrewing Club of Lake County. BABBLE Homebrewers. Web. 29 Dec. 2011. <http://www.babblehomebrewers.com/attachments/article/61/BeerColor.pdf>.

Palmer, John J. “How Much Extract to Use.” How to Brew – By John Palmer. Brewers Publications, 18 Apr. 2001. Web. 29 Dec. 2011. <http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter3-4.html>.

Terrill, Sean. “Dry Yeast Viability.” SeanTerrill.com. Sean Terrill, 4 Apr. 2011. Web. 08 Jan. 2012. <http://seanterrill.com/2011/04/01/dry-yeast-viability/>.

Tkach, Steve. “The Fermometer.” Tkach Enterprises. Tkach Enterprises. Web. 29 Dec. 2011. <http://tkachenterprises.com/Products.html>.

Unknown. “Muntons CarbTabs™ Info Sheet.” LD Carlson Wholesale Home Brewing and Wine Making Supplies. LD Carlson Company. Web. 29 Dec. 2011. <http://www.ldcarlson.com/public%20catalog/Muntons/Muntons%20CarbTabs%20Info%20Sheet.pdf>.

Various. “Grolsch Brewery.” Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Web. 29 Dec. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grolsch_Brewery>.

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p style=”margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;”>Zainasheff, Jamil. “American Blonde Ale: Style Profile.” Brew Your Own: The How-To Homebrew Beer Magazine. Battenkill Communications, Jan. 2008. Web. 29 Dec. 2011. <http://www.byo.com/stories/beer-styles/article/indices/11-beer-styles/129-american-blonde-ale-style-profile>.