Honey Blonde Ale

Feb. 5th 2011

   On monday, I'm going to make a Honey Blonde Ale. This style is characterized by lightly hopped, slight to heavy honey flavor, yellow or gold in color with medium to heavy carbonation. At least that's what I'm going for. I'm using Honey malts for the honey flavor that it gives and also some actual honey because it will provide me with some "street cred" when someone asks me, "What's in it?"
   I haven't confirmed all of the quantities, but I think I've nailed down these ingredients:

ACTUAL:
Name: Beeze Neeze Honey Blonde Ale
Size: 15 Gal Batch
Fermentables:
27 Lbs Pale (Cambrinus)
3 Lbs Honey Malts
1 Lbs Cara-Pils
1 Lbs Bulk Honey

Hops:
4 oz Sincoe Pellets 12.2 AA @ 60min

Other:
3Tbsp Irish Moss


   That's it. It seems like a very simple recipe. I'll Mash-in at 160F (Mash Temp around 153F) That should produce more unfermentable sugars that will sweeten it up a little, at least more so that Mashing-in at 155F (Mash Temp around 148F).
   Since I've never made this style before it will be nice to keep it simple. This is also the first Ale that I will not use Crystal Malts in. I've been interested in trying a recipe that doesn't use them, because I really don't know what Crystal Malt flavor is in the flavoring of the ales.

Feb. 7th 2011

I did it, and it came out perfectly. The color is sunset gold, and it tastes like honey. The best part is that the Starting Gravity is 1.050. It was simply a perfect Mash and Boil. On top of that I have it fermenting in my 15gal conical fermenter and I have the temperature controlled at 68F. keeping the temperature constant was sort of hard before I had the FermWrap and Digital Temperature Controller. Finally to top if all off. I can keg this beer, I've always prefered fresh kegged beer as opposed to bottled. So i'll check in, in about 3 weeks to let you know how it turned out.

March 1st 2011

The Beeze Neeze Honey Blonde Ale is now on tap. It's has been a very good tasting beer to have during the last 2 weeks, and this weekend it is going to a Kegger. The Blonde Ale really is a style that is easy to brew and very tasty. Adding honey malts to the recipe to make it a honey blonde really added some great flavor. When making a honey blonde I would suggest staying with the 1lb honey malts/5gal. This is a good mellow area for the honey flavor. I added real honey to the recipe, but I think I may remove that next time. Honey adds wax and oils to the beer, which darken the beer and leave a precipitate in the bottom of the glass. I think there is also a tart taste, however I'll have to verify that the next time I brew it.     Although by class the blonde ales are suppose to have a minimal amount of hops I think I would double up the hops added. The last thing I would tweek would be the mash temp. I would lower it 5 degrees F. However those are small changes to this amazing beer. The beer comes in a 5.25% ABV.