Loving Summer Blonde Ale

This blonde ale is more flavorful than your average “lawnmower” beer, so save it for after you mow. Once you dial in the recipe, this beer will get your non-beer-drinking friends started down the path to craft-beer obsession! And you’ll enjoy it, too.

ALL-GRAIN

Batch size: 5 gallons (19 liters) OG: 1.051

FG: 1.013

IBUS: 29

ABV: 5% MALT/GRAIN BILL

4 lb (1.8 kg) Pilsner malt

4 lb (1.8 kg) Maris Otter malt 1 lb (454 g) Vienna malt

8 oz (227 g) Victory malt

HOPS SCHEDULE

1 oz (28 g) Tettnang [4% AA] at 60 minutes 0.5 oz (14 g) Cascade [10% AA] at 10 minutes 0.5 oz (14 g) Simcoe [12% AA] at 10 minutes 0.5 oz (14 g) Citra at dry hop

YEAST

Wyeast 1318 (London Ale III) yeast

DIRECTIONS

Mill the grains and mix with 3 gallons (11.2 l) of 163°F (73°C) strike water to reach a mash temperature of 152°F (67°C). Hold this temperature for 60 minutes. Vorlauf until your runnings are clear, then run off into the kettle. Sparge the grains with 4.3 gallons (16.2 l) and top up as necessary to obtain 6 gallons (23 l) of wort. Boil for 60 minutes, following the hops schedule.

After the boil, chill the wort to slightly below fermentation temperature, about 60°F (16°C). Aerate the wort with pure oxygen or filtered air and pitch the yeast.

Ferment at 60°F (16°C) for one week, then allow temperature to free rise to 70°F (21°C). Upon completion of fermentation, add dry hops and wait 2–3 days. Crash the beer to 35°F (2°C), then bottle or keg and carbonate to approximately 2.5 volumes of COΨ.

TIPS FOR SUCCESS

Resist the temptation to go overboard on the dry hops. A half ounce isn’t much, but we want a small bit of resiny, fruity character rather than a fullblown session-ipa experience! Any resemblance between this beer and a certain summer seasonal from Victory Brewing is purely incidental.