Brew #100: Honey Lemon Blonde

For batch number 100, I'm using Beer Tools Pro to formulate my own recipe. The hope is to get honey-type flavors from Honey Malt and some lemony tartness from Sorachi Ace hops and blend them into a pleasantly quaffable brew. I based the recipe on a blonde ale and tweaked it from there. I've added 1/2 oz. Sorachi Ace at the last 5 minutes and will dry hop with the other 1/2 oz. Bittering and flavoring used 1/2 oz. of Amarillo for each. I'm anxious to see how this will turn out. It could be real good or could be off the mark.

The taste was pleasant at racking but no lemony tones yet.

At kegging, the lemon took over. It's tart almost at sour only from the half ounce dry hop. But this is still the taste warm and flat. If it continues, I'd want a bit more sweetness to shine through to balance the tang of the lemon.

This was a brew that didn't match my design, but was quite pleasant. It was hoppy like a pale ale, but .... different. The Sorachi Ace dry hop tended to give lemony, tangerine, but also a slight grassy flavor. So lemongrass. It worked. I do intend to do this again.


Actual Recipe:

1.0 lb Honey Malt
0.5 lb Flaked Wheat
2.0 lb Pilsener Lager Malt
5.0 lb Extra Light LME
0.5 oz Amarillo - 60 min.
0.5 oz Amarillo - 15 min. + 1 Whirlfloc tablet + 5 tsps Yeast Nutrient
0.5 oz Sorachi Ace - 5 mins.
0.5 oz Sorachi Ace - Dry Hopped

Took 1/2 RO water and 1/2 filtered Austin water and added 1/4 tsp Epsom Salt (just to see), 1-2 drops phosphoric acid to adjust pH. Added one drop olive oil as I pitched yeast. I do a late addition for the LME where I take the pot off the burner with 15 mins left of the boil, stop the timer, add in the LME, bring it back up to boiling, add the flavoring hops, and continue the timer for the last 15 mins. Supposed to keep scorching or caramelizing down. I am still doing partial boils on my stove.

This brew ranked a 36/50 in the Bluebonnet Brewoff and made it to the second round as a Specialty Beer, since it is an overhopped Blonde.

Brewed: 01-14-2009
Racked: 01-22-2009 (w/ 0.5 oz. Sorachi Ace dry hop)
Kegged: 01-27-2009

OG=1.052@65F
FG=1.014@66F

ABV=4.978%