I brewed this beer to drink during the superbowl, but it was ready a little too early… it pretty much disappeared Saturday while we were brewing a Bavarian Hefeweizen…

Anyways…

My friends really seemed to have enjoyed it so here’s the recipe and instructions…

Blonde Ale Recipe
3 lbs Pilsen Light DME
4 lbs Alexander’s Pale LME
.25 oz Northern Brewer Hops (FWH)
.25 oz Brewer’s Gold Hops (FWH)
.25 oz Northern Brewer Hops (45 min)
.25 oz Brewer’s Gold Hops (20 min)
.25 oz Brewer’s Gold Hops (Flame-out)
Wyeast 1056 American Ale

Step by Step Brewing Instructions
Bring roughly 3.5 gallons of water to 160 °F and add your Dry Malt Extract. Stir in the malt extract and then begin adding your first set of hops (Northern Brewer and Brewer’s Gold)…

Bring your wort to a boil and make sure you stir occasionally to reduce caramelization…

When your wort comes to a boil, start counting down 60 minutes… when you have 45 minutes left in the boil add your next set of hops (Northern Brewer Hops)… Continue boiling and stirring until you have 20 minutes left in the boil at which point you’ll add your 20 min hops (Brewer’s Gold)… After you add your 20 minute hops you want to start preparing your Liquid Malt Extract by placing it in a pot with water and heating it…

I starting heating this when I had about 17 minutes left in the boil… so it warmed up the LME for about 2 minutes… When you have 15 minutes left in the boil, you’ll want to remove your pot from the heat and stir in your LME…

LME tends to drop all the way to the bottom of the pot so make sure you make it dissolve before it caramelizes…

Once you get all the LME out of the can and into your pot, bring back to a boil…

Boil for 15 minutes and turn off the heat… Add your last set of hops and begin cooling down your wort.

Pitch your yeast @ 65 °F and Begin Fermenting….

First three days ferment @ 62 °F and then raise temperature to 63 °F for 18 days (3 weeks total).

Prime beer with 4 oz of Corn Sugar, and bottle condition for 3 more weeks and then DRINK!!

My Comments:

I tried the beer while bottling and it tasted clean with hop flavor and aroma standing out (a bit spicy)… Two weeks after bottling the yeast aroma showed up a little bit, but still fairly clean… 3 weeks later, the beer was pretty clean and hops blended in well with the malt so brewer’s gold hops stood out more than the northern brewer hops to get a final well balanced beer…

I think the color is still a little bit darker than I wanted, but overall I am happy with the results and hopefully you can brew the same…

What has been your experience with light beers and using extract?

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