It's time again to churn out a lawn mower beer to quench my thirst on a hot day, and to give guests something to drink when my IPA is juuust a "bit much" for them! Session strength. Lightly, but flavorfully, hopped. Ummm, nothing ground breaking here...just looking for something spritzy and tasty!
Ditzy Blondie - brewed 4/20/2013 (4.25 gallons) (expected yield: 1 case {12} 500mL, 1 case {24}12oz)
Canadian Malting Pale - 6 pounds Best Malz Light Munich - 1 pound Hallertau hops - 1.25 ounces (1 oz @ 60, .125 oz @ 25, .125 oz @ 15) US-05 yeast slurry
mashed in low(ish) at 151° and let that ride for an hour. The weather turned quite chilly, and the mash temp fell pretty far, down to about 147°. so I bumped it up to about 155° and let that ride for 10 minutes before going up to 168° for the mash out. I had been shooting for about 1.041 as a pre boil gravity, and I was a bit high (as I had hoped) so I added some more water to get the volume up and gravity down...yadda yadda I ended up with just over 4 gallons of 1.046 wort in the end. pretty bang on for what I wanted this beer to be! the sample was "light" across the board: color, sweetness, and hops...just what I was going for!
this beer finished out much lower than I anticipated...all the way down to 1.005! this means I've got a drier and more potent (5.3% ABV) final beer on my hands. I bottled and batch primed in my lone remaining LBK (filled it twice, but not full either time) on 5/5/2013. got damn near the output I wanted: full case of 12 oz bottles, and 11 1/2 of the 500mL swingtops...I drank the 1/2 while I finished cleaning up. it was nice and smooth with a touch of sweet malt and spicy hops. just a touch. I'm interested in how it will taste once carbonated (to approx 2.5 volumes of CO2 according to the batch priming calculator I used)
going to leave the bottles to carb/condition through May 26th before chilling; will sample on/around June 1st
update May 30th: pours out in shades of gold with a fizzy white head that didn't linger very long. slight aroma of sweet malt and hops carried into the taste which followed suit. the sweet malt character is the primary flavor, with a background of slight fruitiness and spice (presumably from the hops and yeast). overall, I think the mission was accomplished. looking forward to this beer in the coming weeks as the temperatures rises, and see how much it evolves with some more conditioning time.
update June 23rd: uploaded a new pic (this one shows off the color WAY better). The hint of fruitiness seems to be all but gone, and the result is a deliciously simple blonde that would (or at least SHOULD) make any BMC drinker head towards the light that is home brew. The sweet bready Munich malt comes through first, followed by just a touch of the Hallertau noble-earthy-spice. Now that the temperatures are soaring north of 90°, this beer will be perfect. I think a re-brew is in the cards for the not too distant future.