Big Brew Blonde

Saturday was Big Brew. The club gathered at Steve & Frances Shaw's again this year. The setting is beautiful, but the weather wasn't as cooperative as it has been in recent years. It rained the entire day. Undaunted, we set up tents and our gear and six of us brewed a total of 45 gallons of beer. The pic at left is my rig trying to stay dry during the boil. More pics can be found in the gallery on the main club page.

I brewed a Blonde Ale again this year, and again it is destined for a family get-together. My wife's sister is turning 40 this summer and I've been tasked with bringing the beer. Last time I brought beer to one of her gatherings a lot of her friends showed up with their fizzy yellow Mexican beer or industrial American light lagers. My hope is that this Blonde Ale will be a gateway to honest beer for Corona and Bud Light drinkers who might be at the party, but at the same time be something that a real beer lover can appreciate. Am I a beer snob? Yes. And not to worry, I'll also be bringing a hearty Scotch Ale (which I brewed a few weeks ago but haven't posted about yet) and maybe a stout or a nice hoppy IPA.

Anyway, for this beer I wanted to go as light colored as possible and to focus on one hop. To that end, I used German pilsner malt as the base and just 1 lb of CaraPils for a little body. I hopped with Styrian Goldings, which is a hop I've used in the past but never as the focal point of the beer. I mashed at 150° for one hour with a mashout at 170°. I also decided to use a yeast I haven't used in primary before, Wyeast 1007 (German Ale).

Here's the recipe: Promash | HTML

Chris Devlin ferried over to Kitsap to see what Big Brew is all about and to brew his first batch. Matt brought the ingredients for a Pale ale and I brought some of my old gear from my extract days and we walked Chris through the process. Chris doesn't drive, and he couldn't easily carry a carboy full of fermenting beer home with him on the ferry and bus, so his beer is fermenting in my bathroom. He'll trek back over when it's time to bottle and then he'll have to figure out how to get two cases of beer back to Seattle.