Blonde Ale Help

[MotterFocker]

Hey everyone,

I brewed a blonde ale and have a slight malt/hop imbalance. It's starting to get some age on it (~2months). I veered from the normal recipe to drop the hops a touch for my wife (she's not a hop lover, not that this is a hoppy beer). The recipe I used was 12lb 2-row and 0.4lb crystal 20. I used 0.75lb willamete, est 15.3 IBU (normally use 1oz to target ~20IBU). I also switched to S-05 yeast instead of liquid yeast (all I had). The OG was 1.057 and FG was 1.004 (lowest I've ever had). I really like the normal recipe but this has too much flavor from the crystal. Is there anything I can do to save this batch. I can only drink 1-2 at a time before switching to something better. Would dry hopping do anything for it? If so, how much should i put in the keg? I've never dry hopped anything. I'm already at 12psi on the kegs and borderline too much psi on my Oktoberfest, so I don't want to turn up the CO2. Should I dump it and get it over with?

Thanks for the suggestions

[KenLenard]

I have added 1 oz of pellets (in a muslin bag) to kegs where it seemed like I underhopped the beer. This doesn't just seem to help the beer, but it really transforms it, IMO. I had a pale ale and maybe my hops were just old and lost their mojo. I added an ounce of Sterling to it and it was really nice. Here's a trick I learned... add some sanitized marbles to the bag so the hops sink and come in better contact with the beer. Also, tie a piece of thread or plain dental floss to the bag and run the line up through the hatch (the lid will seal just fine since the line is so thin). This way, if the beer is getting overly aromatic or even grassy, you can pull the line up and get the hop bag above the beer line. I've done this a number of times and I think it's both the best dry hop method and also a way to make an adjustment to a low-hop beer. Of course, you'll have to get the wife's approval first. Cheers.

[thatguy314]

boil some hops in some water / DME for an hour or so to extract some bitterness and put it in. A good blonde is firmly bitter.

That said, with that low an FG i'd wonder whether or not the beer would taste kind of watery with an appropriate bitterness / concentration. I'd try to build the body up a few points by adding some maltodextrin to the hop mixture. I think it'll give the beer a more rounded mouthfeel.

Finally, it could also be a question of water chemistry. I'm surprised you find the crystal malt so heavy considering you used it judiciously. You could have a very chloride rich water. I'd take a sample glass, stir a tiny amount of gypsum into it and see if that changes the balance of flavor. I found my english bitters didn't have any bitterness too them because I have fairly high chloride water and I found them much improved by adding some sulfate.

[MotterFocker]

Thanks guys. I've not had my water tested yet. It is city water and I do use a carbon block filter. I know it's fairly hard, the faucets have a calcium buildup.

The body doesn't seem thin the way it is now, I guess I shouldn't have changed 2 things (lower hops and S-05 dry yeast). I suppose it could be the yeast flavor that has changed it a bit. First time for me to use this yeast. I normally use the 1056 American Ale. I'm no judge and my palate is so so. It goes down smooth and then you get a distinct caramel flavor right at the end, virtually no bitterness.

I'll get some gypsum and give that a whirl. If no change, I may drop some hops in and see what it does. Might as well try to learn something while I can.

[KenLenard]

boil some hops in some water / DME for an hour or so to extract some bitterness and put it in. A good blonde is firmly bitter.

That said, with that low an FG i'd wonder whether or not the beer would taste kind of watery with an appropriate bitterness / concentration. I'd try to build the body up a few points by adding some maltodextrin to the hop mixture. I think it'll give the beer a more rounded mouthfeel.

Finally, it could also be a question of water chemistry. I'm surprised you find the crystal malt so heavy considering you used it judiciously. You could have a very chloride rich water. I'd take a sample glass, stir a tiny amount of gypsum into it and see if that changes the balance of flavor. I found my english bitters didn't have any bitterness too them because I have fairly high chloride water and I found them much improved by adding some sulfate.

This is very timely information because I just got into this whole chloride-to-sulfate ratio thing and it turns out that my water has a ratio that leans to the "very malty" side without treatment. I have a few batches in various stages of fermentation where I used the JP and EZ_water spreadsheets to guide me through making some mash & kettle salt additions so I could balance it. My water is higher on chloride than it is on sulfate which will bring out this heavy, dull maltiness unless it's an overly hoppy beer. But you really can't look into any of this unless you know what's in your water. I put a simple BREWING WATER page on my site... the link is below and then click on BREWING WATER. There are links there for downloading John Palmer's sheet and the EZ_Water sheet. Cheers.

[Elbone]

Hi Ken! Great to see you on the BN forum! I've enjoyed your posts on the BB for some time. Welcome to the BN!

[KenLenard]

Hi Ken! Great to see you on the BN forum! I've enjoyed your posts on the BB for some time. Welcome to the BN!

Hey Elbone, good to see you here. I hear you have a new brewpub there in B'Ham... Good People Brewing Company? Any good?

-Sorry for the threadjack!

[thatguy314]

You can add brewing salts into finished beer. I've done it. Colin Kaminski showed me when i visited him at DTJs. You'll be surprised as to how instantly they change the flavor.

They won't disolve in water (not acidic enough), but they will in beer. If you want to make a solution and drop it back in, you'll have to pull some beer for that. That said, it may pose a sterility issue to add dissolved salts into beer, but I doubt it'll be a big issue into anything with alcohol. If you're really worried, pull a 1/2 cup of beer, boil it, and put it back in.

Obviously, this is easier done before fermentation (either mash or boil). Just a few things to remember

1) Less is more. You don't want a salty-tasting beer. Plus a little can go a long way.
2) Give the salts you add time to disolve and distribute evenly among the beer as you taste it.