Belgian Blond Ale

Wow, I almost let this one get away from me without getting a pic! Only about 1/2 gallon left in the keg and I will most definitely be brewing this one again very soon!

I used a base of Vienna Malt out of Germany along with a small addition of White Wheat Malt and even smaller addition Flaked Barley for a little mouthfeel and head retention. I had some Willamette Hops that I need to use up so I used them for bittering, flavor and aroma. Just small hop additions as I did not want them to get in the way of the Malt and Yeast. As for the Yeast I used the WLP500 which makes the claim that it comes from the oldest running Belgian Monastery where the Monks are still making some wonderful brews.

Who doesn't love a monk?

Next time I am going to drop the wheat as it took away from the nice golden color just a bit and will instead just go with the Vienna malt and flaked barley. The hop character is almost nonexistent and that is the way I planned it so I will be keeping that the same. I kept the fermentation temperature on the low end for this strain of yeast so the esters are mostly dominant but you get a quick peppery flash on the back of the tongue as it goes down which would be associated with the presence of phenols. I will raise the fermentation temperature up a bit next time to bring out more of the yeast characteristics. Very creamy, touch of fruitiness and a nice dry finish with that short snap of pepper at the end. I am going to hold out on the last half gallon for a while...if I can.

I mashed around 154F and was surprised that the FG came all the way down to 1.010. I harvested enough yeast to do another Blond and also I may possibly design a Belgian Tripple soon that I can enjoy this coming fall. I buy my hops in bulk direct from the grower and the Willamette was the closest thing I had on hand to compliment this particular beer.

https://hopsdirect.com/ (It's Rhizome Season!)
My Centennial Hops are wanting it to be Spring even more that I do!

I sure am very happy I chose home brewing as a hobby and have been doing it for over four years now. I have a few ciders under my belt and my second batch of Mead is conditioning in the keg and I should do a write up on that sometime late summer. I may do some "how to brew" videos but honestly there are a ton of them out there already but I may make a video or two in the hopes to dispel some of the very bad advice that is common in home brewing as most people all read the same book. I have never read a book on how to brew but instead listened to the people that were winning the blue ribbons.

I am going to do a time-lapse video of my next starting fermentation, that should be cool to watch! Thanks for taking the time to read this and if you decide to follow please leave a comment.