Belgian Blonde - 7

owner: Michael Erwin | started: 04/12/2008 | last updated: 07/13/2008
Recipe: Belgian Blonde | status: Finished

4/12/2008 - "You go to brew with the hops you have, not the hops you want." To bitter, I used 1/4-oz Sterling and 1 1/4-oz Glacier. For aroma, I used 3/4-oz Sterling. OG: 1.056. Also, used 2 cans Muntons X-light syrup. Wyeast 3787 propagator, first in a 1-liter starter, then stepped up to a 3/4 liter starter. Pitched at 76F.

4/13/2008 - Pitched at 11pm last night, bubbling profusely by 6am this morning. Bubbling has slowed as of this evening. Lots of aroma coming from the fermenter. 72F.

4/16/2008 - Temp is hovering around 70F. Still bubbling pretty well at about 6 or 7 times per minute. At 76% app atten, expect SG: 1.013.

4/17/2008 - Boy is this one fun! Still very actively fermenting after 5 days. Looked up the yeast, it's an active little devil. Don't know if it'll be done after a week or not.

4/21/2008 - Oh boy! Perfect! Racked to secondary this evening. SG: 1.013, exactly what I predicted. The flavor is dead on for the Leffe Blonde, which is what I was going for. It's awesome flat, I can't wait to taste it with carb!

4/25/2008 - It's all in bottles now. This is the clearest beer I've done, there's no appearance of yeast floating around at all. Has a real fruity/citrusy aroma and flavor. This is going to be a good one.

5/3/2008 - Whew! After a week in bottles, this beer definitely has that Leffe taste potential, but the flavors haven't blended yet. It's a little green, needs to mature some.