Laser Salt Sandy Blonde Ale
Brewed: 09/04/2016 Kegged: 09/11/2016
It has become somewhat of a tradition for the Brew Model to brew on the AHA's Big Brew Day. In 2012, I told her to pick out a style of beer and I would help her come up with a recipe. She told me that she wanted something not-too-hoppy and not-too-dark (aka does not taste like coffee aka not a stout).
We also thought it would be nice to have this in a keg for a group camping trip we would be making to the Great Sand Dunes National Park in June.
She thought she might like a Saison. We found a saison for her to try at a local brew-pub and she decided that saison was not what she wanted to brew.
She looked through brewing books and magazines for ideas.
I posted for ideas on Facebook, Twitter , and the Mr. Beer forum post. I actually got a fair amount of feedback, but it was not all that useful. We needed to narrow things down, whereas the suggestions opened up new possibilities.
One of the styles of beer that the Beer Model was thinking of was an Irish Red. My last batch of Eric's Red had been the only beer in which I had used Maris Otter malt, and I thought I would like to use it again. I thought it might be fun to see what a lighter colored and less caramelly version of the beer would taste like.
I've also used Golden Naked Oats before in FTG, and thought that would be a good lighter substitute for the Cara-Red and Crystal malts I used in Eric's Red. Then, I pretty much simply looked through left-over hops I had in my freezer to get to a malty to balanced session beer.
And this is the recipe I came up with. The name "Laser Salt Sandy Blonde Ale" comes from a time years ago when my wife had told one of our friends that we were going "Blazer Camping in the Sand". Meaning, we were driving our blazer to the Great Sand Dunes National Park and camping there. The friend thought she had said that we were going "Laser Camping in the Salt".
This beer didn't last long. Everyone seemed to like it, and the gluten-sensitive people of the group loved being able to drink beer without feeling yucky.
Batch 2 was brewed up by the request of "Gretchen". Since GABF was coming up, I thought it would be a good beer to drop off for them taking our kids. It uses just CTZ for bittering and more Hallertauer hops at the end.
Batch 3 is to be brewed again the following year for the Great Sand Dunes trip, and I was our Big Brew Day beer again. I decided to skip the double infusion this time to simplify the brew day, but other than that, it was the same beer as batch 2.
Batch 4 was again brewed for the Great Sand Dunes trip. I lowered my brewhouse efficiency to 70 and bumped up the 2-row in the recipe to get to the same OG.
Batch 5 was pretty much the same as 4.
Batch 6 added some whirlpool hops, just for the fun of it. Batch 7 was the same as 6 except the hops were a bit higher in alpha acid. Batch 8 was the same ... except the hops were a little lower in alpha.
For posts about the Sand Dunes on my blog, see the Great Sand Dunes label.
For more information about this beer, you can check out the Laser Salt label on my blog.
| Laser Salt Sandy Blonde --- Batch 8 |
| Style |
|
Blonde Ale |
|
Batch Size |
|
5.50 gal |
| Type |
|
All Grain |
|
Boil Size |
|
7.77 gal |
| Brewhouse Efficiency |
|
70.00 |
|
Boil Time |
|
90 minutes | Recipe Characteristics
| Recipe Gravity |
|
1.051 SG |
|
Estimated FG |
|
1.012 SG |
| Recipe Bitterness |
|
24.1 IBUs (Rager) |
|
Alcohol by Volume |
|
5.2 % |
| BU : GU |
|
0.467 |
|
|
|
|
| Recipe Color |
|
5.7 SRM |
|
|
|
|
| Measured OG: |
|
1.049 |
|
Measured FG: |
|
1.009 |
| ADF: |
|
81 |
|
Measured ABV: |
|
5.2 | Ingredients
Ingredients
| Amt |
Name |
Type |
# |
%/IBU |
| 3.00 g |
Salt (Mash 60.0 mins) |
Water Agent |
1 |
- |
| 2.00 g |
Baking Soda (Mash 60.0 mins) |
Water Agent |
2 |
- |
| 1.00 g |
Chalk (Mash 60.0 mins) |
Water Agent |
3 |
- |
| 9 lbs 12.0 oz |
Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) |
Grain |
4 |
90.7 % |
| 1 lbs |
Golden Naked Oats C15 (15.0 SRM) |
Grain |
5 |
9.3 % |
| 0.250 oz |
Columbus (Tomahawk) [15.20 %] - First Wort 90.0 min |
Hop |
6 |
16.3 IBUs |
| 0.50 tsp |
Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) |
Fining |
7 |
- |
| 1.000 oz |
Crystal [3.20 %] - Boil 10.0 min |
Hop |
8 |
2.5 IBUs |
| 1.000 oz |
Crystal [3.20 %] - Boil 5.0 min |
Hop |
9 |
2.1 IBUs |
| 1.000 oz |
Crystal [3.20 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 20.0 min |
Hop |
10 |
3.1 IBUs |
| 1.0 pkg |
Nottingham (Danstar #-) [23.66 ml] |
Yeast |
11 |
- |
| 1.00 tsp |
Yeast Nutrient (Primary 3.0 days) |
Other |
12 |
- |
| 5.00 ml |
Clarity-Ferm (Primary 2.0 weeks) |
Fining |
13 |
- |
Mash Profile
Mash Steps
| Name |
Description |
Step Temperature |
Step Time |
| Mash In |
Add 13.44 qt of water at 163.7 F |
152.0 F |
60 min |
Batch sparge with 2 steps
(1.81gal, 3.88gal) of 168.0 F water
Recipe Notes
Salt additions to
go from Beer Smith's Denver Water profile to Brewing Water Chemistry Calculator
(http://www.brewersfriend.com/water-chemistry/) Pale / Light Profile. Or at
least as close as I could come with what I had on hand.
Water Chem
totals:
44.7 Ca; 8.5 Mg; 78.4 Na; 50.8 SO4; 85.4 Cl
Add all water
additions to the mash.
Brewing Record
| Brew Date: |
|
9/4/2016 |
|
Strike Temp: |
|
165 |
| Mash Temps: |
|
156 added water 152 for rest |
| Pre-boil OG |
|
1.041 (1.042 SG) |
|
Pre-boil Vol |
. |
(7.77 gal) |
| Actual Mash Efficiency |
|
|
|
Pitch Temp |
|
64 |
| Fermentation |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Day 1: Nice Kraussen 64 |
| Day 2: Going strong 66 |
| Day 4: Slowing down 68 |
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|