Toffee malt in Blonde

[Genghis]

Hey All,

New member here. BIAB brewing for about 18 months now. Recently returned to NZ after 9 years in Oz.

Keen to try a few Kiwi ingredients. Gladfields Malts and Kohatu hops in particular for my next brew.

So I'm thinking a Blonde Ale for the approaching warmer weather.

Kohaui Blonde

85% Gladfields American Ale Malt

10% Glafields Munich Malt

5% Gladfields Toffee Malt

FWH 30g Kohatu

20 min 25g Kohatu

10 min 20g Kohatu

Dry hop 25g Kohatu 

Ferment at 18c with MJ54 Cali lager yeast (haven't tried this one yet),

Planned OG: 1046

Planned FG: 1008

IBU: 30

Thoughts? Is 5% ok for Toffee Malt. I'm really after an easy drinker while being able to get a feel for the toffee malt and Kohatu.

Cheers

[Crusader-Rob]

Looks good.

Consider lowering your bittering addition. (Halve it) and add a 0min addition (with 15 min hop stand) and increase your dryhop to at least 50g.

[jt]

Yea, 5% is a good starting point, it'll be noticeable. Have you chewed on some grains yet, got a feel for the  taste  ?

[Genghis]

Thanks Guys,

Ill' look at the hop additions, I do like my beers bitter and 30 IBUs is a bit high for a Blonde.

Haven't chewed any grains as I'm in Napier and the home brew shop is really only kits and bits so I've been getting all my ingredients on line. Good to know 5% is a good starting point.

[Hopshed]

Recipe looks solid to me - I wouldn't change a thing, except going with a 30g flame out addition to increase aroma (and make a full 100g hops purchase). You could go higher with the toffee malt and restrain the mash temp to compensate.

[Peter Smith]

Since doing so for a timothy taylor landlord I have been considering doing a reduction of 2L of first runnings down to say 500ml of almost toffee for a Belgium Blond,   La Trappe Blond has this really nice toffee kick right at the end.   No sure if this would work,  I wonder if you really need invert sugar for this,  I would think that the reduction is sort of the same.

[Crusader-Rob]

the reduction will be similar, but i suspect it will end up sweeter, and that 500ml of caramelised liquid will be slightly less fermentable.

but i reckon it'd taste pretty damn good.

I'm thinking of doing something similar, in a belgian blond smash type beer. it'll keep that sweetness without ending up too dry.

[Genghis]

Thought some of you might like to hear how this went.

I changed the hop schedule slightly form the one originally posted to the following:

20g FWH

20g @ 20 mins

20g @ 10 mins

20g @ 0 mins

20g dry hop 5 days

I got way better efficiency than expected and got the following

OG: 1053

FG: 1010

IBU: 28

Yeast:MJ44 (I screwed up the order I was hoping to try MJ54)

At approx 5.6% abv it was a bit stronger than I would of hoped but still went well on a hot day.

Overall impressions:

Kohatu flavour was mild when considering the amount used and when. I had read that this hop did need a fair amount to get alot of hoppiness. However, it worked and I got a good feel for the flavour. I mostly got lime from it. Will use again but in combination with other hop(s).

Toffee malt was subtle and I think I could crank it up to 8% or 10% without too much worry. Will definately use again.

I also tried adding gelatine to the fermenter for the first time. I added after cold crashing for approx 30hrs. Worked really well and had no probs carbing up in the bottles. Attached pic is 4 weeks after bottling. I will do this again if I want a quick turnaround to help drop the yeast. Did it affect the hop flavour? Don't know.

Cheers