The French Blond Ale recipe :
- Color : Blonde
- Alcohol content : 6.7%.
- Quantity : 20L
- Bitterness : Moderate
- Difficulty : Easy
- Brewing time : 4/5h
- Cost : Cheap
Ingredients
- 3.5kg of Malt Pilsen
- 1.2kg of Malt de blé clair
- 0.3kg of Flocons de froment
- 15g of Houblon Aramis
- 85g of Houblon Aramis
- 1 Mangrove Jack’s French Saison yeast packet (or Wyeast 3711)
- Total water volume : 33L (Preferably Sulfate > Chloride = 2:1)
Update April 2024 : We’ve finally received some French hops! As followers of this recipe will have noticed, we’ve replaced the Tradition and Hersbrucker hops with Aramis. Aramis hops add peppery, lemony flavors and a hint of herbaceousness.
Brew our French Blond Ale beer step by step
Step 1
Heat 17 liters of water to 72°C and pour in the crushed grains.
Stir well to avoid lumps, and bring the temperature down to 65°C.
Hold for one hour.
At the same time, heat 16 liters of rinse water to 77°C.
Step 2
Once the saccharification hour is over, move on to filtration and rinsing.
Step 3
Then heat your wort to boiling for 60 minutes.
Infuse 15g of Aramis hops as soon as the timer starts.
If you’re using a cooling coil, don’t forget to sterilize it in the wort 15 minutes before the end of the boil.
With 5 minutes to go, add the remaining 85g of hops.
Step 4
Cool the wort to 18°C and transfer to the fermenter, not forgetting the yeast.
Your initial specific gravity should be around 1.050.
To control phenolic production during fermentation, start at 18°C and gradually increase to 21°C over the course of a week.
Leave at this temperature for the next 5 weeks.
To be sure you’ve completed fermentation, raise the temperature to 24/25°C for the last 4 days.
Final density with this type of yeast should be around 1.001.
Step 5
Add 6 to 7g per L of sugar at bottling. To accentuate the thirst-quenching effect, this type of beer needs to be well carbonated. That’s why it’s best to be generous with sugar in this French blonde recipe.