Advice for a Blonde Beer

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parpot

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Hi all,

I want to try and make a brew that I used to get in Scotland it is called "Lomond Gold" and is a blonde beer with honey & slight citrus notes it is about 5.2%. Can anyone suggest a beer kit as a base and what I can add to get close to this kind of taste?
 
For any experiment I generally use the Wilco Cerveza Kit.

https://www.wilko.com/en-uk/wilko-r...yle-brewing-kit-15kg-makes-40-pints/p/0318388

It's cheap (£12) and so bland that it will carry almost any flavour that you wish to experiment with.

In an attempt to get what you describe, I would:
  • Replace the sugar requirement of the Cerveza Kit with a 50/50 mix of sugar and honey.
  • Dry hop with about 50g of Citra Hops for the last five days of fermentation.
  • Make a Hop Tea with 20g of Citra Hops and add it to the brew prior to bottling.
  • Use honey at the rate of 4g per litre for bottle carbonation. (Honey is +/-82% sugar.)
I would leave the brew for a bit longer in the FV than my normal 14 days, just to make sure that all the sugars in the honey have been fermented.

There are other "citrus" flavoured hops (e.g. Chinook for a grapefruit taste) but I prefer Citra.

Enjoy.
 
Last edited:
I use the yeast from the kit, but make a Yeast Starter out of it just to make sure that it's in good condition.

I've never needed it with the Wilco Cerveza kit, but I always have a sachet of Wilco Ale Yeast available in the garage and if any brew (*) hasn't kicked off within 24 hours I just sprinkle it on top of the wort.

Here's how to make a Yeast Starter ...



You don't need the stir-plate but they make life a lot easier. I started off using an old Kilner jar placed on the kitchen work-top and gave it a swirl every time I passed it.

Also, if you think the man in the video is being OTT with his sanitising , he isn't and it's just good practice!

Enjoy!

(*)

I did a "gluten free" kit for a mate once and it was a nightmare. It took ages to kick off and I was worried that adding a standard Wilco Ale Yeast would introduce the dreaded gluten.

In the end, I lost patience, shoved more yeast into the brew and told my mate that it may be "iffy". He's still alive so the answer must was "My mate's coeliac disease level can cope with dried yeast in a gluten free beer."
 
Hi, Just bottled my "Lomond Gold" clone blonde ale. I used some additional sugar & honey to get the gravity up as it was quite low, I got the starting ABV to 1.046 and ended up at 1.008 so almost 5% which is the same ABV as the original. Left in the FV for 10 days and then added the Citrus hops for 5 days. Tasted very lemon so removed them and left for another two days. On bottling today the taste is very subtle both Honey & Citrus so hoping the final taste is somewhere near. It was quite clear on bottling so fingers crossed!
 

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