Tettnang Blonde Ale

[rpt]

I'm thinking of brewing the following. Any comments? Not sure about the dry hopping amount, or whether to bother (never done it).

Please don't say you hate torrefied wheat! - I'm just going to use up what I have left in this brew.

BIABacus Pre-Release 1.3 RECIPE REPORT
BIAB Recipe Designer, Calculator and Scaler.
(Please visit http://www.biabrewer.info for the latest version.)
TBA (Tettnang Blonde Ale) - Batch 1

Original Gravity (OG): 1.042
IBU's (Tinseth): 25
Bitterness to Gravity Ratio: 0.6
Colour: 9.6 EBC = 4.9 SRM
ABV%: 4.06

Efficiency into Boil (EIB): 85.2 %
Efficiency into Fermentor (EIF): 73 %

Note: This is a Pure BIAB (Full Volume Mash)

Times and Temperatures

Mash: 90 mins at 66 C = 150.8 F
Boil: 90 min
Ferment: 10 days at 18 C = 68 F

Volumes & Gravities
(Note that VAW below is the Volume at Flame-Out (VFO) less shrinkage.)

Total Water Needed (TWN): 34.25 L = 9.05 G
Volume into Boil (VIB): 32.96 L = 8.71 G @ 1.032
Volume of Ambient Wort (VAW): 24.5 L = 6.47 G @ 1.042
Volume into Fermentor (VIF): 21 L = 5.55 G @ 1.042
Volume into Packaging (VIP): 19.45 L = 5.14 G @ 1.011 assuming apparent attenuation of 75 %

The Grain Bill (Also includes extracts, sugars and adjuncts)

93% Maris Otter (5.5 EBC = 2.8 SRM) 3793 grams = 8.36 pounds
5% Torrefied wheat (3 EBC = 1.5 SRM) 204 grams = 0.45 pounds
2% Crystal malt (135 EBC = 68.5 SRM) 82 grams = 0.18 pounds

The Hop Bill

22.6 IBU Challenger Flowers (8.12%AA) 25.8 grams = 0.909 ounces at 90 mins
2.4 IBU Tettnang Flowers (5%AA) 12.9 grams = 0.454 ounces at 10 mins
0 IBU Tettnang Flowers (5%AA) 6.4 grams = 0.227 ounces at 0 mins
0 IBU Hallertau Hersbrucker Flowers (2.8%AA) 25.8 grams = 0.909 ounces at 0 mins (Dry Hopped)

Mash Type: Pure BIAB (Full Volume Mash) for 90 mins at 66 C = 150.8 F

Miscellaneous Ingredients

3g Irish moss (Boil) 10 Mins - Clarity

Chilling Method: No-chill cube (Employed 10 mins after boil end.)
Fermentation: Nottingham for 10 days at 18 C = 68 F

 

[TheMumbler]

I don't think adding 6-7g of tettnang at 0 mins is going to do an awful lot. I would go with a fair bit more than that. If you want the tettnang to come through I would up both the 10 and 0 min additions to at least 20g or 30g and adjust the challenger down to keep your IBU around 25.

Hope it turns out well

 

[rpt]

You are right. I hadn't really thought about the actual weights that my spreadsheet came up with. I will do as you suggest.

What do you think about the dry hopping? I've got a bit of time to think about that though.

I've noticed that quite a lot of Graham Wheeler's recipes have just a few grams of hops at the end of the boil but perhaps the effect is intended to be more subtle.

 

[rpt]

I've now got the following:

20.7 IBU Challenger Flowers (8.12%AA) 23.5 grams = 0.83 ounces at 90 mins
4.3 IBU Tettnang Flowers (5%AA) 23.5 grams = 0.83 ounces at 10 mins
0 IBU Tettnang Flowers (5%AA) 23.5 grams = 0.83 ounces at 0 mins
0 IBU Hallertau Hersbrucker Flowers (2.8%AA) 35.3 grams = 1.245 ounces at 0 mins (Dry Hopped)

Does that seem better?

 

[TheMumbler]

What you have looks OK to be but I am guessing a bit tbh, maybe somebody else could chip in and give you a second opinion.

The recipes in BYOBRA are all traditional British ales which don't tend to have tons of hop aroma and flavour. If you want something like that you could go challenger for bittering and 10-15g of tettnang at 10 mins. Lose the dry hops altogether.

With the dry hopped Hersbrucker I think you would lose a subtle late hop addition of that kind under the dry hops, although tbh I've never tried dry hopping in beers that weren't pretty hop forward so I might be wrong.

 

[rpt]

I've now brewed this with 24g of challenger and 48g of tettnang as above. Perhaps I won't dry hop but I'd love to hear some more advice on this. Have got a few days to decide. Or are you suggesting that dry hopping is a good idea if I don't want a Graham Wheeler style recipe?

I need to get one of the other books with some continental and American recipes.

 

[TheMumbler]

I'd give it a taste after 2 or 3 days in the FV and see how you feel.

On the couple of occasions that I have dry hopped I did this:

Put the hops in while fermentation is mainly done but there is still some fermentation to soak up oxygen. Say after 3-4 days. Escaping CO2 will drive off some of the volatiles so this is a bit of a balancing act. Temperature around 20c 3-4 days contact time (if you leave them too long you can get vegetal flavours).

I put the hops in loose and relied on the plastic doodad on the bottom of my the racking cane to filter most of the hops out when I went to bottle or corny. I haven't had any problem with big chunks of hop getting through but if you are worried you could either put the hops in a bag for dry hopping or tie some sanitised muslin around the end of the racking cane.

Different people have different methods and I don't have anywhere near enough experience to know whether what I've done is the best approach but I think it worked OK. I listened to a podcast on Brew Strong when I was looking into this.

Hope that helps

 

[Asalpaws]

If you just want a nice pale ale with some hop flavours I wouldn't bother with dry hopping as it is a bit of a faff and can introduce oxidisation. It is nice to DH if you want a American IPA hop assault. I'm thinking of doing a low gravity Saison with Tettnanger so will be interesting to see how this goes. T

 

[TheMumbler]

Did you decide to dry hop in the end?

 

[rpt]

Yes I did. I used 32g of Hersbrucker in a secondary for 8 days. Bottled it last week. Will report back in September.