Summer Blondes

I wanted to recap a couple of my favorite summer beers this year, which both shared the same grainbill--A Honey Lilac Blonde and a Chamomile Blonde. The beers were a good example of how two beers can share the same recipe, including yeast, and be remarkably different. Who doesn't like a blonde during the summer? "Put the Beach Boys on I want to hear 'Help me Rhonda, Awww Put the Beach Boys on I want to hear 'Help me Rhonda!" (Chuck Prophet).

During the late spring I raided all of the lilac bushes in the yard and stripped them of their fragrant purple and white flowers which I added to the end of the boil. I used a lot of flowers and was surprised how much wort they soaked up. The lilac beer also differed from the chamomile in that it received a pound of clover honey to secondary. The honey helped bring out the floral addition and really brought the lilac to the forefront of the beer.

I harvested a lot of chamomile this year after running short for brewing purposes last year and after a particularly good haul of the little flowers I set out to brew a chamomile blonde. I added heather tips, sweet gale, grains of paradise, and coriander along with a huge amount of fresh flowers at the end of the boil, followed by an extremely strong chamomile tea added at bottling. The beer was refreshing and finished with a nice dose of the juicy fruit flavor that chamomile imparts. When I do this beer next year I will dry all of my chamomile before using, it goes so much further when dry and I feel like I wasted a lot of flowers by using them fresh.

Chamomile Blonde Recipe:

Specifics:

5.25 Gallons
OG: 1.051
TG: 1.013
SRM: 7.23
IBU: 22.8
Single Infusion @152F
Batch Sparge
60 minute boil

Grain:
7 lbs. Pilsen
1 lbs. White Wheat Malt
1 lbs. Munich 10L
.5 lbs. Naked Golden Oats
.5 lbs. Carapils
.25 lbs. Caramel 20L

Hops:
1 oz Crystal @60 min
.5 oz Crystal @ 20 min
.5 oz Saaz @ 20 min
.5 oz Crystal @ 5 min
.5 oz Saaz @ 5 min

Yeast:
Safbrew T-58

Extras:
2 quarts (loosely packed) fresh chamomile flowers @ 5 minutes
1 pint (loosely packed) dried chamomile flower tea added at bottling
1 oz Sweet Gale at 5 minutes
2 oz Heather Tips @ 5 minutes
1 g Grains of Paradise @ 5 minutes
3 g Indian Coriander at 5 minutes

Honey Lilac Blonde Recipe:

Specifics:

5.25 Gallons

OG: 1.051

TG: 1.013

SRM: 7.23

IBU: 22.8

Single Infusion @152F

Batch Sparge

60 minute boil

Grain:

7 lbs. Pilsen

1 lbs. White Wheat Malt

1 lbs. Munich 10L

.5 lbs. Naked Golden Oats

.5 lbs. Carapils

.25 lbs. Caramel 20L

Hops:

1 oz Crystal @60 min

.5 oz Crystal @ 20 min

.5 oz Saaz @ 20 min

.5 oz Crystal @ 5 min

.5 oz Saaz @ 5 min

Yeast:

Safbrew T-58

Extras:

2 oz Heather Tips at 5 minutes

2 oz Chamomile Flowers-dried- at 5 minutes

2 g Coriander (crushed) at 5 minutes

1 g Grains of Paradise

4 quarts (compacted) fresh Lilac flowers at 5 minutes

.5 lbs. clover honey to secondary