Houblon Abbey Blonde

To start let's see what wikipedia has to say about this style. "Blonde or Golden Ale. Duvel, a typical blond Belgian ale Duvel is the archetypal Belgian blonde ale, and one of the most popular bottled beers in the country as well as being well-known internationally.Its name means "Devil" and some other blonde beers follow the theme -- Satan, Lucifer, Brigand, Piraat and so on. The style is popular with Wallonian brewers, the slightly hazy Moinette being the best-known example. Delirium Tremens can be considered a spiced version."

Those are some very tasty brews. In my take on the "beer style" I'll be adding a large quantity of hops toward the end of the boil as well as dry hops. Using a melange of American grown hop variety's with Hallertau Mittlefruh parentage. Liberty, Mt. Hood, and Vanguard.

Also using Fermentis Safbrew S-33, been having good results with dry yeast lately and haven't tried S-33 yet. This is what Fermentis has to say about S-33, "A very popular general purpose yeast, displaying both very robust conservation properties and consistent performance. This yeast produces superb flavour profiles and is used for the production of a varied range of top fermented special beers (Belgian type wheat beers, Trappist, etc.). Sedimentation: medium. Final gravity: high. Also recommended for bottle-conditioning of beers. Excellent performance in beers with alcohol contents of up to 7.5% v/v but can ferment up to 11.5% v/v."

In the grist in pale malt, wheat malt, rye malt, Belgian aromatic, honey malt, and toasted rye flakes. Mash rest at 152 degrees right now, about half way through. Then mash out to 168, this will allow beta-amylase to really get in there and create body. Also allowing for a better runoff from the change in viscosity of the wort. Over low to medium heat stirring the whole time, should take about ten to fifteen minutes to raise the temperature to 168-170 degrees from 150 degrees. It sure is tiring though. Just finished. About to start vorlauf. Good brew day. Knocked it out in four hours. Wort cool down took thirty minutes to get to 75 degrees.