Andrew Bradshaw was the worthy runner-up in the Mashed tournament with his strong Belgian blonde “On the Lash-oof!â€. He kindly shares the inspiration and recipe for his epic beer.
With a professional background in IT, I started home brewing during lockdown as I felt that I needed a hobby and it had always been in the back of my mind as something I’d like to try. I don’t have loads of patience, so I felt I needed to be able to get to a decent level as quickly as possible. This led me to dive straight in at the deep end and I bought a Grainfather, Grainfather conical and glycol chiller so that I could temperature control my fermentations.
From the first Punk IPA clone that I brewed through to the bitters, imperial stouts, lagers, hybrids, NEIPAs etc. that I have brewed since (82 batches in all), my enjoyment of the hobby has grown immensely. This has culminated in me going the whole hog last year and converting my garage into a bar and home brewery with an integrated 4 tap Kegerator and a beer engine.
INSPIRATION FOR THE BEER
I love the Belgian blonde style, but everyone associates it with Leffe Blonde, which is great, but I wanted to push the alcohol and esters to turbo charge it a little. I think La Chouffe has a lot more of that Belgian character than Leffe and so this brew has pushed much more into that space (hence the name).
Recipe: On the Lash-oof!
Style: Strong Belgian Blonde
PROFILE
ABV: 7.50%
Batch Size: 23 L
Losses: 3 L
Boil Time: 90 mins
Mash Efficiency: 87%
Mash Volume: 18.35 L
Sparge Volume: 15.95 L
OG (SG): 1.067
FG (SG): 1.010
IBU: 26.3
Colour (EBC): 8.7
Mash and Sparge volumes calculated using the “Grainfather G30 Connect – 220V (Bluetooth)†profile.
FERMENTABLES
5.00 kg (82%) Pilsner Malt
0.60 kg (10%) Cane (Beet) Sugar (late addition)
0.25 kg (4%) Aromatic Malt
0.25 kg (4%) Wheat Malt
MASH STEPS
Mash Step 1: 66°C, 60 min
Mash Out: 75°C, 10 min
HOPS
45 g (60%) Hallertauer Mittelfruh (IBU: 18.8), Boil 60 min (AA: 4.25)
30 g (40%) Hallertauer Mittelfruh (IBU: 7.5), Boil 10 min (AA: 4.25)
YEAST
1 packet Belgian Ale (Product Code: WLP550), Attenuation: 82 %
EXTRAS
1 tsp Irish Moss, Boil, 15 min
WATER ADDITIONS
Calcium Chloride - Mash: 2 g, Sparge: 2 g
Calcium Sulphate (Gypsum) - Mash: 1.125 g,
Sparge: 1.125 g
FERMENTATION STEPS
Step 1: 19°C, 4 days
Step 2: 19°C, 1 days
Step 3: 20°C, 3 days
Step 4: 4°C, 10 days
NOTES
The yeast significantly over-attenuated, so actually hit an FG of 1.004! That’s what made it a bit stronger and probably that bit nicer.
Excellent, but needs filtering for clarity.
2.3L starter, 245g DME.
Fermentation start at 19 for 1 day and allow to free rise after that to 25.
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