No Sparge - 5 Kilowatt Blonde

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Sunday the 10th I brewed my first no-sparge test batch of 5 Kilowatt Blonde!  It was a simple recipe with 9 lbs of pale 2-Row and 1 lb C20.  I hopped with Citra  at 60 minutes with .25 oz and at 10 minutes with .75 oz. I wanted some body so I mashed at 156 and did a 10 minute mash out at 168.  The efficiency was at 90% so I am not sure I will EVER sparge again unless I don't have room in the mash tun.  Even with the small grain bill in this recipe I still didn't have enough room to get the 8 gallons I need to do a full 1 hour boil, so I saved a gallon or so of the HLT water to top up prior to the boil.  This seemed to work well. My OG was on target and it kegged at 4.59% abv which was about what I was looking for.  I couldn't detect any off flavors pre-carbonation but on the next batch I may add the last of the Citra at the 15 minute mark to bring up the IBU's a little. The beer seems to have cleared up well!  Can't wait to see what it looks like after cold conditioning for a few days.  I may also cut back on the C20 a bit to bring down the color a bit.  It should be all carbed up by Wednesday evening.  I will post a pic with tasting notes then.

Well it is mostly carb'd up and doesn't taste too bad IMHO!  You can catch a little bit of citrus nose on the first sip but not much after.  The head is not as strong as I would like but may get better after being on the gas a bit longer.  The flavor has medium to low citrus a LOT of body and just a tiny hint of astringency in the finish.  The color is a bid darker than I would have wanted due to my increasing the amount of C20 at the last minute.   It still needs some time to settle out but the flavor profile is about what I expected.   I am really wanting a lighter color, a little less body, a little more hop flavor and a lot more hop aroma.  The color in this pic is a little misleading due to the lighting.  The beer is actually significantly lighter.  Things I am going to change in the next batch will be:  1) Trade 1/2 pound of C20 for an extra pound of pale 2-row.  2) change the Citra hop schedule to (.25 for 60), (.5 for 20) and (.25 for 10 minutes after flame out).  3)  mash at 153 instead of 156.  4)  add a dose of PH5.2 stabilizer to the mash to eliminate ALL astringency.