Big Texas Blonde Clone

The Texas Big Beer Brewery, of Buna, Texas, was founded by John McKissack and his wife, Tammy. You may remember John as Johnny Max from his BrewCrAzY homebrew podcast. (It’s back, BTW, as BrewCrAzY Pro.)

The Texas Big Beer Brewery specializes in . . . wait for it . . . big beers. Their Big Texas Blonde is their “light” beer — light in color, but weighing in at 10.5% ABV. Inspired by Belgian blonde ales, the body of this beer is lightened by adding roughly 10% of the fermentables as candi sugar. The clean American ale yeast, however, doesn’t give off the esters and peppery spiciness found in many Belgian beers.

McKissack plans for his brewery to be an integral part of of his homestead. The spent grains will be fed to animals and he’s even thinking of venting the CO2 from his fermenters into his greenhouse (to be used by plants for photosynthesis). Currently, Texas Big Beers are available in and around Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin and Beaumont, Texas.

Big Texas Blonde clone 

All-grain, English units

recipe from Brewmaster John McKissack

 

DESCRIPTION
This is the Texas Big Beer Brewery’s “light” beer — a 10.5% ABV Belgian-inspired blonde ale. The addition of candi sugar in the kettle lightens this beer and makes it very drinkable, despite it’s alcoholic strength. For best results when brewing this at home, make the suggested 1-gallon yeast starter.

 

INGREDIENTS (for 5 gallons)

 

Water

dilute water to reduce carbonates to 50 ppm

add calcium, if needed, to reach 75 ppm

add calcium as 1:1 mix of calcium chloride and gypsum

Malt (for an OG of 1.092 at 70% extract efficiency and an SRM of 12)

15 lb. 4 oz. American 2-row pale malt

1.25 lbs. candi sugar (clear)

0.50 lbs. candi sugar (amber)

Hops (for 33 IBUs total)

Sterling hops (30 IBUs)

1.0 oz. (at 8% alpha acids), boiled for 60 mins

Sterling hops (3 IBUs)

0.5 oz. (at 8% alpha acids), boiled for 5 mins

Yeast (for an FG of 1.013 and 10.5% ABV)

Wyeast 1056 American Ale

make a 4-qt. yeast starter

Other

1 tsp. Irish moss, boiled 15 mins

1/2 tsp. yeast nutrients, boiled for 10 mins

 

PROCEDURE

Make yeast starter 2–3 days ahead of brew day and let ferment to completion. Heat 20 qts. of strike water to 161 °F. Mash at 150 °F for 60 minutes. Collect 7.0–7.5 gallons of wort and boil hard for 90 minutes (to reduce volume to 5.25 gallons). If hot break does not form big, fluffy flakes in first 15 minutes, add 1 tsp calcium chloride. Add hops, Irish moss and yeast nutrients at times indicated. Add sugar with 20 minutes left in boil. Chill wort and transfer 5 gallons to fermenter. Aerate and pitch sediment from yeast starter. Ferment at 68 °F. Keg and force carbonate to 2.6 volumes of CO₂.

 

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Big Texas Blonde clone 

All-grain, metric units

recipe from Brewmaster John McKissack

 

DESCRIPTION
This is the Texas Big Beer Brewery’s “light” beer — a 10.5% ABV Belgian-inspired blonde ale. The addition of candi sugar in the kettle lightens this beer and makes it very drinkable, despite it’s alcoholic strength. For best results when brewing this at home, make the suggested 4-L yeast starter.

 

INGREDIENTS (for 19 L)

 

Water

dilute water to reduce carbonates to 50 ppm

add calcium, if needed, to reach 75 ppm

add calcium as 1:1 mix of calcium chloride and gypsum

Malt (for an OG of 1.092 at 70% extract efficiency and an SRM of 12)

6.9 kg American 2-row pale malt

570 g candi sugar (clear)

230 g candi sugar (amber)

Hops (for 33 IBUs total)

Sterling hops (30 IBUs)

28 g (at 8% alpha acids), boiled for 60 mins

Sterling hops (3 IBUs)

14 g (at 8% alpha acids), boiled for 5 mins

Yeast (for an FG of 1.013 and 10.5% ABV)

Wyeast 1056 American Ale

make a 4-L yeast starter

Other

1 tsp. Irish moss, boiled 15 mins

1/2 tsp. yeast nutrients, boiled for 10 mins

 

PROCEDURE

Make yeast starter 2–3 days ahead of brew day and let ferment to completion. Heat 19 L of strike water to 72 °C. Mash at 66 °C for 60 minutes. Collect 26–28 L of wort and boil hard for 90 minutes (to reduce volume to 20 L). If hot break does not form big, fluffy flakes in first 15 minutes, add 1 tsp. calcium chloride. Add hops, Irish moss and yeast nutrients at times indicated. Add sugar with 20 minutes left in boil. Chill wort and transfer 19 L to fermenter. Aerate and pitch sediment from yeast starter. Ferment at 20 °C. Keg and force carbonate to 2.6 volumes of CO₂.

 

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Big Texas Blonde clone 

Malt extract, English units

recipe from Brewmaster John McKissack

 

INGREDIENTS (for 5 gallons)

 

Water

for partial mash:

2.0 gallons of distilled, or RO, water

0.25 tsp. calcium chloride

0.25 tsp. gypsum

for diluting malt extract:

carbon filtered tap water

Malt (for an OG of 1.092 at 70% extract efficiency and an SRM of 12)

6.0 lbs. American 2-row pale malt

5.5 lbs. light dried malt extract

1.25 lbs. candi sugar (clear)

 0.50 lbs. candi sugar (amber)

Hops (for 33 IBUs total)

Sterling hops (30 IBUs)

1.0 oz. (at 8% alpha acids), boiled for 60 mins

Sterling hops (3 IBUs)

0.5 oz. (at 8% alpha acids), boiled for 5 mins

Yeast (for an FG of 1.013 and 10.5% ABV)

Wyeast 1056 American Ale

make a 4-qt. yeast starter

Other

1 tsp. Irish moss, boiled 15 mins

1/2 tsp. yeast nutrients, boiled for 10 mins

 

PROCEDURE

This is a partial mash formulation. To make this work easily, you will need a 3-gallon (or 5-gallon) beverage cooler; the Gott or Rubbermaid style with a spigot near the bottom. Make yeast starter 2–3 days ahead of brew day and let ferment to completion. Heat 8 qts. of strike water to 161 °F. Place the 6 pounds of crushed grains in a large steeping bag. Put 161 °F water in a 3-gallon (or larger) kitchen pot and submerge grain bag, stirring to thoroughly wet grain. “Steep” at 150 °F for 60 minutes. (This is really a partial mash.) While grains are “steeping” (mashing) heat 2 gallons of water to 170 °F. Lift grain bag into 3-gallon (or larger) beverage cooler. Pour “grain tea” (wort) from partial mash on top of bag. Drain the wort from the cooler 2 cups at a time, pouring it into brewpot. Put roughly half of the malt extract in your brewpot and let the wort dissolve it. For every 2 cups of wort collected, add 2 cups of 170 °F water to top of grain bag. Repeat until you have collected 3.5 gallons of wort in your brewpot. Bring to boil and boil for 60 minutes. Add hops, Irish moss and yeast nutrients at time indicated. Add sugars with 20 minutes left in boil and remaining malt extract with 5 minutes left in boil. Chill wort and transfer to fermenter. Add water to make 5.0 gallons. Aerate and pitch sediment from yeast starter. Ferment at 68 °F. Keg and force carbonate to 2.6 volumes of CO₂.

 

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Big Texas Blonde clone 

Malt extract, metric units

recipe from Brewmaster John McKissack

 

INGREDIENTS (for 19 L)

 

Water

for partial mash:

7.6 L of distilled, or RO, water

0.25 tsp. calcium chloride

0.25 tsp. gypsum

for diluting malt extract:

carbon filtered tap water

Malt (for an OG of 1.092 at 70% extract efficiency and an SRM of 12)

2.7 kg American 2-row pale malt

2.5 kg light dried malt extract

570 g candi sugar (clear)

230 g candi sugar (amber)

Hops (for 33 IBUs total)

Sterling hops (30 IBUs)

28 g (at 8% alpha acids), boiled for 60 mins

Sterling hops (3 IBUs)

14 g (at 8% alpha acids), boiled for 5 mins

Yeast (for an FG of 1.013 and 10.5% ABV)

Wyeast 1056 American Ale

make a 4-L yeast starter

Other

1 tsp. Irish moss, boiled 15 mins

1/2 tsp. yeast nutrients, boiled for 10 mins

 

PROCEDURE

This is a partial mash formulation. To make this work easily, you will need a 11-L (or larger) beverage cooler; the Gott or Rubbermaid style with a spigot near the bottom. Make yeast starter 2–3 days ahead of brew day and let ferment to completion. Heat 7.4 L of strike water to 72 °C. Place the 2.7 kg of crushed grains in a large steeping bag. Put 72 °C water in a 11-L (or larger) kitchen pot and submerge grain bag, stirring to thoroughly wet grain. “Steep” at 66 °C for 60 minutes. (This is really a partial mash.) While grains are “steeping” (mashing) heat 8 L of water to 77 °C. Lift grain bag into 11-L (or larger) beverage cooler. Pour “grain tea” (wort) from partial mash on top of bag. Drain the wort from the cooler 2 cups at a time, pouring it into brewpot. Put roughly half of the malt extract in your brewpot and let the wort dissolve it. For every 2 cups of wort collected, add 2 cups of 77 °C water to top of grain bag. Repeat until you have collected 13 L of wort in your brewpot. Bring to boil and boil for 60 minutes. Add hops, Irish moss and yeast nutrients at time indicated. Add sugars with 20 minutes left in boil and remaining malt extract with 5 minutes left in boil. Chill wort and transfer to fermenter. Add water to make 19 L. Aerate and pitch sediment from yeast starter. Ferment at 20 °C. Keg and force carbonate to 2.6 volumes of CO₂.