This blog provides information for educational purposes only. Read our complete summary for more info.
Kona Big Wave Clone - Blonde Ale Homebrew Recipe
We were feeling lazy and didn't want to come up with a recipe on our own, so we asked the Clawhammer Instagram audience to do the work for us and that's exactly what they did. We ended up receiving this sweet Kona Brewing Big Wave Blonde Ale clone recipe and it's delicious! Work smarter, folks, not harder.
NOTE: Below is our modified version of the recipe notes below.
This is a recipe for a 5 gallon batch. This recipe is tailored for our 10 gallon 120 volt brewing system, watch us use it in the video below.
Full Brew Day Video
Brewing Water
7.5 gallons (30 quarts or 28.4 liters) of tap water went into this baby. We didn't even filter it. Welcome to the lazy river!
Grains and Mash
9 Pounds (4.1 kg) of pale is best but we used a 50/50 mix of pale and pilsner because that's all we had. Problem solvers are what we are.
8 ounces (226.8g) of honey malt.
4 ounces (113.4g) of caramel malt.
We crushed the grain really fine in a grain mill.
We mashed for 60 minutes at 152 degrees F (66.7C).
Hops and Boil
This recipe calls for a 60 minute boil.
.15 ounces (4.25g) of Galaxy at start of boil (60 minutes).
.25 ounces (7.1g) of Citra with 15 mins left.
.25 ounces (7.1g) of Citra with 5 minutes left.
.2 ounces (7.1g) of Citra at flame out.
Our Citra hops had 13% alpha acids
We also added a whirlfloc tablet with 15 minutes left.
Yeast and Fermentation
We chilled to the high 60s F (~16C) and added one package of Safale US-05
Pitching yeast
We then fermented at 68 degrees F (20C) for a couple of weeks in a fermentation bucket.
Optional - Dry hop for 4 days with 2 oz of Citra
Tasting
This beer tastes a lot like....a Kona Brewing Big Wave Blonde Ale, believe it or not. It's really good. Light and refreshing and a nice lemon / lime citrus character. This beer scored really high marks by everyone who tasted it. Do yourself a favor and brew it!
Emmet called this the "Best beer yet."
If you like this recipe, we recommend you try
Hey guys – I made this last weekend. My calculator says only 12.3 IBU’s with your recipe whereas Kona’s big wave golden is supposed to be about 22…we shall see if the beer is too sweet!
Copied this beer “as is” in my grainfather system, although i did the sparge. split the water 16.4l in mash and 12 in mash. to my surprise I got a final og of 1.090!!! THIS NICE EASY DRINKING BLONDE WILL COME IN AT A WHOOPING 10.5% ABV. i shall call it “fat hawaiian” lol. Will definitely try again but will adjust the water to the grainfather system.
Hey folks,
could you kindly help me out with the oG i should aim for using a different system.
Thx
Quick question…did you dry hop or not? It seems like the recipe calls for it but the modified version does not?
Tomorrow is July 1, 2021. One year from the day you all brewed this beer. In honor of Emmet’s “Best Beer Yet.” I’m going to brew this In his honor. And drink a pint In clawhammers honor. 120 v system is amazing. Mahalo
Brewed this up today, on a similar system.
🇦🇺🇦🇺
Love ya channel all the way from Australia
Cheers guys, you rock
Just dry hopped mine last night, cant wait to try it!
Well, i messed up lol
the beer turned out red!! it is not bad but its kinda sweet.. i’ll brew it again with 50/50 pale and pilsner (i only used pale malt)
Nice video!! I tried with kveik yeast, cant wait to taste it!
Long time viewer – never commented before, but just wanted to say, love your videos and your philosophy. You guys got me into brewing, and now on my 50th brew day I wanted to say thank you for the constant supply of great content, hilarious videos, and all-round positive attitudes. You guys embody the spirit of homebrew – if it isn’t fun, why are you doing it? – and I look forward to the next 50 brews!
Boil time? 60 minutes? What is the final volume?
I brewed this but my wort turned out really dark and my og was 1045.
i hope i didnt messed up
what abu did this turn out at? What was the starting gravity? Mine came out before yeast addition at 1.048
what’s the batch size? is there any sparging after the grain is pulled from the 7.5 litre of water?