Lazy Day Blonde Ale

(5 gallons/19 L, extract with grains)
OG = 1.038 FG = 1.010
IBU = 20 SRM = 4 ABV = 3.6%

This is the lightest, and simplest, extract beer we’ve ever made. You can get in and out and have a tasty beer in no time flat. What kind of beer? The beer-flavored variety, naturally. If you’re feeling fancy, use a W34/70 style lager strain and ferment cooler for a pleasant drinking lager. Also feel free to play around with the finishing hop addition but we like the simple spicy and woody components that Willamette hops provide to this beer. (Reproduced from our book, Simple Homebrewing)

Ingredients
5 lbs. (2.3 kg) Pilsen or golden light liquid malt extract
0.5 lb. (227 g) Carapils® malt
0.5 lb. (227 g) aromatic malt
4.6 AAU Magnum hops (60 min.) (0.33 oz./9 g at 14% alpha acids)
0.5 oz. (14 g) Willamette hops (5 min.)
Wyeast 1056 (American Ale), White Labs WLP001 (California Ale), SafAle US-05, or LalBrew BRY-97
(American West Coast Ale) yeast
¾ cup corn sugar (if priming)

Step by Step
Steep the malt with 3 quarts (2.8 L) of 170 °F (77 °C) water for 30 minutes. Rinse the malt with an additional 3 quarts (2.8 L) of 170 °F (77 °C) water. Add 4.5 gallons (17 L) of water to the resulting liquor. Add 1 lb. (0.45 kg) of extract to the kettle and bring to a boil.

Total boil time is going to be 60 minutes. Boil for 45 minutes, adding the first hop addition at the beginning of the boil. After that time, add the remaining extract — off the heat and stir well! Boil an additional 15 minutes adding the second hop addition with 5 minutes remaining.

Chill the wort down and ferment at room temperature (~68 °F/20 °C). You can look to package the beer after 10 days. Feel free to add a little dry hops a few days before packaging if you so desire, but we don’t think it’s necessary. Carbonate the beer to 2.5 v/v if force carbonating.

All-grain option: While it flies in the face of what this article is about, if you have the time and want to create your own wort with an all-grain recipe, here is the conversion: Simply swap out the liquid malt extract with 7.5 lbs. (3.4 kg) of your favorite pale malt. And just like with the dry hops, you could look to add a little extra component (like flaked corn) to the all-grain version, but we don’t feel like it’s necessary. Sometimes simple can be better.