Kona Big Wave Clone - Blonde Ale Homebrew Recipe

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kona big wave homebrew recipeWe 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.

kona big wave homebrew recipe

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.

Citra hop package

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

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!

best beer yet

Emmet called this the "Best beer yet."

If you like this recipe, we recommend you try

Amarillo Pale Ale

Three Eyed Ale

American Wheat Lager

Portrait of Kyle Brown

Kyle Brown is the owner of Clawhammer Supply, a small scale distillation and brewing equipment company which he founded in 2009. His passion is teaching people about the many uses of distillation equipment as well as how to make beer at home. When he isn't brewing beer or writing about it, you can find him at his local gym or on the running trail.

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14 Comments

  • M
    Comment Author: miropsep@gmail.com

    Boil time? 60 minutes? What is the final volume?

  • AT
    Comment Author: Anna may thief

    I brewed this but my wort turned out really dark and my og was 1045.
    i hope i didnt messed up

  • MC
    Comment Author: Mick COOPER

    what abu did this turn out at? What was the starting gravity? Mine came out before yeast addition at 1.048

  • J
    Comment Author: john

    what’s the batch size? is there any sparging after the grain is pulled from the 7.5 litre of water?