Southside Summer Ale

I've never been a huge fan of blonde ales. But recently I got a sample pack of Ska Brewing Company. I was disappointed at first because of the 12 bottles in the pack, four were their True Blonde Ale, and there were only 2 each of their Ten Pin Porter and Buster Nut Brown (the two I was most excited about). But oddly enough I found myself coming back to the blonde ales in the box. It was crisp and slightly malty and brewed with honey which gave it a nice lingering sweetness. Nice and refreshing on a hot day. Trying to decide what I wanted to brew for a nice summer beer, I decided to step away from the wheats I typically brew and brew up a blonde.
My recipe was fairly basic, but because of the extra time I have now that it's summer break, I decided to do a partial mash. What a mess for my first brewing of the summer. I didn't hit my temp first, then did the annoying process of heating/drawing off water/ putting it back in the mashtun...basically a clusterfuck. Finally I got it at 150, and the temps started dropping rapidly. Not sure if my cooler is no longer holding temps or what the deal is, but to top it off, after about 30 minutes of this shit, my 1 year old son wakes up and I had to go deal with that, deciding to scrap the partial mash. I had bought an extra couple pounds of DME, so I knew I had enough extract to brew up the beer.
To add to the ridiculousness of the ordeal, after putting in my first addition of DME, I went to refill my beer and had a boil over...something that hasn't happened in a long ass time! Frustrating! But the rest of the brewing went fine, I broke my hydrometer testing tube earlier as well, so I have no idea about the OG. I still believe it will turn out fine, but what a pain.
The recipe is very basic:
5 lbs of organic light DME (1 @ 60, 4 @ 15)
1 lb of wheat dme (@ 60)
1 oz Hallertau @ 60
1 oz Hallertau @ 5
.5 lbs of honey @ flameout
I'm also going to use some raspberry extract in the secondary.
1056 Wyeast American Ale

On another note, had a great night at the Pro-Brewers night at the American Homebrew Conference. Plan on posting about that experience in the next day or so...
Salud!
Bearded Brewer