Cheesefood's V.C.C. Ale - A few Q's

bmarley5780 · 11-07-2008, 06:00 PM

Hetya guys! I plan on brewin Cheesefood's V.C.C. Ale tonight:

Malts
3 pounds extra light DME
3 pounds light wheat DME
1 pound Caramel Caramel 60L (steeped for 45 minutes)

Hops
1oz Cascade for bittering (60 minutes)
.5oz Saaz for flavor (20 minutes)
.5 oz Tettnang for aroma (end of boil)

Yeast
WLP008 East Coast Ale

Extras
1 tsp Irish Moss (15 minutes)
A blend of:
4oz Lactose, disolved in 2 cups of boiled water
2-3 oz real vanilla extract
Added to the secondary and stirred.

When buying the stuff tho, I asked if he could sub one bag of extract for some grains to make a partial mash. He did. And while I'm not sure what bag that I choose to sub I am also unaware on what grians he gave! But I'm sure that can be resolved if I asked him.....Anyhow

He also mixed the Caramel 60L in with the "other" grains as well. This should be ok right? If anything just more flavor for the added time of mashin the grains? Would 60 min mash be ok.?

On the hops I want to go ahead and used full 1 oz. on each doing a full boil. Would you guys keep the hop sched. the same?

**Chriso** · 11-07-2008, 06:43 PM

I'm not sure I'm understanding your question precisely, but I'll try:

1) To make a partial-mash, you can remove 1# Extra Light DME and add in 2# Pale 2-Row malt (base grain).

2) I think you are asking "If I mash 2# base malt (as described in question 1), can I mix the 1# Caramel 60˚L with it?" - if that is what you are asking, then the answer is Yes - to do a partial mash you would mash the Caramel malt and the 2-Row malt together. And yes, 60 minute partial-mash would be sufficient.

3) I would not add extra hops. In fact, when I brewed this, I thought the hop bitterness completely messed up the beer, and made it nearly undrinkable. It took 4-5 months before this beer mellowed to a point where I thought it was passable, and 8 months before I even started to like it. Now - maybe CVCA is just not one of "my kind" of beers, to be fair!

If I were to re-brew it, personally I would use 0.5 oz Tettnang at 60 minutes, 0.5 oz Tettnang at 20 minutes, and leave out the aroma hops entirely. Also, I would use a full 8 oz lactose, and I would add it towards the end of your boil, not after fermentation. I would still add the vanilla extract at bottling or kegging time. But these changes are to my personal taste.

(I'm sure if Cheese is reading this, he's probably sharpening his axe, for me talkin' down about his baby.)

bmarley5780 · 11-07-2008, 07:08 PM

1.) Well I asked to sub (1) 3# bag of DME for grain. I'm guessing but I think about 5ish pounds of grain were givin.

2.) Very good then!

3.) So, you believe that the extra hops took away from the caramel/vanilla...

I intend to keep the 2oz. of vanilla into the primary, but am unsure of the extra at kegging time but I do have another 2oz bottle...I really dont want to much vanilla...so many decisions..

**Chriso** · 11-07-2008, 07:42 PM

For #1, if you're removing one 3# bag, I'd remove the Xtra Light DME, add in 6# of base grain / 2-Row, and then keep the 3# bag of Wheat DME.

I would agree with that statement - There was enough vanilla, you just couldn't appreciate it because of the rather heavy hopping.

TerapinChef · 11-08-2008, 04:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chriso

I thought the hop bitterness completely messed up the beer, and made it nearly undrinkable. It took 4-5 months before this beer mellowed to a point where I thought it was passable, and 8 months before I even started to like it. Now - maybe CVCA is just not one of "my kind" of beers, to be fair!

I couldn't agree more. I never really got to the part where I liked it, but at about 9 months I found it was finally drinkable. Before this it seemed more like an alcoholic soda than anything else. Now I feel it's a bit more beer-like, but I'm struggling to finish off the last few beers. Again, it's just my (and SWMBO's) opinion. I've fed it to several people who enjoyed it.