Cream Ale Cream of Three Crops (Cream Ale)

I just finished brewing this up. Used Golden Promise instead of US 2-Row. Used 1oz Cascade at 60 minutes, 1oz Cascade at 5 minutes. Ended up with 6.5 gallons at 1.042. Gonna be drinking it in 5 weeks with family.

I like using Hallertau for cream and blonde ales - lighter beers like this. You can plug the amounts, AA% and boil time into BeerSmith or one of the other calculators to figure out how to hit the IBU level you want.

Click to expand...

Probably should have checked that before I brewed. Looking like I'm going to be in the 30 IBU range, juuuuuuust a bit outside of the cream ale standard. More like a Kolsch or Pilsner range. Oh well, looking forward to see what I get!

How long should the US 05 take to krausen? About 4 hours after pitching I had patches begin to form (Saturday Night). All of Sunday I had about a fist sized portion on top and today I have 2fists in size but its running verticly down the side about 12 inches. Looks like an iceberg.

I stashed the keg with my first batch of this behind our table at a local Chili/Salsa cook-off and beer tasting event. My co-workers and I enjoyed quite a bit of it and also shared it with folks stopping by the table. It was the perfect beer for this event. The batch came out INCREDIBLY delicious and received tons of compliments.

Thanks again for the recipe. I will definitely be brewing this one again.

i just kegged this the other day. i pulled a sample tonight and it doesn't have that fizzy yellow look to it. hopefully the color comes out more when the haze wears off.

Jdecarol said:

How long should the US 05 take to krausen? About 4 hours after pitching I had patches begin to form (Saturday Night). All of Sunday I had about a fist sized portion on top and today I have 2fists in size but its running verticly down the side about 12 inches. Looks like an iceberg.

Click to expand...

Take a gravity reading. I brewed 10 gallons of this about 3 weeks ago. I used Nottingham on half and S-05 on the other. The Nottingham never krausened. I was worried, so I took a gravity reading and it had already finished.

J

has anyone ever tried this beer with pilsner malt instead of two row? Also what about lagering it with nottingham or kolsch yeast.

Update.

Still bubbling along after 6 days in the mid-upper 50s.

OK, so next weekend I am going to my folks for the weekend, we are going to brew this there, then when I get back I am going to brew a batch for myself. Original recipe, none of the changes that this thread came up with.
I will let you guys know what I think, and what all my guests think.

Adam78K said:

has anyone ever tried this beer with pilsner malt instead of two row? Also what about lagering it with nottingham or kolsch yeast.

Click to expand...

I use Pilsner when making light blonde or cream ales.

Pulled a hydro sample, tastes like a decent beer to me. Little sweeter than I expected though, but it is flat and I'm accustomed to hops but I'm sure this will be my family's favorite.

Started at 1.046 (Did better than I expected) but finished at 1.008. Cold crashing it now and then popping in some gelatin later tonight.

I waited to pass judgment until it was fully aged and properly carbonated. Very nice indeed. My father had a few sips (had to go to church) and told me it was similar to Budweiser only much, much better. KUDOS to OP, to reignite my interest in all grain as I have had some less than optimal results of late.

Decided that I'm going to make a half batch of this for my first all grain brew on Memorial day. I tried to go back through the posts, cause I know there was one regarding the 90 min boil, but what was the conclusion on that? Whats does the extra 30 minutes do? The 90 minute mash, makes it dryer correct?

Did a 11 gallon batch of this today, AG, BIAB. 1.047 OG. I've done 23# of grain in my bag before and was nothing like this 17# grain bill. That flaked rice and corn sure do absorb water. Glad I planned a separate dunk sparge step in my session. Nailed things today, strike temp, preboil volume postboil volume. A little high on the OG.

Let that mash sit out until after the brew was done, then pitched in 2# of 2 row and .25# of 60L and topped off with 2 gallons of water for 149F mash in a sealed cooler. We'll see what we get on Monday, going for a belgianesque sour with it.

Decided not to gelatin it, but after spending over a week in the cold it was still pulling a bit hazy and developed a sweet taste that shouldn't be there. Decided to transfer to a secondary because when I went to move it i stirred up a **** load of yeast and didn't want all of that into the bottles. Just beginning to krausen again. I hope I hit .005 or less.

I read this whole thread at work! And i have a question.

I had it fermenting at about 72 degrees to about 78 degrees for the first week while my johnson temperature control unit came in, this is the second week of fermenting and i now have it right at 66 degrees (it is awesome how accurate the johnson is). However can i expect alot of off flavors due to the first week? I had it in a bath of water and interchanged ice to cool, also had the fermenters covered with wet shirts and a fan. I really hop it clears up seeing i made 11.25 gallons, and it is for a bmc drinker friend of mine coming from new jersey.

Probably be the best ever due to all that TLC!

Brewed this today and forgot to add the minute rice after I got the two row and corn from BMW...whoops. Realized it right when I finished sparging. Missed my gravity by a few points but went ahead with the brew anyways. Anybody else make the same mistake before? How'd it turn out? Thanks.

mattjmac said:

Brewed this today and forgot to add the minute rice after I got the two row and corn from BMW...whoops. Realized it right when I finished sparging. Missed my gravity by a few points but went ahead with the brew anyways. Anybody else make the same mistake before? How'd it turn out? Thanks.

Click to expand...

You won't know the difference not having brewed it yet. It'll be just fine.

BierMuncher said:

You won't know the difference not having brewed it yet. It'll be just fine.

Click to expand...

word. in fact you might just suck it down faster!

BierMuncher said:

You won't know the difference not having brewed it yet. It'll be just fine.

Click to expand...

Thanks. Wasn't so mad at myself for screwing up the recipe since this beer's ingredients were dirt cheap...but I was mad that I may have wasted a bunch of time. The 90 minute mash and the 90 minute boil really make for a long brew session. I'll post back once I give it a taste in a couple weeks.

So I brewed this for my first All-Grain. Got better efficiency than expected (about 82%) and didnt know what my boil off would be since I was using my new 15 gallon pot - looks to be about 1.6 gal/hr...yikes! Ended up with about 5.2 gallons and only did a 75 minute boil. OG came out to 1.052 so definitely a little high. Just took a gravity reading after 14 days in the fermenter and im at 1.008. So I guess I am looking at about 5.7% ABV! Tasted good, though. It appears that this batch has developed the "extended krausen syndrome" as it still has a good half inch left on top. This might be due to the fact that it fermented high, close to 75 degrees. It is sitting at about 67 now... really need to work on better temp control. Plan to wait another week or two before bottling, will update and let everyone know how it goes.

How short can this go from primary to bottles? I got some I brewed up on 5/29. If I don't get it this weekend (3 weeks in), I won't get to it for at least two more weeks as I have an operation scheduled and will be incapacitated a bit.

Actually, looks like I worked it out. My assistant will help me bottle it at a little over 4 weeks maybe 5 weeks. Unless someone suggests otherwise.

Did this receipe using s23, are we looking at the same 14 days prim and then bottle or keg or a different time frame.

Also, if i want to add AE or Gelatin whats the additional secondary time frame i add to it after the 14 day prim?

I know AE and Gelatin serve different purposes, can you add both?

Stuff is still sitting in secondary because I haven't had time to bottle. Looks mighty clear.

Schlenkerla, i primed this for two weeks, how long did you leave it in the secondary with the AE. Do i take it out of the fridge or leave it in. I used S23 lager yeast with this. Also thinking of adding some gelatin for 4-5 days after the secondary with the AE in it

Racked into two 5 gallon secondaries and one gallon with .75# of cranberries in it today. Gonna try to bottle one or more next weekend depending how I feel after surgery and how much wifey wants to help.

Forgot to cold crash this, but this was my first time using irish moss and after two weeks in the bottle it's crystal clear. Still really green, but underneath the harshness I think it's going to turn out a great batch. Kept upstairs around 70 for 2 weeks to carbonate, and now it's cooling down to about 60 in the basement. I think this will definitely be one I pass out to try and get a few converts.

I have my second batch of Cream of Three Crops in the primary since June 6th. I am going out off town on the 25th through July 3rd. do I bottle Weds the 23rd at day 17 or do I transfer to secondary and wait til I get home on July 3rd to bottle. I am leaning towards racking and waitning. What does anyone else think?

Toivo said:

I have my second batch of Cream of Three Crops in the primary since June 6th. I am going out off town on the 25th through July 3rd. do I bottle Weds the 23rd at day 17 or do I transfer to secondary and wait til I get home on July 3rd to bottle. I am leaning towards racking and waitning. What does anyone else think?

Click to expand...

I would bottle, but it really depends on how clear your batch is and how clear you want it to be. It's definitely finished fermenting.

I'm the dope who forgot to add rice to his recipe that posted a while back. This finished really dry @ 1.008. I've never had a beer get that low before so I even checked the calibration on my refractometer using distilled water, and then used the morebeer spreadsheet brix to FG calculator to make sure my math was right. It tastes okay before carbing it up. Anybody know if the lack of rice would cause it to finish so dry? It did start lower due to lacking the rice, but I didn't think the OG necessarily affected the FG on a beer. Thanks.

mattjmac said:

I'm the dope who forgot to add rice to his recipe that posted a while back. This finished really dry @ 1.008. I've never had a beer get that low before so I even checked the calibration on my refractometer using distilled water, and then used the morebeer spreadsheet brix to FG calculator to make sure my math was right. It tastes okay before carbing it up. Anybody know if the lack of rice would cause it to finish so dry? It did start lower due to lacking the rice, but I didn't think the OG necessarily affected the FG on a beer. Thanks.

Click to expand...

Um, check your FG with a hydrometer. I don't think refractometers are accurate for measuring alcohols, just sugars. Although I'm sure there are some conversion equations that can account for it.

EDIT: Wait a minute! The original recipe estimated a FG of 1.005. You're not low.

Ya, for the recipe you aren't low. I also finished at 1.008 (had better efficiency so started at 1.052, so similar attenuation). I believe the 90 min mash also aids with the lower finish

Thanks guys. I had entered 1.015 into Brewsmith for some reason when I copied over this recipe. Reelale you're right about the alcohol refractometer thing. The morebeer excel spreadsheet calculator uses some formula to compensate for that. I am without a hydrometer ever since SWMBO set a pot on it while it was drying on the counter.

Been sitting in the primary for three weeks. Got my kegging system in the mail today. Ready to keg this beauty. Biermuncher, what was your kegging method on this beer. Thought id ask the creater. What PSI did you force carb it at?How long?Shake it at any point?Serving PSI?

Making this one today!

6.5lbs two-row
1.75lbs corn
.75 rice

.5oz willamette, .5oz crystal

Oops! I had much better efficiency this time around, I hit 1047 OG, is this still going to be a crisp cream ale? Or will it have more body than anticipated?

Wow I brewed a 5 gallon batch of this for my first brew to be kegged, to be drunk on July 4th. Wow.

It isn't a complex flavorful beer like I usually make. It is just an awesome quaffer. I used Hallertau hops because that's what I had, primary for 10 days at 66F, racked to keg, forced carbed at 30 psi for 4 days at 40F. Bled off gas and served, me and 4 good friends kicked the keg in two hours. 10 gallon batches for this one from now on. What a simple, great recipe that anyone who drinks beer will drink. They don't need to be explained anything, just get a glass and here is some beer.

Thanks BierMuncher!!!

I'm brewing a 10 gallon batch of this today. Made a few changes to suit my tastes, balanced the corn & rice and added a 5% table sugar to dry it out further. Also made a tincture with Key Lime & Everclear and will add that to the secondary or at kegging time. Should be a nice Lager like lime infused ale, maybe like BLL or a Corona with the lime in it.

Thanks, BM!