Cream Ale Cream of Three Crops (Cream Ale)

I would like to brew this beer for a family reunion (BMC drinking family), but am unable to brew AG due to space, equip and so on. I have read every post in this thread and searched a few times with no mention of an extract version. I know corn has to be mashed, but is there anyway to brew this using all extract?

I am only 5 brews and 2 EdWort's Apfelwein batches in and I don't think i will ever stop!

jrt132 said:

I would like to brew this beer for a family reunion (BMC drinking family), but am unable to brew AG due to space, equip and so on. I have read every post in this thread and searched a few times with no mention of an extract version. I know corn has to be mashed, but is there anyway to brew this using all extract?

I am only 5 brews and 2 EdWort's Apfelwein batches in and I don't think i will ever stop!

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figure 5 lbs grain to 3 lbs dry extract, or 3.3 lbs liquid extract, 2-row = light extract, wheat=wheat, crystal malt= do it partial mash

I was pointed in this direction by my brew buddy for a recipe for my natural light(ewwww) drinking wife. I am fairly new to brewing but have had nothing but success and enjoyment from my APA's. This is a great recipe for the beginner AG brewer and clears up and dries out extremely well. My favorite experience from this batch is the beginning of introducing my wife to an ale. I hate labeling folks as simple BMC drinkers but all that have tried this brew have had nothing but great reviews (and seconds, and thirds...). This is a much "lighter" brew than i typically enjoy, but enjoyable nonetheless. Not only is it a great recipe but a great platform to build hoppier brews to introduce friends and family to the wonders of homebrewing. and oh yeah I replaced the crystal with Mt. hood to up the AA to help my cause. Cheers

lumpher said:

figure 5 lbs grain to 3 lbs dry extract, or 3.3 lbs liquid extract, 2-row = light extract, wheat=wheat, crystal malt= do it partial mash

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Thanks for the for the information. I don't really have the equipment for a PM either. I might get a few thing for Christmas, but I will have to wait and see.

Damn BierMuncher this sounds like a good brew! I'm actually going to be brewing this in a couple days for my first AG on my own. I just have a couple questions. First off, if I were to use some rice hulls in the mash to help with sparging, would a 90 min mash produce any unwanted flavors from the hulls? Second, I'm inexperienced with starters so I was going to rehydrate yeast before pitching. What kind of yeast would you recommend and how much of it should I be using for an 11 gallon batch? Thanks!

PapaRib said:

Damn BierMuncher this sounds like a good brew! I'm actually going to be brewing this in a couple days for my first AG on my own. I just have a couple questions. First off, if I were to use some rice hulls in the mash to help with sparging, would a 90 min mash produce any unwanted flavors from the hulls? Second, I'm inexperienced with starters so I was going to rehydrate yeast before pitching. What kind of yeast would you recommend and how much of it should I be using for an 11 gallon batch? Thanks!

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I make this beer on a regular basis and typically use nottingham or us-05 with great results. I love notty for the fact that it can ferment down to 59 degrees which would make this beer pretty much lagerlike.

I would pitch 2 packs of dry yeast. Ive had so so results doing 11 gallon batches with only 1 pack of yeast.

PapaRib said:

Damn BierMuncher this sounds like a good brew! I'm actually going to be brewing this in a couple days for my first AG on my own. I just have a couple questions. First off, if I were to use some rice hulls in the mash to help with sparging, would a 90 min mash produce any unwanted flavors from the hulls? Second, I'm inexperienced with starters so I was going to rehydrate yeast before pitching. What kind of yeast would you recommend and how much of it should I be using for an 11 gallon batch? Thanks!

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Like wcarter1227 said...Notty is good. I generally use Safale-05 though.

A 90 minute mash will not extrude any flavors out of the rice hulls any more than a 60 minute mash would. I do it all the time.

I'd like to make this beer as one of my first AG beers when I get home from my deployment next week. I don't have a prior slurry or anything since I've been gone for a long time. What yeast can I use for this? I usually use Wyeast smack packs. Which one would you recommend? It was probably in this thread somewhere, but I missed it. Thanks!

I'm going to use Wyeast 1056 American Ale or WLP001 California Ale

Forgive my ignorance to the saying, but when you say BMC drinker, does it mean Bud, Miller, Coors? I see it everywhere and that is my best guess!

PapaRib said:

Forgive my ignorance to the saying, but when you say BMC drinker, does it mean Bud, Miller, Coors? I see it everywhere and that is my best guess!

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You guessed it.

Did this brew a couple of months ago and pitched on a WLP 802 lager cake. After about 6 weeks of lagering..... Wow, very nice 'lite lager'.

Howdy,

I've just made my third batch of this beer. Great recipe!

I changed it up a bit and replaced the flaked rice with cooked Chinese Black (purple sticky) rice. I was looking for a purple color to the beer.
It's "purple-ish", but it looks more like an old bruise color. haha
Pics to come later.

Thanks BM for the recipe!

Cheers,
Bob

I just kicked the first keg of this yesterday, and this was my first all grain. The first few days the beer had a very corn-like flavor to it, but it mellowed quickly and became a very nice lite-like beer. My mom, who is pretty much solely a Miller Lite drinker enjoyed it, thought she did say it was very different form Miller Lite. She's always up for trying a sample of whatever we have around, but this one she said she'd actually enjoy having around.

I'm brewing two more batches in the near future. Mash water is heating now for one, and the other will be next weekend. I'm making slight variations to the recipe, and have high hopes of it turning out well for my first "experimentation" of a known recipe.

Thumbs up for a good recipe!

So I brewed a batch of this on weds and stored it in 2, 5 gallon carboys at a friends house. We checked on it today only to find the airlocks clogged with foamy yeast solution. They had overflowed a little bit onto the carboys. We cleaned out the airlocks and put them back. Is it normal for there to be this much build up? Will the beer be compromised because of this? Any advice would be awesome, Thanks!

You need a blow off tube. Get to a brewshop and buy the cap that goes on the carboy and will take the airlock and tube. Run the tube into a bottle of water. If the airlock gets clogged the gas will escape through the blow off tube. Simple!! Your beer should be fine....Relax

You can also attach a tube to the stem pipe in your airlock and run it to a bottle of H2O

Do you have 5 gallons of wort in a 5 gallon carboy?

Just cracked open a bottle of a batch that I brewed up with 1 oz of cascade and dryhopped with 1 oz of cascade as well. I used notty and fermented at 60 for 1 month. Its crystal clear, crisp and the hop bite and nose are perfect. Reminds me of a hoppy pilsner.

If you havent tried this recipe with cascade you are really missing out. I may cut back on the dry hop next time but after brewing this recipe several times i feel the cascade version has come out the best:rockin:

Right on, thanks for the tip. I'll be swapping out the air lock caps asap. Just was wondering if it was common for it to happen or not. Anybody try dry hopping with this recipe? I have some whole cascades I picked this summer that I might throw in one of the carboys.

PapaRib said:

Right on, thanks for the tip. I'll be swapping out the air lock caps asap. Just was wondering if it was common for it to happen or not. Anybody try dry hopping with this recipe? I have some whole cascades I picked this summer that I might throw in one of the carboys.

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cascade hops are wonderful for this recipe both as bittering and dry hops

Hey all, I was planning on brewing this beer soon and was curious about the minute rice; It has to be minute rice because the rice has been processed to make the starches readily available, correct? So regular, un-processed rice would need to be cooked or something first?

Minute rice or flaked rice from your LHBS. Minute rice is the cheap and simple way to go.

Hello again! I will be bottling this beer in a couple days here and I was just wondering if there was a certain priming sugar you guys would recommend for this brew?

Corn sugar is the pretty standard priming sugar.

So, I picked up some 'rice flour' at the store. I figured I could use it for something, someday... That was a year ago and it's just taking up valuable real estate in my cabinet. Curious to see if anybody has tried this recipe using rice flour?

jiggs_casey said:

So, I picked up some 'rice flour' at the store. I figured I could use it for something, someday... That was a year ago and it's just taking up valuable real estate in my cabinet. Curious to see if anybody has tried this recipe using rice flour?

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I wouldn't use anything that is the consistency of flour.

Minute rice is much too affordable and readily available not to use. I even use the generic brand. Flour in beer will cause massive headaches.

Thinking of making this again but with lager yeast and some hop changes because of what I have on hand.

Same grain bill % for a 5.5 gallon batch and similar IBUs (give or take 2-3)

Looking at
1/2 oz Saaz (5.5%) @ 60 minutes for ~10ibus
1/3 oz Casc (7.1%) @ 15 minutes for ~4ibus for some added complexity

I'm still wondering what yeast to use for a lager. I want something to finish in the the .006-.008 range that is also a good clearing yeast. I have loved your recipes and I'm looking forward to making another of your beers.

Hey all,

I was curious; why is it important for this brew to stay in the primary? Or is it just that it is unimportant to rack it into the secondary?

I brewed this puppy 10 days ago and its fairly cloudy still (some grain got into the boil). I expect it to stay this way unless I rack it and add some gelatin; I have no preference however for the taste should be the same with or without the gelatin. Just wondering!

Thanks!

Kurtamous said:

Hey all,

I was curious; why is it important for this brew to stay in the primary? Or is it just that it is unimportant to rack it into the secondary?

I brewed this puppy 10 days ago and its fairly cloudy still (some grain got into the boil). I expect it to stay this way unless I rack it and add some gelatin; I have no preference however for the taste should be the same with or without the gelatin. Just wondering!

Thanks!

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Now days I let my kegs act as the clearing vessel (secondary). Without opening the whole secondary debate, you will find that a light ABV beer like this clears very quickly when racked to a clearing vessel and hit with some gelatin. True...a slightly cloudy beer should not taste different...but a visually appealing (crystal clear) beer helps complete the package for a well brewed example.

Ah, Thanks BierMuncher, you cleared matters up for me! *symbol crash*

Widened my perspective and increased my understanding of the secondary; Thanks again!

I loved the version of this I did with Golden Promise and Cascade hops. Thinking I may brew another batch this weekend with Citra. Can't decide if I want to do all Citra or maybe some Simcoe or something else too.

Currently consuming a version of this brew that was started 20 days ago with a pound of toasted victory malt, and it is quite delicious, as was the original recipe which I kicked the keg on a few weeks ago. This will definitely be a staple we keep around - maybe start making some 10 gal batches of it to keep the kegs full and the drinkers happy.

Hey guys

So, I brewed this 14 days ago and just racked it to the secondary yesterday with some gelatin to clear. I added half a tablespoon to some warm water and threw that in the carboy before siphoning in the brew.

I was curious about how long it would take to clear, the brew is lookin' like orange soda right now! =P

Here's the first day after brewing it and yesterday after racking it into the secondary:

Yesterday:



First day:

Just placed an order for the ingredients and American Lager yeast. Going to try and make this into a more flavorful American Style lager.

Kurtamous: That's looking pretty darn clear already. It's always hard to tell what a pint will look like when looking at the entire carboy. It's almost like comparing apples to oranges. I bet a pint of that stuff will look like BMC. 2+ weeks in the secondary will do wonders, but if you aren't satisfied you can always wait longer.

BucksPA said:

Kurtamous: That's looking pretty darn clear already. It's always hard to tell what a pint will look like when looking at the entire carboy. It's almost like comparing apples to oranges. I bet a pint of that stuff will look like BMC. 2+ weeks in the secondary will do wonders, but if you aren't satisfied you can always wait longer.

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Yep. That top quartile looks pretty darn clear to me too. The color of beer in a carboy will always be substantially darker than in a pint glass.

BM, thanks for getting me into all grain brewing! I'm a newbie on a lot of this stuff. I started homebrewing about a year ago and when I saw this recipe I decided to give it a shot. Needless to say, I've had a few hiccups here and there, but I'm on my third go around with this and it's only getting better. I've had a few of those "you made this?" comments. I think it's the beer itself. . .it's very close to a lager and similar to what the BMC'ers like. Has anyone tried brewing this with S05 and then a batch with Kolsch? I'm curious as to how the flavor's would compare.

I'm about to brew this with a Kölsch yeast today actually. Though I think I may put in a bit of Carapils as I'm doing this as a PM and thought it might just add a wee touch of flavor beyond the scope of the OG recipe.

BootsyFlanootsy said:

I'm about to brew this with a Kölsch yeast today actually. Though I think I may put in a bit of Carapils as I'm doing this as a PM and thought it might just add a wee touch of flavor beyond the scope of the OG recipe.

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Carapils isn't really much for flavor. You'll be getting better head retention, though. If you're wanting to boost flavor, go for just a tad of one of the higher kilned malts like vienna, munich, victory, biscuit...

Is the corn flake the same as maze? My lhbs only had maze. Btw what does the rice do in this recipe...just help clear the beer more?

IPAAAA said:

Is the corn flake the same as maze? My lhbs only had maze. Btw what does the rice do in this recipe...just help clear the beer more?

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flaked corn and flaked maze are the same thing. also the rice adds more fermentable sugars without adding much flavor or body to the mash.