Cream Ale

Starting a Cream Ale from Norther Brewer today. Simple kit, great reviews and quick turn around time. 4 weeks total.




Got the kit.






Looking good



I'd say the yeast is ready.



In its new home. See ya in 2 weeks.

It is great beer. Dangerously tasty. I gave it 2 weeks primary, 2 weeks secondary( my normal routine) then 3 weeks bottle conditioning, tried it after 2 weeks and it was still a little flat.

what temp are you fermenting at?

70-72*

mb82 said:

It is great beer. Dangerously tasty. I gave it 2 weeks primary, 2 weeks secondary( my normal routine) then 3 weeks bottle conditioning, tried it after 2 weeks and it was still a little flat.

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That's what I read about how great the beer is. Thanks for the recommended bottling time. I'm in no hurry and can wait the extra week.

HAREEBROWNBEEST said:

That's what I read about how great the beer is. Thanks for the recommended bottling time. I'm in no hurry and can wait the extra week.

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It was decent after 2 weeks. I had another at the 3 week mark and was like... WOW.

Nice

7 hours later and "it's alive!". Looking real good. I love beer!

Glad to see mine wasn't the only one that looked dark. I just finished my keg of this off, it was good for a simple beer.

MaverickBrew said:

Glad to see mine wasn't the only one that looked dark. I just finished my keg of this off, it was good for a simple beer.

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Yea it's pretty dark compared to the pics they display in their mag. It smells great though, chug, chug, chug!

HAREEBROWNBEEST said:

Yea it's pretty dark compared to the pics they display in their mag. It smells great though, chug, chug, chug!

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Late extract additions are something they don't tell you about in the instructions. Its kind of a "trick" to steep, top off, boil, hop and save the extract for the 20 min mark. It also helps your hop utilization ( theoretically) and you don't get as much Milliard reactions from the heating the extract thus making your beer closer to target color.

Light ME's rarely translate their color after a 60 min boil.

Oh, and this too... If you decide to do this don't do what I always seem to do which is forget about the extract volume and top the kettle off with too much water ( I do full boils) and then wonder why I am low on my OG.

.... One of these days i'll remember

I remember hearing (I think from a podcast) that you don't want to do full late addition with your extract. It had something to do with lower hop utilization in lower density liquids. So they recommended against just boiling your hips in water and leaving your extract for the last 15 mins. They didn't mention steeping grains that I recall, but since they add so little gravity I would think Their impact would be minimal.

They recommended using half your extract for the full boil time and adding the rest at 15 mins to reduce darkening as was previously mentioned. If your are using both dme and lme, they said to add the dme for the full boil and save your lme for the last 15 mins.

Does this sound right? Anyone else remember anything about this? It was a while ago that I heard this bit I think that's what was said. Hope it helps.

Just got this bottled 2.5 weeks ago. Let mine sit in primary for 3 weeks (fermented at 64-65) and then bottled. I've sampled one every few days since bottling and it's awesome to taste it getting smoother and better. I sit down to drink one, don't really notice how quickly I'm drinking it, and next thing I notice, it's gone! A really drinkable beer. Mine looked just like yours darkness-wise and I used their dry yeast (the 05). You're in for a real treat in the next couple of weeks! Enjoy!

So I woke up to this. I cleaned and replaced the bubbler, anything else I should do? Should I leave the bubbler off? It's pretty clean and safe I think in the fridge.

Well I tried to replace the bubbler but that just pissed it off so I left it off for now.

You can make a blow off by using a length of vinyl tubing ( like 3' or so) just larger OD than the ID of your bottle. Heat the end in water after sanitizing it and force it into the bottle. The place the other end in a container filled with starsan.

Sounds like a good summertime brew! I'd like to try brewing this next, but I don't need a kit since I have some items already that I need to use up. I see you used Wyeast 1056. What type of extract, specialty grains, and hops were included in the kit? And how much of each? Also, is that a 5 gal or 6 gal carboy that had a blow off mess?

This is the recipe according to the instructions with the kit (I brewed in early April):

6 lbs of Pilsen LME

Specialty Grains:
.75 lbs Gambrinus Honey Malt
.25 lbs Belgian Biscuit
(iBrewMaster has this as .75 of Honey Malt and .25 of Dingemans Biscuit)

Hops:
1 oz Cluster (60 min)
(iBrewMaster has this as 1 oz Cluster (7.00%))

I would guess that's a 5gal judging from the bottles next to it and the level of beer in the OP. But who knows.

I definitely suggest a blowoff in the future if you're going to be using a carboy for your primary. Personally I like a bucket for the extra headspace, but they have blow outs too. If you only use the S type airlocks, you'll need a big piece of tube to ram into the neck of your carboy, if you get a 3-piece airlock you can get away with a smaller diameter tubing. Just fit it around the up spout of the lock.

Looks great though! I've never made a cream ale, I'll have to look into one.

The NB Cream Ale was my first brew also. Brewed about 3 weeks ago, fermented for two weeks and bottled last weekend.

I'm going to cool one bottle off this weekend (Sunday) and try it. The next weekend (two weeks bottle conditioning), I'll cool a couple more and try it. I'll leave most of them to continue condition for the family reunion near the end of June.

Mine came out a little dark also. I'm glad I started with this one, given the comments above!

Thanks,

I made this last year for the 4th of July. Only difference was I kegged mine. It was a hit and I left with an empty keg. Let it mature and age a bit in the bottles,.. You will not be disappointed.

I recently brewed this kit. It is a really good summer beer, and my wife says it's the best beer I've done so far. Took 2 weeks primary, 2 weeks secondary, 1 week keg conditioning and force carb.

It did turn out about as dark as yours is looking like. Probably since I added all LME before boil.

SeanMcClellan said:

This is the recipe according to the instructions with the kit (I brewed in early April):

6 lbs of Pilsen LME

Specialty Grains:
.75 lbs Gambrinus Honey Malt
.25 lbs Belgian Biscuit
(iBrewMaster has this as .75 of Honey Malt and .25 of Dingemans Biscuit)

Hops:
1 oz Cluster (60 min)
(iBrewMaster has this as 1 oz Cluster (7.00%))

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Sean: How much water did you boil with? And did you add all of the LME at once or save half for the end of the boil?

I'm really interested to find out how it turns out for you. When I was at NB they recommended the Lefse Blonde instead, which I will be bottling this weekend.

Yeah definitely a blow off tube next batch. It is a 5 gallon bottle too. Can't wait to try it, so many great reviews

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Just put another order in for my batch. Im going to try to add some lemon zest. ;-)


Cheers!

tmurph, you should let us know how that goes, sounds tasty. How much zest are you thinking of using? You planning on putting it in the boil or secondary?

DuckiesRevenge said:

tmurph, you should let us know how that goes, sounds tasty. How much zest are you thinking of using? You planning on putting it in the boil or secondary?

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Haven't decided how much yet, but I am leaning towards adding after the boil.


Cheers!

I brewed this same kit a little over a month ago. Carbed it in a keg and just tapped it today. It's amazing...very smooth and taste great. This was my first full boil extract. And If I did everything correctly, this will be my first picture upload.

c8h12n4o3 said:

I brewed this same kit a little over a month ago. Carbed it in a keg and just tapped it today. It's amazing...very smooth and taste great. This was my first full boil extract. And If I did everything correctly, this will be my first picture upload.

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Looks tastee. I'm leaving for Hawaii tomorrow and when I get back in a week it will be time for me to bottle.

Just ordered this same kit from Northern Brewer ant wait to try it

Just brewed one today. After reading these posts, I am looking forward to trying one. First time using a wort chiller and aeration pump. Also, after I finished aerating the wort, putting the fermenter in the cooler, and installing the blow off tube, I noticed the yeast starter was still sitting on the counter. Whoops.

Well I got 18-22oz and a few 12oz bottles all bottled up and getting ripe. I'm going to wait the three weeks that was recommended. I gave 6 of them away to a friend for his 40th. Hope he can wait the three weeks!

Poured a two week old NB Cream Ale today and it was perfect! Great kit.

Made my labels today

That's awesome- I love the labels and the clarity in the picture. Very nice!

Yooper said:

That's awesome- I love the labels and the clarity in the picture. Very nice!

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Thanks, I was going for a mushroom cloud but my son found the peace sign, I thought this was pretty cool.