Cream Ale Cream of Three Crops (Cream Ale)

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[QUO TE=brokendownyota;6237611]The one on the right. It's settled out quite a bit, but still doesn't have any of the gold colour that the bee on the left (just 2-row and Saaz, been there for 3 weeks) has.

Edit to add: It used to be completely the same colour as that grey trub you see at the bottom.[/QUOTE]


I didn't use this recipe, but I made a cream ale that was a little murky in the fermenter. I'll have to pour one to see if it still has any of that. It's not as clear as a blonde I did. Not sure why.
 
catdaddy66 said:
I haven't but will very soon. Can't wait to try it because it's one of my favorite recipes of late. My favorite list is expanding rapidly... Cream of three crops, California common, English brown, etc. I must keep brewing!
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I just ran across that yeast strain and wished I'd know about it before I made this last batch. It would be very interesting to know how a cream ale turns out with a yeast developed specifically for the style.
 
Its a bit of a stray but figured its worth posting. I brewed a variation of this recipe and its the perfect lawnmower!!! I wanted it to be a bit more of a craft effort so I subbed the base malt for Maris Otter and switched the hop additions to 1oz Citra 10mins from flameout. The balance is perfect... faint hop aroma and just enough hop flavor to get a good feel for the strain(though far from my first time using citra) and still has a nice malty corn backbone.

From now on this recipe using MO +1oz of the hops of my choice will be my new go to for experimenting with different hop varieties!!
 
Brewing this as we speak, just finished the mash. almost full volume BIAB. 6 gallon mash water, strike temp at 157. Added grain and it dropped to 140. WTF?! Pulled bag out, and heated water to 154, added grains back. Got to 150. Almost there. Left bag in this time, heated to 152. Finally!

Mashed 65 mintues~. Wrapped in 2 sleeping bags, lost 2 degrees. Sounds good to me.

Getting to boil currently. Have to say the wort is pretty strange looking, only my 2nd light beer so far but it's hazy and grayish yellow. Is this normal? Mostly I do darks; stout, porter, browns. Did BMs centenial ale, and it wasn't this gray/hazy looking. Just a pale yellow.

I'll take some out and take a gravity reading to make sure I got converstion. Maybe the low temp and pulling the bag stopped activity and it's hazy due to all the starch??

Brought to boil, realized I was out of both hops... Subbed fuggles for the willammette and cascade for the crystal.
 
pricelessbrewing said:
Brewing this as we speak, just finished the mash. almost full volume BIAB. 6 gallon mash water, strike temp at 157. Added grain and it dropped to 140. WTF?! Pulled bag out, and heated water to 154, added grains back. Got to 150. Almost there. Left bag in this time, heated to 152. Finally!

Mashed 65 mintues~. Wrapped in 2 sleeping bags, lost 2 degrees. Sounds good to me.

Getting to boil currently. Have to say the wort is pretty strange looking, only my 2nd light beer so far but it's hazy and grayish yellow. Is this normal? Mostly I do darks; stout, porter, browns. Did BMs centenial ale, and it wasn't this gray/hazy looking. Just a pale yellow.

I'll take some out and take a gravity reading to make sure I got converstion. Maybe the low temp and pulling the bag stopped activity and it's hazy due to all the starch??

Brought to boil, realized I was out of both hops... Subbed fuggles for the willammette and cascade for the crystal.
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All the adjuncts make it look like that. No worries. Its light golden and clear when its done
 
Okay cool. Just gave me a wtf did I do wrong moment.
Preboil was @ 1.036 ish, og was @ 1.042~. No idea on the volume really, as my 6g fermenters were full. Split between two 5 gallon buckets, about 3 gal and 2.5 gal roughly. Cooled down to 70 and racked to buckets. Placed in fermenter, I'll pitch tomorrow.
 
pricelessbrewing said:
Okay cool. Just gave me a wtf did I do wrong moment.
Preboil was @ 1.036 ish, og was @ 1.042~. No idea on the volume really, as my 6g fermenters were full. Split between two 5 gallon buckets, about 3 gal and 2.5 gal roughly. Cooled down to 70 and racked to buckets. Placed in fermenter, I'll pitch tomorrow.
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I think youre really gonna like this beer. The base recipe is so solid, it allows for some changes. Its a great beer for BMC drinkers. Very sessionable. But too of good quality to call a lawnmower beer
 
Slightly annoyed I was out of the crystal, but can't wait to give this a try!

Did a rough estimate on the volume. Buckets are 11" interior diameter, and the two volume heights are 6" and 7.5" so roughly 2.5 and 3.1 gallons each respectively. So I may be a slightly over 5.5G but no worries.
 
So I just got done brewing this and it's the cloudiest wort I've ever had. Had anyone else had this issue with this beer? I've never brewed with flaked corn or rice before so I don't know if that's the culprit.
 
Quaffman said:
So I just got done brewing this and it's the cloudiest wort I've ever had. Had anyone else had this issue with this beer? I've never brewed with flaked corn or rice before so I don't know if that's the culprit.
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I did a cream ale with corn, and had the same thing. I think it's the adjuncts. It was gray and cloudy, but cleared perfectly.
 
Oh man... the first 12hrs of fermentation on this beer are UGLY. Looked like I had some horrible infection or something - but now it looks normal with 1.5" of healthy white-ish krausen :D

My efficiency was through the roof with the 90min mash and 30min batch sparge... and my boil got away from me a couple times - so I ended up with 2.5gal of 1.056, rather than 1.040. Oops. I'm hoping to the long and low mash (did 150) will leave this thin and dry, like intended.

Most of you guys wait the standard 2 weeks from primary? I'm planning on hitting this with Gelatin, too.
 
Crosspost with https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/found-fly-fermented-beer-17-days-68f-487067/ Only because I'm super worried and want a response asap.

Brewed cream of 3 crops 17 days ago. Og was good. Volume was a little more than intended. Say 5.9ish gal. Instead of the 5.75 intended

Sat in chest freezer for 17 days now. Opened lid, and found a fly had snuck into the bucket! Little jerk. No pellicle or signs of infection but relatively early.

Know I already bottled it, along with 3 other 5.5gal batches, and realized this one had a much lower fg. All four were 1.012ish. Slightly worried I gave bottle bombs to my friend, it was brewed for their wedding on sept. 20th.

Informed friend, he is going to place in lidded tub tonight. I have 4 of them in my apt, should I open one a day until it's carbed then just pasteurize them all?
 
Can I use flaked rice from my LHBS instead of instant rice? I bought a pound for this recipe and the stuff looks like rice crispy cereal
 
Brewed this for the first time, huge hit. Thanks Biermuncher! ImageUploadedByHome Brew1408842795.842699.jpg


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Brewed this today and in my three years of brewing this was the easiest brew day I've ever had. Not one issue and hit my numbers on the nose. Now I just need it to be three weeks from now so I can taste this thing!
 
brewed this about 6 weeks ago. My first 11 gallon batch. Woohoo. I split it into 2 carboys. One regular, and it's gone... the other one I waited 2 weeks and added 5 pounds of peaches. That was a little over 2 weeks ago. aThe peach flavor is just now coming around, I think. so I'm waiting another week.
 
Just bottled my blonde ale and used wlp080 cream ale yeast and got 6.1% abv! OG was 1.052... That is gonna be a crisp and dry beverage.


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Have brewed this one twice now. Used the WL Cream Ale yeast the first time and a Danstar West Coast ale yeast the second time. I have to say I liked the cream ale yeast better.. Also, for some reason I get a ridiculously high efficiency with this beer. Two weeks in primary and to the keg it goes. This one clears up quickly and is very drinkable after a week or so in the keg.

Thanks for the recipe!
 
Has anyone added small amounts of either crystal malt 10L-20L or carapils to this recipe and liked it enough to do again? I was thinking about using 4 oz of either of these or perhaps both for the next brew.
 
Brewed this July 14 and kegged it July 24. Followed the recipe exactly except I chose to use BRY-97 dry yeast. Coming out of the fermenter and into the keg it smelled awful. Figured I must have screwed up somewhere. After a week in the keg it was better and the funky smell was subsiding. After another week it was tasting and smelling pretty darned good. Just drew a glass this afternoon and it is among the best hot weather beers I've tasted.

Moral to the story: leave it in the fermenter 2 full weeks before kegging. Then be patient. Excellent beer once it has conditioned a bit.
 
Kegged this up yesterday. Weird how it tastes so much like a Budweiser product. Should be a hit at the party in a couple weeks.
 
After 10 days in keg, my over-powered Cream Ale is super delicious. I got way better efficiency and more boil-off than expected, so I hit 1.056 - needed some extra time to mellow out, but now it's pretty damn tasty.

I'm not always in the mood for flavor-country beers, sometimes I just want something light when I'm having dinner or snacking on something excessively salty. I'm having some BMC drinkers over on Friday, for lunch, so we'll see what they have to say about it, and it might be a constant keg-line.
 
SudsyPaul said:
After 10 days in keg, my over-powered Cream Ale is super delicious. I got way better efficiency and more boil-off than expected, so I hit 1.056 - needed some extra time to mellow out, but now it's pretty damn tasty.

I'm not always in the mood for flavor-country beers, sometimes I just want something light when I'm having dinner or snacking on something excessively salty. I'm having some BMC drinkers over on Friday, for lunch, so we'll see what they have to say about it, and it might be a constant keg-line.
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+1 ^^^

I'm going to brew another batch today or tomorrow with no changes. I have 4 taps and this one has earned a semi-permanent home in the #2 tap right next to the cider.
 
I am thinking of moving into making 10 gallon batches of this recipe instead of 5 gallons. Both would be kegged but I want to know if storing this beer in a keg for 3months in a cool spot in the basement would be too long of a time and affect its taste. Anyone have experience with long term storage of this beer?
 
Just tasted this after 1 week in the keg. It's clearing nicely and tastes and smells like sweet corn. Hopefully it's fully carbed and people like it at our party next Sunday. So far so good.
 
I brewed this yesterday. This was my first stab at All Grain. I mashed in my red Rubbermaid 10 gallon cooler using a voile curtain for BIAB. According to brewersfriend.com, my efficiency was 76%. I reckon that's pretty good. I flubbed up by boiling it way too hard and ended up adding back a whole gallon of water to get it up to 2.5 gallons. Live and learn, I guess.... This was the first time that I boiled a half (2.5gallon) batch in my turkey fryer. I'll turn down the flames next time. :) For the most part, I'm happy with how the BIAB/AG process went. I think I'll try mashing in at night and then boiling in the morning to save some time. Can't wait to try this in a few weeks.
 
Mashing overnight is okay in certain circumstances, I've definitely considered it. A low body beer like this, probably fine. One with lots of body, though, I wouldn't suggest that.
 
OhSoHumuLonely said:
Mashing overnight is okay in certain circumstances, I've definitely considered it. A low body beer like this, probably fine. One with lots of body, though, I wouldn't suggest that.
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Thanks for the advice. What's the drawback of leaving it overnight? My current plan is to make a couple of pale/light wheat beers and then a milk stout. Sounds like I would be all right with the wheats, buy maybe not the stout.
 
First tasting of this recipe using the WLP-080 Cream Ale Blend yeast. Very nice. I think this may actually be easier drinking than previous batches with US-05 and BRY-97. (Just my tastes, of course. YMMV).

Harvested enough to use it on several more batches. Fully intend to use it again.
 
Couple of quick questions, why are these style beers called Cream Ales? Whats creamy about it? I know with Irish cream ales that the introduction of nitrogen give them a really creamy look and mouthfeel, but these American cream ales, there's nothing creamy (like lactose or something) in the ingredients, so just wondering why they are called Cream Ale and what exactly is the taste/mouthfeel of them? Never tried one so just curious, and the recipes ive seen look interesting so id like to maybe try one out.
 
Man-O-Leisure said:
Couple of quick questions, why are these style beers called Cream Ales? Whats creamy about it? I know with Irish cream ales that the introduction of nitrogen give them a really creamy look and mouthfeel, but these American cream ales, there's nothing creamy (like lactose or something) in the ingredients, so just wondering why they are called Cream Ale and what exactly is the taste/mouthfeel of them? Never tried one so just curious, and the recipes ive seen look interesting so id like to maybe try one out.
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Brief discussion here about the term's origin, although it's not a simple "somebody said 'cream ale' at this fair in this year".
 
So I found a cream of three crops recipe that I assumed was the same as this one, but used only Hallertau @ 60 min. Anyone made that one purpose or by accident?
 

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