8.5% ABV Company Cream Ale

I put together my first cream ale--well, my first light SRM beer ever, and just racked that golden beauty off to a secondary. The FG indicates that this one is going to be a around 8-8.5 ABV , so this is my biggest beer ever as well.

Well, to the point, I am a bit concerned that with that much alcohol in such a light beer, the beer being so dry will taste far to hot and bitter. When I drank the hydrometer sample, it tasted like a bit of both. It started at 1.066 and ended up at 1.011. At least I know that the bitterness will fade over time.

Have any of your brewed up big light beers before? How did the results turn out? Approximately how long did you have to let it age before it hit the "sweet spot." If you want my recipe, you can hit my brewblog ( from my signature ).

[EDIT: OG is 1.066 not 1.064 ]

When I do the math, I get 6.9% ABV. Still a bigger beer, but not 8%. You had some serious attenuation on your yeast- 82%!

It will age nicely, and "mellow" a bit so it won't be so hot tasting. 1.011 isn't really all that dry- so it will be better later on. If you think it's too hot and bitter, though, some dry hopping might be nice if you need to balance it a bit.

OK.. thanks from doing the math.. I just eyeballed the potential alchohol scale on my hydrometer. Yeah.. the yeast really did their job this time. I just used a pack of properly rehydrated Munton's dry ale yeast.

You can approximate ABV with the formula (OG - FG) * 131. That gives you about 7.2% ABV.

Your beer will totally be drinkable. The only thing I would worry about is that you might not have enough background flavors. What did you use for grains?

Its pretty simple

6 lbs Pale 2-row
6 lbs Pilsen ( 2-row) malt
1 lbs Flaked Corn ( maize )
1 lbs 2 oz Table Sugar

1 oz Amarillo ( 7.6 AAU ) @ 70 minutes
1 oz Amarillo ( 7.6 AAU ) @ flameout

If I remember right, that was about 20-22 ibu

adx said:

You can approximate ABV with the formula (OG - FG) * 131. That gives you about 7.2% ABV.

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Someone off this site said to use (OG - FG) * 127.5 This is also approx? What is the formula (OG - FG) * X... What is "X"?

:EDIT: just read your latest post. It'll be fine, although only 2oz of hops in this beer.... There are ALOT of hop heads around here that would advise dry hopping with at least 2 oz amarillo in 2nd. I would suggest 1oz amarillo, 1oz willamette, 1oz simcoe and 1oz sorachi ace for starters! Maybe sneak in 1/2 oz chinook, cascade and for giggles crystal. But then again I kinda like hops! Sort of. Ya know. I try to keep it under a pound per 5 gallons.

vasie said:

OK.. thanks from doing the math.. I just eyeballed the potential alchohol scale on my hydrometer. Yeah.. the yeast really did their job this time. I just used a pack of properly rehydrated Munton's dry ale yeast.

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The potential scale on the hydrometer is for wine making. Basically it translates into the amount of alcohol that will be produced if all the sugars are converted into alcohol. For most wines this is the case. However beer is considerably less fermentable so many of those sugars are left in the beer and your alcohol is less than the potential suggests.
I'm not a light beer fan but I don't see alot of flavor in this beer. Only pale base malts and highly fermentable adjuncts. A small amount of late addition hops will help but to me it looks like a high ABV lite beer. Some aging will help to reduce the alcohol heat and some dry hopping will give it some more flavor and aroma.
Craig

Heavy hopping would wreak a Cream Ale. Plenty of IPA recipes out there (see 3CPA).

I'd give it 6-8 weeks.

david_42 said:

Heavy hopping would wreak a Cream Ale. Plenty of IPA recipes out there (see 3CPA).

I'd give it 6-8 weeks.

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david_42,
You are correct, it was my mistake to recommend dry hopping a cream ale. I should just stay out of threads about beer styles I really don't like.

vasie,
Unless you wanted something like an IPA, ignore comments about heavy dry hopping. Too many of us are hop heads. Hot alcohols definitely get better with time. To reduce their appearance keep your fermentation temps towards the low end of the yeasts range next time.

Craig