Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer Hella Vanilla Cream Ale

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Jul 17, 2012
Messages
3,225
Reaction score
691
Location
Eagleville
Recipe Type
All Grain
Yeast
WLP080 cream ale
Yeast Starter
No
Batch Size (Gallons)
5
Original Gravity
1.061
Final Gravity
1.013
Boiling Time (Minutes)
60
IBU
18
Color
5.6
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
8 days @ 65F
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
8 days @65F
Tasting Notes
Was a little sharp first week in keg. After that its a very smooth drinker
I brewed this a couple times and every time it came out great.

Original Gravity: 1.061 SG (16.0 Brix)
Final Gravity: 1.013 SG (8.3 Brix)


Volume Before Boil: 6.00 US gals
Volume After Boil: 5.50 US gals
Volume Transferred: 5.25 US gals
Water Added To Dilute: 0.0 qts
Volume At Pitching: 5.25 US gals
Volume Of Finished Beer: 5.00 US gals

Total Water Required: 6.96 US gals

Ingredients:

6lb 0oz of US 2-Row Malt
1lb 0oz of US Caramel 20L Malt
1lb 0oz of US Flaked Corn/Maize
2lb 0oz of Extract - Light Dried Malt Extract

Add the following hops at the times given.
1.00 oz of German Tettnang (60 min )
0.50 oz of German Tettnang (30 min )
0.50 oz of German Tettnang (15 Min )
0.25 oz of Irish

6 whole split lengthwise vanilla beans soaked in vodka

Mash at 155F for 60minutes @ 1.5qts/LB
Sparged with 170F water 10minutes then collected runnings to get pre-boil volume.
Boil the wort for a total of 60 minutes.

Soaked 6vanilla beans split lengthwise in small container in vodka when beer went into primary. Just used enough vodka to just submerge the beans in a small container

After Primary Fermentation I added the vanilla flavored vodka to the secondary.

I've tried this recipe with vanilla extract but found much better flavor from using actual beans over the extracts.

Beer is slightly strong for a cream ale but is a very easy drinking beer. I don't enough notice the alcohol flavor in the finished product.

If anyone tries this let me know what you think.
I will definitely be brewing this again as everyone loves it and I can't manage to keep a keg if it around for long.
 
6 whole split lengthwise vanilla beans soaked in vodka


Soaked 6vanilla beans split lengthwise in small container in vodka when beer went into primary. Just used enough vodka to just submerge the beans in a small container

After Primary Fermentation I added the vanilla flavored vodka to the secondary.

Do you add the vanilla during the primary or during the secondary? Also, how long do you soak the vanilla and vodka for prior to adding it?

EDIT: I read more carefully - now I understand. The vanilla vodka goes in the secondary, and it soaks from the time of primary until you move the beer to secondary :)

So my new question is: Do you add the vodka + beans to secondary, or just the strained vodka?

I love vanilla, and I'll be brewing this in just a few days... I'm using 1056 as it is the best sub I have access too. Otherwise, it'll the be same. I'm excited!
 
At what point of the boil did you add the DME? This sounds like an awesome recipe, looking forward to brewing it.
 
I added it in at the beginning of the boil. Came out a little darker than intended but was a very easy drinker color aside. Could always add 1/3 of the DME to start and then add the rest as a late addition around 15minutes left in the boil to minimize darkening from boiling the extract a full hour. But either way its been pretty tasty all the times I've brewer it.
 
Great, I may try to split it up and keep the color light. It sounds good either way, though. Thanks!
 
I brewed an extract version of this recipe a few weeks ago and I will be ready to bottle it this week.

It is REALLY smooth, not overly sweet, and the vanilla flavour is not overpowering at all. (At least at this point)

OG came in at 1.062 and I should finish with 1.015 for 6.3%.
 
Sakashi said:
I brewed an extract version of this recipe a few weeks ago and I will be ready to bottle it this week.

It is REALLY smooth, not overly sweet, and the vanilla flavour is not overpowering at all. (At least at this point)

OG came in at 1.062 and I should finish with 1.015 for 6.3%.

Was just drinking a couple of the last few bottles of this the other day. The vanilla flavor still is evident in the final product and it had been in the bottle for months with little to no flavor degradation. I think you'll enjoy the end result.
 
GilSwillBasementBrews said:
Was just drinking a couple of the last few bottles of this the other day. The vanilla flavor still is evident in the final product and it had been in the bottle for months with little to no flavor degradation. I think you'll enjoy the end result.

Awesome.... I can't wait!!!!!!
 
Hey. I'm relatively new to brewing. Is there a way to substitute grain for the DME? If so, what type of grain, and what would the weight difference be? Thanks!
 
VachonBrewCo said:
Hey. I'm relatively new to brewing. Is there a way to substitute grain for the DME? If so, what type of grain, and what would the weight difference be? Thanks!
I would substitute 3LBS of 2 row for the 2lbs of DME I only used DME in the original recipe as at the time I didn't have a pot large enough to mash that much grain and boil the full volume.
 
GilSwillBasementBrews said:
I would substitute 3LBS of 2 row for the 2lbs of DME

I only used DME in the original recipe as at the time I didn't have a pot large enough to mash and boil that much grain.

Gotcha! Thanks for the quick response. I read it just in time. In heading to my LHBS in about 10 minutes. It'll be a good brew day today. I'll let you know how it goes!
 
I'm so excited to try this beer. The brew went very smooth. Even substituting the extra 2-row for the DME, the beer was fairly dark. Not too bad though. It has a very rich almost reddish tinge to it. Idk if its just my process, but this beer seems to have a low-ish efficiency. I followed the water measurements listed, but I was under four gallons end boil. I added a bit of water (about .25 gal) to bring up to an even four gallons. I also added lactose at 15 mins. Should be interesting. Thanks for the recipe!
 
Ok, so I'm about a week into the primary, and the beer smells very sour. I was very careful with the sanitation process, so I'm not sure what's going on. Does this beer often have a sour smell when it ferments? I also added lactose to the boil which the recipe does not call for. I'm hoping after some time it will fix itself. Not sure if I should even pitch the vanilla vodka yet.
 
VachonBrewCo said:
Ok, so I'm about a week into the primary, and the beer smells very sour. I was very careful with the sanitation process, so I'm not sure what's going on. Does this beer often have a sour smell when it ferments? I also added lactose to the boil which the recipe does not call for. I'm hoping after some time it will fix itself. Not sure if I should even pitch the vanilla vodka yet.

I don't recall it smelling sour when I was fermenting it. I would wait till its done fermenting and give it a taste and see if it tastes sour before adding the vanilla to it.
 
Well, it kills me to say, we had to dump our beer. It sounds like a great recipe. Hopefully well try it again sometime.
 
VachonBrewCo said:
Well, it kills me to say, we had to dump our beer. It sounds like a great recipe. Hopefully well try it again sometime.

Sorry to hear that. Wish I could point you in a direction where it went wrong. Hope next time works out better for you as it is an enjoyable brew.
 
J_P said:
Where is the extract versions recipe?

Sorry just saw this.

If you want to do an extract version of this you could sub out the majority of the 2 row for light DME you would still need to mash/steep a pound of 2-row with the caramel and corn to give the corn the enzymes to convert the starches. So if you were going to do extract I'd mash the 3lbs of grain in a gallon of 150F water for an hour stirring occasionally then remove grains, add additional water for boil and continue as normal from OP


1lb 0oz of US 2-Row Malt
1lb 0oz of US Caramel 20L Malt
1lb 0oz of US Flaked Corn/Maize
6lb 0oz of Extract - Light Dried Malt Extract
 
I have the ingredients coming in the mail right now. I hope it works for me, it looks delicious
 
This was my first cream ale, and I gotta say, I dug it. tasty beer, I'm working to get a light fruit flavor into it to compliment the vanilla in the next go round. thank you VERY much.

Jeff:mug:
 
This was my first cream ale, and I gotta say, I dug it. tasty beer, I'm working to get a light fruit flavor into it to compliment the vanilla in the next go round. thank you VERY much.

Jeff:mug:


I also am looking to add some fruit, I was wondering how your batch went and what you added? Thanks!


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew
 
Blueberry would be good. I have mixed half this vanilla cream ale with a saranac blueberry with positive results. I don't really like blueberries but it was decent.


Sent from somewhere to someone
 
Cool, I think I am going to try strawberry. I'll report back as to how it turns out


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
Strawberries turned out freakin amazing. I call it Strawberries and Cream ale. Just a slight vanilla cream finish with tons of strawberry all the way through. I used 5 lbs frozen strawberries, crushed them up frozen with mallet and added when I went in to secondary. I left it on the strawberries for 7 days and racked into tertiary for another week. I did a one off growler on raspberries. It was good, but a little tart. I'll be making this one again and will probably split a batch to try different fruits. The best compliment I got was from my wife, who didn't believe me at first that I had brewed this!


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew
 
Strawberries turned out freakin amazing. I call it Strawberries and Cream ale. Just a slight vanilla cream finish with tons of strawberry all the way through. I used 5 lbs frozen strawberries, crushed them up frozen with mallet and added when I went in to secondary. I left it on the strawberries for 7 days and racked into tertiary for another week. I did a one off growler on raspberries. It was good, but a little tart. I'll be making this one again and will probably split a batch to try different fruits. The best compliment I got was from my wife, who didn't believe me at first that I had brewed this!


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew


That's awesome. I will have to give that a try. Thanks for posting back with a follow up. Glad everything turned out great for you.


Sent from somewhere to someone
 
I took this recipe to my LHBS and he suggested that I should add 1/2# lactose sugar with 15 minutes left in the boil. I am hesitant to try this. Especially after seeing the one case where the guy brewed a sour batch and he added lactose. Any opinions. Also neither lhbs around here has the WLP cream ale yeast in the recipe. One recommended sa-05 while the other a smack pack of Kolsh. Any advice before I start on this brew would be appreciated.
 
I took this recipe to my LHBS and he suggested that I should add 1/2# lactose sugar with 15 minutes left in the boil. I am hesitant to try this. Especially after seeing the one case where the guy brewed a sour batch and he added lactose. Any opinions. Also neither lhbs around here has the WLP cream ale yeast in the recipe. One recommended sa-05 while the other a smack pack of Kolsh. Any advice before I start on this brew would be appreciated.


I didn't think the recipe needed the lactose. But it would add to the mouthfeel of the beer. But again I didn't think it was lacking. Not sure if that was the cause of the sourness or not. If they didn't have the WLP cream ale yeast. I'm assuming they also didn't have the wyeast 1007 cream ale either. If my choices were kolsch or the us05 I think I'd go with the kolsch yeast. I think the attenuative properties of the us05 would eat through any residual sugars and leave a thinner albeit higher ABV beer than desired. Let me know what you think if you wind up giving this a shot. I'm always looking for feedback good or otherwise. :cheers:


Sent from somewhere to someone
 
Thank you very much Gil for the recipe and the advice. I will post back when I start drinking this.
 
So I used the 2565 Kolsh and skipped the lactose. Ended up with a nice Creamy Ale. OG 1.050 FG 1.010. Tastes delicious hint of Vanilla is nice and not too sweet.

Thanks again Gill. Letting it clear up a bit in the keg right now. Should be ready for the weekend!

:rockin:
 
okay guys this will be my second all grain batch, got everything for this weekend and I can't wait !!!!! Thanks for the recipe.....

P.S. my first batch was a five gallon Yuengling Porter clone that I added pumpkin spice to the secondary.... Kegged 1 week later and now keg is empty 3 weeks out!!!! :mug: This batch will be 10 gallons !!!!
Have a great weekend....... :drunk:
 
My Keg of this was kicked in less than a week. Many people really liked it.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top