Cream Ale Cream of Three Crops (Cream Ale)

I'm excited for this one. I went with 7lbs 2 row,6 oz prisoner malt, 4 oz dextrose, and a box of instant rice, pitched my starter from my washed Nottingham. I'll let you folks know how it goes.

Targeting this feller as my next brew.

2 questions.

How will 1056 fare? I've got a washed batch in the fridge I'd like to use if possible.

Sub for Willamette? LHBS doesn't have it.

Not sure on the yeast, I swapped Fuggles for the Willamette.

Toppers15 said:

Sub for Willamette? LHBS doesn't have it.

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I'd say Golding, or any of the noble hops or Mount Hood.

Really, you can probably use any just about anything if you don't overdo it. Have fun with it. New Zealand hops might be interesting.

Toppers15 said:

Targeting this feller as my next brew.

2 questions.

How will 1056 fare? I've got a washed batch in the fridge I'd like to use if possible.

Sub for Willamette? LHBS doesn't have it.

Click to expand...

I used 1056 for the last several batches and it came out just fine. I have also used Liberty hops in some of my cream ales and find this substitution very tasty.

Thinking of cutting down on the corn and rice maybe by half. Any suggestions to how much corn sugar to use to make up the difference? When would you add the corn sugar after the mash in the kettle before boil or in the P fermentor?

ok- need some help. first couple batches turned out great. Now I am getting a kinda bitter, maybe soapy off flavor and don't know where it would be coming from. The batch im drinking now I hit all my numbers. it started out drinking kinda ok but had gotten stronger bitter (not pleasant) flavors.
Any suggestions?

Been about a week since I last tried my latest batch. Aceteldehyde is less pronounced. I'm hoping another 1-2 weeks and it'll have faded completely.

Been about a week since I last tried my latest batch. Aceteldehyde is less pronounced. I'm hoping another 1-2 weeks and it'll have faded completely.

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I've done this one about half a dozen times. All with variations. my latest.....
this time used instant corn grits rather than the flaked corn.

The amounts of rice and corn are a very scientific ratio based on the size of the boxes at the grocery store. And the yeast, well it was getting old old so figured it would love a little taste of this. I usually go with s-05.

7 lbs 2-row
1.75 lbs minute rice
2.5 lbs corn instant grits
1 oz cascade (7.0%) first wort hop
wyeast english ale yeast. at 65 degrees

hit a nice 1.054 OG and it's happily bubbling away.

paulshe said:

I've done this one about half a dozen times. All with variations. my latest.....
this time used instant corn grits rather than the flaked corn.

The amounts of rice and corn are a very scientific ratio based on the size of the boxes at the grocery store. And the yeast, well it was getting old old so figured it would love a little taste of this. I usually go with s-05.

7 lbs 2-row
1.75 lbs minute rice
2.5 lbs corn instant grits
1 oz cascade (7.0%) first wort hop
wyeast english ale yeast. at 65 degrees

hit a nice 1.054 OG and it's happily bubbling away.

Click to expand...

Nice! I may try this!

I keep coming back to this recipe as well. 10 gallon batch today:

12 lbs US 2-row
4 lb instant grits
1 lb minute rice

1 oz Willamette
1 oz Crystal

US-05 on a quart starter made from the extra wort I canned the last time I made this.

Bulk 2-row: ~ $12.00
Minute rice: ~ $1.50
Grits: ~ $3.00

Hops & yeast: $8.77

Total ingredient cost: ~$25 for 10 gallons.

I brewed this on 02/04/16. Scaled it for a 6 gallon batch at 75% efficiency according to the percentages of the original recipe except with a designed OG of 1.044 instead of 1.040. 1/2 gallon lost from kettle to carboy and 1/2 gallon lost from carboy to keg netted me 5 gallons.

I had crazy high efficiency (for me). OG was 1.050. FG was 1.012. I made this for the GF who is an avid bud light bottle fan. I must admit, that even though i love craft beers, I also like Budweiser draft. It is cheap at the local bar ($5 for a 64 oz pitcher) and I like to drink.

Kegged on it 02/17/16. Fermentation was about done on 02/11/16. Started drinking it after 5 or 6 days in the keg. She really hit her stride after 9 days in the keg. Was crystal clear after about 12 days. I just floated the keg today.

From grain, to glass, to gone in 4 weeks. That is a first for me. Will definitely make this again.

Even though I made it for the GF, I think she only had 6 pints out of the keg. Ahaha

treacheroustexan said:

Here it is. Fermented on blackberries. SO TASTY. I'm in love. Still a very light beer, but you get a nice blackberry flavor come through. Looks like a light pink in the light. This is also only 3 days in the bottle... I couldn't wait. I'l try another bottle in a week and see how it is.

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How did you rack it on Blackberries?

Would love to know your process, amounts, etc. Never tried this before and would like to give it a shot.

Thanks.

Jiffster said:

How did you rack it on Blackberries?

Would love to know your process, amounts, etc. Never tried this before and would like to give it a shot.

Thanks.

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I just brewed the 5 gallons, and then used 1 can of blackberry pie filling in a 1 gallon carboy and racked on top of that. I then kegged the other 4 gallons of the original.

Hey Folks,
I want to brew a 5.5 gallon batch of this. Can you tell me if this scaled recipe looks correct please?

Batch Size: 5.50 gal


Ingredients:
------------
5.72 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
1.87 lb Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM)
.47 lb Minute Rice (1.0 SRM)

.47 oz Willamette [5.20%] (60 min)
.47 oz Crystal [3.50%] (60 min)

It looks very precise

z-bob said:

It looks very precise

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I know, I knew it was kind of nerdy when I listed it..... I thought I would put it exactly as the numbers worked out and then get advice on rounding (or not) along with any other advice. I'm a newby so I don't have the confidence to make critical decisions like that yet.

You know that could mean the difference between 17 extra grains of barley vs 31. Might change my efficiency from 75% to 75.00001%.

I was curious if anyone had any thoughts on this slightly modified version of this beer. I strayed a little bit from the recipe and just went for it, so all I can do now is sit back, RDWHAHB, but I would be curious to hear any speculation/suggestions about this recipe:

6.5 gal batch:

Mashed @ 152° for 90 min:
7# 2 row
1.2# flaked corn
1.2# flaked rice

Then added first wort hops (around 185°) for a 45 minute boil:
1 oz Willamette
1 oz crystal

Hop stand 3 hours, transferred to carboy to cool, us-05 pitched the following morning.

Thanks for any input/advice.

Brewing a 5.5 gallon batch this weekend for a group of Bud Light drinkers on April 9. My first time.

I batch sparge. Should my sparge water temp be ~ 185F?

Jiffster said:

Brewing a 5.5 gallon batch this weekend for a group of Bud Light drinkers on April 9. My first time.

I batch sparge. Should my sparge water temp be ~ 185F?

Click to expand...

What ever it takes to get the GRAIN BED to 170°F Don't go over.

Jiffster said:

Brewing a 5.5 gallon batch this weekend for a group of Bud Light drinkers on April 9. My first time.

I batch sparge. Should my sparge water temp be ~ 185F?

Click to expand...

Sounds way too hot.
Beersmith usually has about 168 for the sparge water, if I remember correctly.

So nobody has any input on using flaked rice instead of instant rice, or first wort hopping this brew with extra hops and a shorter boil?

pukexxr said:

So nobody has any input on using flaked rice instead of instant rice, or first wort hopping this brew with extra hops and a shorter boil?

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I use flaked rice as well as first wort hops with a 60 min boil. Been great to me so far after 8 brew sessions of this.

msa8967 said:

I use flaked rice as well as first wort hops with a 60 min boil. Been great to me so far after 8 brew sessions of this.

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Excellent. Was hoping that someone else had tried something similar. I will report back re: how the extra hops/shorter boil affects flavor but have no homebrew cream ale reference points as of yet.

If I understood Brewers Friend Brewhouse Efficiency Calculator correctly, I got 84% mash efficiency.

First time using my own grain mill. I think it worked pretty good.

Just gathering up my grain bill and getting my hops together to finally brew this today, after I plugged in the recipe into tastybrew recipe calculator to check the numbers I couldn't figure out why the IBU's were in the 40's!!! Then I remembered I'm making a 5 gallon batch and forgot to half the hops...good thing I checked before brewing or this would've been some kind of cream IPA mashup.

Folks. I'm a newbie (3 batches in) and want to try my hand at cold crashing and gelatin to get this sucker as clear as glass. I also want to do it in primary as I've read it's do-able. Here is what I think I know - someone please correct me if/where wrong.

1. Going to let it sit in primary for 14 days (regardless of if the fermentation is done after 5 days - bulk aging.
2. On day 15 I'm going to put it in my beer fridge at 38 deg.
3. On day 17 I'm going to add gelatin (1/2 tsp to a 1/2 pint of water, rest 15, slowly heat (but don't boil), pitch)
4. On day 20 rack to bottling bucket and bottle.

Please confirm the above looks good - also am I going to have a problem with carb? Will it just take longer?

Toppers15 said:

Folks. I'm a newbie (3 batches in) and want to try my hand at cold crashing and gelatin to get this sucker as clear as glass. I also want to do it in primary as I've read it's do-able. Here is what I think I know - someone please correct me if/where wrong.

1. Going to let it sit in primary for 14 days (regardless of if the fermentation is done after 5 days - bulk aging.
2. On day 15 I'm going to put it in my beer fridge at 38 deg.
3. On day 17 I'm going to add gelatin (1/2 tsp to a 1/2 pint of water, rest 15, slowly heat (but don't boil), pitch)
4. On day 20 rack to bottling bucket and bottle.

Please confirm the above looks good - also am I going to have a problem with carb? Will it just take longer?

Click to expand...

In my experiences, this beer clears up just fine in the fridge pretty quickly without any gelatin.

treacheroustexan said:

In my experiences, this beer clears up just fine in the fridge pretty quickly without any gelatin.

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I second that. Mine is super clear and I skipped the gelatin.

So cold crash for 3-4 days at the end and call it good?

BierMuncher said:

Cream Ale .



View attachment 5581





Batch Size: 11.50 gal

Boil Size: 14.26 gal

Estimated OG: 1.040 SG

Estimated Color: 2.9 SRM

Estimated IBU: 14.3 IBU

Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %

Boil Time: 90 Minutes



Ingredients:

------------

12.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)

4.00 lb Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM)

1.00 lb Minute Rice (1.0 SRM)



1.00 oz Willamette [5.20%] (60 min)

1.00 oz Crystal [3.50%] (60 min)

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Silly question:
Does the minute rice need to be white or brown rice?
Does it matter ?

I wouldn't imagine it should make a difference. If anything brown rice would add a touch of colour. But tbh I'm only speculating.

Generally plain rice is used in brewing. What about fragrant rice, like Jasmine rice? (I know it needs to be cooked first, but that's easy to do)

Just an update. Some may remember I brewed this and then fermented a gallon on blackberries (guess it hasn't been that long). Scored a 39 at a local competition this past weekend with it.

treacheroustexan said:

I just brewed the 5 gallons, and then used 1 can of blackberry pie filling in a 1 gallon carboy and racked on top of that. I then kegged the other 4 gallons of the original.

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Doing this with raspberry. Did you cold crash at any point? How was the clarity of the end product?

Jiffster said:

Brewing a 5.5 gallon batch this weekend for a group of Bud Light drinkers on April 9. My first time.

I batch sparge. Should my sparge water temp be ~ 185F?

Click to expand...

Word is that as you hit 180 you risk tannin extraction that will impact the flavor of your beer. I never go beyond 170-175, just don't see the reason.

treacheroustexan said:

Just an update. Some may remember I brewed this and then fermented a gallon on blackberries (guess it hasn't been that long). Scored a 39 at a local competition this past weekend with it.

Click to expand...

Congrats! (must have been the GF!! )