Cream Ale Cream of Three Crops (Cream Ale)

So if you read my earlier posts you know I brewed this and severely under pitched it with some White labs 001 - Honesty in hindsight the wort may have been a wee bit too hot! Anyway...

It ended up attenuating all the way down to a FG 0f 1.003 damn. Its 3 or 4 weeks old and tastes like pure alcohol and wet corn. I'm obviously NOT blaming the recipe here, my water is as hard as hell and its obviously becoming an issue as I brew lighter and lighter beers. I'm about to call this one a total loss and pour it out. Any reason why I shouldn't?

HangLoose said:

So if you read my earlier posts you know I brewed this and severely under pitched it with some White labs 001 - Honesty in hindsight the wort may have been a wee bit too hot! Anyway...

It ended up attenuating all the way down to a FG 0f 1.003 damn. Its 3 or 4 weeks old and tastes like pure alcohol and wet corn. I'm obviously NOT blaming the recipe here, my water is as hard as hell and its obviously becoming an issue as I brew lighter and lighter beers. I'm about to call this one a total loss and pour it out. Any reason why I shouldn't?

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Stash it away and give it several months.

In the meantime...this recipe is still calling out to you to brew it well.

Get yourself a mountain of yeast, make sure you're pitching at below 70 and fermenting as low as you can. Maybe cut the corn in half and make up the difference with table sugar.

Pick yerself up...dust yerself off..and give it another go. :rockin:

You can count on it. This was my first time using either corn or rice adjuncts and I really did (still don't) know what to expect. I just made a nice light ale using a more typical recipe and 1lb of corn and it seems like its turning out really nice despite a warm ferment (I wasn't expecting such a hot weekend).

Anyway I will nail this one...

i think i posted this earlier, but my efficiency surprised me on this batch and similar to hayabusa, i ended up with a 6.2% ABV cream o' three crops. tasted it for the fist time tonight, damn tasty and it's deceiving... i'm serving it at a party next weekend, debauchery will ensue.

it has a belgian strong ale note to it, the esters i ended up with gave it a nice flavor.

I brewed something similar. 9# Pale 2row, 2#flaked maize 1# carapils, pitched Northwest at right temps, fermented at 65*. Has been over two weeks and the thing is still fermenting out. Took about 1 day lag to start and has not stopped since. It is clearing out little by little but for an ale it is taking its sweet ol' time.

This one has got me worried a bit - don't know why it just does.

Should I be?

WW

RDWHAHB
it will be fine

Willie3 said:

I brewed something similar. 9# Pale 2row, 2#flaked maize 1# carapils, pitched Northwest at right temps, fermented at 65*. Has been over two weeks and the thing is still fermenting out. Took about 1 day lag to start and has not stopped since. It is clearing out little by little but for an ale it is taking its sweet ol' time.

This one has got me worried a bit - don't know why it just does.

Should I be?

WW

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mine was fermenting for about 3 weeks or more. Not sure why . I added about .5 lb of sugar. I just kegged it yesterday after 5 weeks on primary. I can taste a little bit of alcohol bite. I hope it will be okay. Overall, I am really astonished at how light it taste.

I served this at our 3rd annual Cinco de Mayo party this past weekend and things couldn't have gone better. It was highly praised by both my craft brew drinking friends AS WELL AS my BMC-only drinkers.
This is a great "please-all" beer and will be the first on tap in the new kegerator. Biermuncher should be commended on a great job.

Making this on Saturday and have one question. A friend of mine mentioned that Rice Hulls would have the same effect as Minute Rice, is this true?

Thanks,

cp

CPooley4 said:

Making this on Saturday and have one question. A friend of mine mentioned that Rice Hulls would have the same effect as Minute Rice, is this true?

Thanks,

cp

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No. Rice hulls add nothing to a beer. They are only used as a filtration adjunct in your mash tun to prevent stuck sparges.

Rice hulls are just useless shells of the rice.

Thanks BM, much appreciated.

Would a starter of 3 cups of water and 1# of light DME be a good choice with the Safale 05 yeast?

If not, could you suggest something more appropriate.

Thanks,

cp

Why bother with a starter, The Safale can be just sprinkled on the wort, or rehydrate first. It has no problem with this beer.

bdavanza said:

Why bother with a starter, The Safale can be just sprinkled on the wort, or rehydrate first. It has no problem with this beer.

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This will be my first all grain batch and a friend of mine recommended using a starter. The 3 cups of water and 1# of DME was his suggestion.

Would the 1# of DME effect the flavor of the beer at all if used?

Thanks,

cp

Dumb question disclaimer: I've never used corn. Is flaked corn the exact same thing as flaked maize?

Thanks.

Pangea

Pangea said:

Dumb question disclaimer: I've never used corn. Is flaked corn the exact same thing as flaked maize?

Thanks.

Pangea

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Yes, it is.

CPooley4 said:

This will be my first all grain batch and a friend of mine recommended using a starter. The 3 cups of water and 1# of DME was his suggestion.

Would the 1# of DME effect the flavor of the beer at all if used?

Thanks,

cp

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starsan scissors
cut open nottingham
sprinkle while singing an irish fighting song.

starter's need not apply for this beer and your pitching rates on dry yeast is much higher than the liquid tubes... plenty of cells to eat, fart and eat some more.


also 1 # of DME to 3-cups of water would be an OG of about 1.230...... not where you want to be for a starter for sure. The advice here is much more sound than that of your buddy.

Brewing tomorrow and hoping for one last bit of advice. I'll be doing a 5 gallon batch and wondering what my water volume should be for the boil and what my strike water temp should be for the infusion assuming a 152 degree target.

Thanks ahead of time.

cp

CPooley4 said:

Brewing tomorrow and hoping for one last bit of advice. I'll be doing a 5 gallon batch and wondering what my water volume should be for the boil and what my strike water temp should be for the infusion assuming a 152 degree target.

Thanks ahead of time.

cp

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Standard 1.5 quarts per pound of grain.

My normal calculation is to take my desired mash temp, add the grain weight, add 5 degrees.

So a 10 pound grist at a target of 152?
152
+10
+5
=167 degree strike temp.

Now that's my setup. Keep some boiling and cold water nearby to tweak the mash temp once you dough in.

It'll be just fine regardless. Good luck. We're all counting on you.

CPooley4 said:

This will be my first all grain batch and a friend of mine recommended using a starter. The 3 cups of water and 1# of DME was his suggestion.

Would the 1# of DME effect the flavor of the beer at all if used?

Thanks,

cp

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CP
All Grain vs Extract would have no effect on the needs of your yeast. One packet of dry yeast is plenty good for this recipe. 1lb of DME is a lot for 3 cups of water, regardless. That's pretty thick.
Maybe he's referring to having the DME ready in case your efficiency sucks? In that case it's not a starter for the yeast, it's making up for predicted low sugar/gravity. That 1lb will make about 9 gravity points in a 5 gallon batch.
-Ben

Thanks everyone. I'll be getting this started at about 2pm central time. Really looking forward to it. Have a great weekend.

cp

OK, so apparently he told me about 1 cup or less of DME for the 3 cups of water. Whoops. I figured that was probably the case since he's been brewing for about 15 years and seems to really know what he's talking about. He's coming over to help me today since I'm a first timer. Should be lots of fun.

CPooley4 said:

OK, so apparently he told me about 1 cup or less of DME for the 3 cups of water. Whoops. I figured that was probably the case since he's been brewing for about 15 years and seems to really know what he's talking about. He's coming over to help me today since I'm a first timer. Should be lots of fun.

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That means you have an extra pair of hands to take pics and post em up here.

CPooley4 said:

Thanks everyone. I'll be getting this started at about 2pm central time. Really looking forward to it. Have a great weekend.

cp

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good luck! :rockin:

I kegged 10 gallon of this on Sunday. Just tried some today. SWMBO loves it. It definately taste like a beer most folks should like. I made the mistake of adding a bit of sugar. Otherwise I think it taste fine, just a bit higher abv than suggested. I should've followed the recipe. thanks for the recipe

Anybody else notice this getting more full-flavored as it ages? Normally I expect the opposite to be true.

Maybe I'm just becoming more sensitive to the subtleties as I drink some each day...

PintOfBitter said:

Anybody else notice this getting more full-flavored as it ages?...

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JesseRC said:

...I made the mistake of adding a bit of sugar. Otherwise I think it taste fine, just a bit higher abv than suggested. I should've followed the recipe. thanks for the recipe

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I've made some recent versions of this where I cut the corn and rice by 1/2 pound each and subbed in table sugar. Dried it out very nicely. SWMBO prefers it as it is quite a bit lighter tasting.

ok finally broke down and bought the ingredients and this will be my first all grain. question for everyone. i have two coolers. a 5 gallon and a 12 gallon square cooler. will this grain bill fit in the 5 gallon? or should i convert the 12gallon? BTW this is for a 10 gallon batch

Everything went well for the most part. Our temp was a bit low in the Mash and we were a bit low on OG, but overall a great day where I learned quite a bit. Have some great airlock activity already this morning.

One question, the recipe calls for OG of 1.040 but when I ran it through a calc with the ingredients it was coming back at about 1.055. We went with 6#'s Pale, 2#'s Corn, 1# Minute Rice, and 1# Crystal Pale. Anyone else seeing this discrepancy? We ended up at about 1.037 for what it's worth.

Thanks,

cp

CPooley4 said:

One question, the recipe calls for OG of 1.040 but when I ran it through a calc with the ingredients it was coming back at about 1.055. We went with 6#'s Pale, 2#'s Corn, 1# Minute Rice, and 1# Crystal Pale. Anyone else seeing this discrepancy? We ended up at about 1.037 for what it's worth.

Thanks,

cp

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You have to set your efficiency on the brewing calculators to what your system produces.From the ingredients you used and your OG it looks like you got around 52% efficiency.Your calculator is probably set at 75% efficiency by default which = the 1.055OG you came up with.

RCCOLA said:

You have to set your efficiency on the brewing calculators to what your system produces.From the ingredients you used and your OG it looks like you got around 52% efficiency.Your calculator is probably set at 75% efficiency by default which = the 1.055OG you came up with.

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I see where I'm confused. BM's recipe was for 11.5 gallons and I was assuming it was a 10 gallon recipe. Guess we were a bit more off than I thought, but maybe that's a good thing since we'll be closer to his recipe than if we had hit 75%.

BierMuncher said:

Minute rice is precooked which means it is pre-gelatinized.

Raw rice won't work.

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I have some Enriched Long Grain Parboiled Rice, is that the same as minute rice?

In ProMash when I cut the recipe down to 5.5 gallons I get this:
5.5# Pale Malt
2# Flaked Maize
.5# Rice

Is that enough rice?

Thanks

pen25 said:

ok finally broke down and bought the ingredients and this will be my first all grain. question for everyone. i have two coolers. a 5 gallon and a 12 gallon square cooler. will this grain bill fit in the 5 gallon? or should i convert the 12gallon? BTW this is for a 10 gallon batch

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With a 10 gallon grain bill you would need 4.5 gallons of mash water at 1.25 qts per pound of grain. So I would say definitely not by the time you add your grains.

Go with the 12 gallon cooler and use 1.5 qts/gallon.

thats what i thought yambor. looks like this is what ill be doing this week is converting the 12 gallon and prep for the thursday brew

MgMt_Home_Brew said:

I have some Enriched Long Grain Parboiled Rice, is that the same as minute rice?

In ProMash when I cut the recipe down to 5.5 gallons I get this:
5.5# Pale Malt
2# Flaked Maize
.5# Rice

Is that enough rice?

Thanks

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No, parboiled rice will not work. Parboiled isn't pre-gelatinized b/c it is not precooked. If you're wondering about rice, if it doesn't say "minute rice" clearly on the box, it's not what you're looking for.

Good luck!!!

cimirie said:

No, parboiled rice will not work. Parboiled isn't pre-gelatinized b/c it is not precooked. If you're wondering about rice, if it doesn't say "minute rice" clearly on the box, it's not what you're looking for.

Good luck!!!

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Thanks Cimirie. I ended up going to my LHBS and talking to the woman there. She said basically the same thing about needing it pre-gelatinized. She said they usually carry some rice that was pre-gelatinized but they were out of it.

I brewed this yesterday with basically everything cut in half and I think I hit 78% efficiency which is good for me but I expected better since others who made this seemed to get pretty good efficiency.

However I hit an OG of 1.044 which I was really happy with since this was my 4th OG batch and I have been getting pretty good efficiency the last batch or two.

My hydro sample was the lightest color it has ever been so I am looking forward to kegging and tapping this one.

Thanks BM for the recipe!

I brewed this one week ago today. Like others I received an effeciency that made me do a double take. It came to an effeciency of 91.1% which was extremely satisfying because I have been struggling with effeciency since starting AG. This was my fourth AG and my lowest grain bill. I mashed for 90 minutes like the recipe states and I lautered twice with the grist reaching ~160F. What surprised me with the effeciency was that I did not hit my mash temperature and was in fact 5 degrees colder than the recipe states. I also use ph 5.2, iodine testing, a very fine crush and 10-15 minutes with spage water allowing any additional conversion.

Regardless, it's fermenting great and definately has a very clean malt taste which is what Biermuncher stated. Should turn out very nice and I'm anxious to give it a try. Thanks for the great recipe!

I checked mine yesterday when i got home from work and it looked like the krauzen had already come and gone. This suprised me since I checked it in the morning too and there was just little spots on the top.

I know this is a pretty like beer so I expected it to be a quick fermentation but I didn't expect it to rip through over night.

I didn't take a gravity reading because I plan on leaving it for a couple weeks anyway but I am just curious. How fast did your krauzen come and go?

It took longer than your 10 hours at work. I think mine lasted about 2 days so not too long. You mentioned in an earlier post that you cut everything in half... Stupid question, but did you do a 2.5 gallon batch? I ask because that's what I did which may have something to do with the difference in krausen timing.

In any case, I wouldn't worry too much and by the sounds of it, you aren't. It's a fairly "fool-proof" brew (if there is such a thing). Enjoy it!

cimirie said:

It took longer than your 10 hours at work. I think mine lasted about 2 days so not too long. You mentioned in an earlier post that you cut everything in half... Stupid question, but did you do a 2.5 gallon batch? I ask because that's what I did which may have something to do with the difference in krausen timing.

In any case, I wouldn't worry too much and by the sounds of it, you aren't. It's a fairly "fool-proof" brew (if there is such a thing). Enjoy it!

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I did cut everything in half but I did a 5 gallon batch so I am guessing that your OG was significantly higher than 1.044?

Your right I am not worried I was just suprised thats all. Maybe I will take a reading this weekend and see where I am at. It was funny though cause I checked it when I got home and it looked like it was still trying to kick up but then I noticed the ring around the bucket from the krauzen. So it had to have fermented out pretty quickly.

I did have some issues with my mash temp being a little lower so I added some H20 to bring it back up and then it didn't stay up. So my mash could have been a little thin and a couple degrees lower than desired.

Time will tell I guess