Cream Ale Cream of Three Crops (Cream Ale)

I brewed this over the weekend.

I decided to halve the grains and brew two batches.

Made a starter solution and split it between a 3-year-old coopers packet and a Safale-S05 packet both of which started right up.

I grabbed the first clean carboy -- my antique hand-blown one -- and shattered it with hot wort ;(
The remaining 3 gallons of wort went into another carboy and I topped up to 5 gal.

Batch 2 went into a third carboy in its entirety.

Coopers foamed a bit, but never high enough to foul the airlock.
Safale-S05 blew out the airlock and coated the kitchen counter with yeasty goodness.

Can't wait to bottle and try this one!

Due to a new job and move this recipe sat in the 2ndary for 6 weeks and 3 days before bottling. After only 10 days in the bottle carbonation is very good and the taste is wonderful! I really didn't think I would love the taste as much as I do but me and my dad who love budweiser thinkd its the best yet!

Made 10 gallons of this today. Tried to swing it without the rice hulls - learned my lesson there. Can't wait to have some more of this on tap

So I just finished reading all 85 pages of this thread (do I get a medal or something?).

I brewed this on 4-21, had a few problems ... my major issue is I forgot to pre-heat my MLT and after the 90 minute mash my temp dropped 10 degrees to 141F. Any thoughts on how that would affect my beer? Still got 75% efficiency.

Looking forward to trying this brew and may try to brew it correctly again this weekend...

I've spend the better part of my work day reading this thread, it took til post #721 to get some good info on extract or PM version...lol It's killing me that I dont have a complete AG setup!

I'm looking for a 5 to 5.5 batch size, any help with DME amounts and how best to do a partial mash with the flaked rice and corn, would be awesome. I have a 7.5 gal brew pot but no MLT.

Cheers

Just brewed a 10 gallon batch of this! I am excited to try it!

I did a stronger version of this for my buddy's bachelor party, killed a lot of bottles last night for the party. It was a huge hit, perfect for the occasion. It's also ideal for your hair of the dog beer, it sounded appealing even though I was incredibly hung over.

5gal batch, went with 1 pound of instant rice, 1.5 pounds of flaked corn, and 7 pounds of 2-row (clocked in a 5.9%). I threw in an ounce total of cascades as flavor/aroma additions, gives it a nice light hoppiness.



It's great stuff!

bovineblitz said:

I did a stronger version of this for my buddy's bachelor party, killed a lot of bottles last night for the party. It was a huge hit, perfect for the occasion. It's also ideal for your hair of the dog beer, it sounded appealing even though I was incredibly hung over.

5gal batch, went with 1 pound of instant rice, 1.5 pounds of flaked corn, and 7 pounds of 2-row (clocked in a 5.9%). I threw in an ounce total of cascades as flavor/aroma additions, gives it a nice light hoppiness.

It's great stuff!

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I did almost the same thing. .25oz Cascade at 15 and another .25oz at Flameout and with my 87% effeciency I hit 5.8ABV. Also used a lager yeast but I think a little more yeast character would of been better with the cascades.

I love the game over label!

drummerguysteve said:

I love the game over label!

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Yeah I showed that to SWMBO (our wedding is coming up soon) and she was not happy when I said I was putting that on all my wine bottles for the after party.

SwampassJ said:

Yeah I showed that to SWMBO (our wedding is coming up soon) and she was not happy when I said I was putting that on all my wine bottles for the after party.

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Lol nice. If you want to use them here's the images, it should be easy enough to change the text to whatever you need:
http://www.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php...6be192748e3bd11a0ba30be1ec343cde8f5fba96g.jpg

sized into a word document:
http://www.mediafire.com/?rzy87b8anz2mm74

The image is blurry compared to the text when it's blown up on a computer but on a label you can't notice.

Mine has been carbing for about a week and a half and is crystal clear (cold crashed w/ gelatin for a few days).

The only problem I have with it is the color. It is extremely light yellow, rather than the gold I was looking for. My OG was right on. I did go with more rice than was called for though, perhaps this diluted the color a bit.

The important thing, however, is that it tastes great.

This seems like a really dumb question to me, but I'm gonna ask it anyway cause I'd rather ask now then after buying everything...

What makes this an all-grain recipe? Is there anything stopping me from being able to brew this in my cheesecloth biab method? or would I need to just do an extract version? I've always been under the impression that if there are any adjuncts, it's either extract or partial mash. Am I just being too anal about the category this is under, or am I missing something that makes this an all grain recipe?

turtle said:

This seems like a really dumb question to me, but I'm gonna ask it anyway cause I'd rather ask now then after buying everything...

What makes this an all-grain recipe? Is there anything stopping me from being able to brew this in my cheesecloth biab method? or would I need to just do an extract version? I've always been under the impression that if there are any adjuncts, it's either extract or partial mash. Am I just being too anal about the category this is under, or am I missing something that makes this an all grain recipe?

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adjuncts in beer is anything added to a base malt...

my next adjunct change to this recipe is to replace the flaked maze with 2 cans of creamed corn

turtle said:

This seems like a really dumb question to me, but I'm gonna ask it anyway cause I'd rather ask now then after buying everything...

What makes this an all-grain recipe? Is there anything stopping me from being able to brew this in my cheesecloth biab method? or would I need to just do an extract version? I've always been under the impression that if there are any adjuncts, it's either extract or partial mash. Am I just being too anal about the category this is under, or am I missing something that makes this an all grain recipe?

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Your confusing All Malt and all grain. You need at minimum a partial mash to convert the rice and corn and nothing stops you from doing a partial mash. But if the only thing being used is grains and adjuncts that are mashed you're doing grain.

I recently (kinda) took the plunge to all-grain in order to brew this beer and wanted to share my thoughts for others who may be in my shoes. I landed on this thread while looking for a good lawnmower beer. All the positive reviews convinced me I needed to brew a batch of this, however, I had only ever done one partial mash batch and it was mostly a failure. I didn't crush my grains, left them tight in a muslin bag, sparged with cold water, etc, etc. I initially was going to make this a partial mash recipe. Following the rule of 1 lb of base malt (2-row) for each pound of adjunct, you'd be mashing well over half of the grain bill due to the high percentage of corn and rice adjuncts. Once I realized that the "partial mash" was more of a "mostly mash" I decided it was time to roll up my sleeves.

I have been improving my extract brewing and studying up on my all-grain for a couple months now. Having recently bought a 40qt stock pot and having a 48qt cooler on hand, I decided I was ready to give this guy a shot and brew a 5 gallon batch. I used a grain bill similar to what I saw mentioned earlier in the thread:

6 lb 2-row
2 lb Flaked maize
14oz Minute rice (they didn't have 1 lb boxes at the store!)

1 oz Czech Saaz pellets

First off, I don't have a grain mill, so crushing 6 lbs of grain was a problem. I found a thread on the Norther Brewer forums that talked about using your blender. I gave it a shot. I had to "grind" about 2 cups at a time. The grind is far from ideal, leaving lots of fine particles and flour in order to crack all the husks, but it didn't look too bad. Next hurdle, no mash tun.

I had heard about the "Brew in a bag" method, but was a little skeptical about mashing with my grains in a bag due to my prior bad experience with my partial mash. I decided instead to mash in the cooler, then pour the mash through the paint strainer bag into a catch pot, then pour into the brew kettle. I used a 2qt plastic pitcher with a spout to scoop up the mash and carefully pour it through the strainer bag. Obviously the paint strainer allows much larger particles through than a grain bed in a mash tun would. This means there's much more of a possibility of haze and astringent flavor in the finished beer -- only time will tell.

I also don't have a wort chiller (can you tell I'm not an AG brewer yet?) and I typically use an ice bath to cool my extract batches in a smaller kettle. This wasn't an option as my new kettle won't fit in my sink and I can't lug that much hot wort to the bathtub. I let it cool in place until it hit 140 which I considered a safe enough temp to rack into the primary without melting my acrylic racking cane. It worked and I was able to leave all the trub in the bottom of the kettle. I got an O.G. of 1.042 (albeit with a very high adjustment due to the high temp) which corresponds to an efficiency of about 78% -- not too bad for my first AG attempt. Of course I tasted the sample -- it's very subtle with an ever so subtle sweet corn flavor (perhaps some DMS from the longer cooling period?) I sealed the primary, fitted the airlock and let it cool overnight. I pitched a packet of US-05 dry in the morning. Airlock activity was very high later that evening and had already begun to slow by the next morning.

So my advice to the folks who want to ask if this can be done as an extract or partial mash is this: If you're really into homebrewing (why would you be here if you weren't?) take the plunge and make this you first all-grain batch. It's a straightforward beer to make if you understand the brewing process. This was my 5th batch I brewed, so you don't need a ton of experience to get the job done. If you really don't want the hassle of mashing grains, forget about this recipe. The grain bill dictates a lot of AG techniques to be required to make even a partial mash version of this beer. You can make a simple light extract beer by just using light extract, a neutral yeast (US-05, Notty, or even a lager yeast) and go easy on the hops. I'll report back after I've tasted this thing.

I also have done this it's sitting in the primary now at almost 2 weeks. i use the BIAB method and i have to split between two pots because i only have 5 gal ones. I have great success so doing it this way. I just split everything in half between the two pots at about 3.25 gal per pot. I only used 2 lbs of Flaked maize as well also used cascade hops because I didn't have crystal hops. I let my wort cool overnight in the bathtub and never had a problem with doing that as long as the lid is on the pot. Finishing a keg of Centennial Blonde as I am writing now, it was a hit with everyone.

SwampassJ said:

I did almost the same thing. .25oz Cascade at 15 and another .25oz at Flameout and with my 87% effeciency I hit 5.8ABV. Also used a lager yeast but I think a little more yeast character would of been better with the cascades.

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I have the "Game Over" t-shirt and every time I where it my 6 year old daughter asks why I'm not smiling in the picture. I love it.

Hi guys,

LHHS only had 2lbs of flaked corn. So I'm thinking of going with a lb of wheat, an extra pound of flaked rice, and a lb of carapils.

Any thoughts on this? Is that too much carapils? I figured I needed some to compensate for the body lost by the flaked corn. LHHS guy said the flaked corn doesn't add much fermentables.

Thanks for the advice. I'm playing hookey from work tomorrow to brew!

Anybody????

I'm brewing this in the morning and I'm worried the carapils will ruin the crispness of the beer. Ah, I'll leave it out unless I hear back from somebody.

I might dial it back to half a pound or leave it out. The wheat should provide you the head retention you need and there shouldn't be too much body to this beer

I did exactly that. Thanks.

Do you guys add the hops at the start of the boil or when there's 60 minutes left?

Dgonza9 said:

I did exactly that. Thanks.

Do you guys add the hops at the start of the boil or when there's 60 minutes left?

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The answer is in the recipe...

BierMuncher said:

Cream Ale Recipe

1.00 oz Williamette [5.20%] (60 min)
1.00 oz Crystal [3.50%] (60 min)

[/b]

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BigB said:

The answer is in the recipe...

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It is in there. What confused me was the Biermuncher later said that the 90 minute boil gives him better hop utilization. Doesn't that mean he adds the hops at 90 minutes?

Mine are going in at 60, I guess. But I'm curious if someone can explain this "better hop utilization" comment if the hops aren't going in at 90 minutes.

Thanks for responding. Cheers.

I also noticed the comment about better hop utilization. I put my hops in at 90 minutes. Mostly because I'm used to doing 60 minute boils and putting my hops in when the boil starts. But I figure it won't hurt as I'm using a low AA hop in the first place. Hop utilization does increase after 60 minutes, but not very much. I have also read that boiling hops for "too long" can cause vegetable flavors and tannins to be released into the wort. I guess I'll find out if 90 minutes is too long. Perhaps BM could respond whether the 60 minutes noted in the recipe was a typo or not.

I believe the 90 minute boil for better hop utilization involves the mash being boiled longer, which somehow makes it more able to receive the hoppy goodness when you do add them 30 minutes into the boil, the hops should only be boiled 60 minutes per recipe. Obviously there's no reason you can't boil them 90 minutes, you'd just end up with a different end product.

As always, please correct me if I'm wrong.

Dgonza9 said:

What confused me was the Biermuncher later said that the 90 minute boil gives him better hop utilization. Doesn't that mean he adds the hops at 90 minutes?

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Ahhh... gotcha.. I didn't catch that post. The better utilization on the 90 minute boil just means that he gets more IBU's out of the hops by boiling that long. My understanding is that it would be minimal. I haven't heard about getting off flavors from boiling so long, so I can't comment on that. I personally never boil hops longer than 60 minutes.

My version of this was the following:

11.5 lbs pale malt (all I had)
2lbs flaked corn
2lbs flaked rice
1lb wheat
1/2 lb carapils.

1oz Williamette
1oz New Zealand Hallertau

Hit Original gravity dead on. Beer tasted great going into fermenter.

Can't wait to try this.

I'm going to take one of my AHS IPA kits and make this light ale. I have 8 lbs of extra pale extract but if I use the crystal 75L, according to Beer Calcules my color will be too dark, My question is do I need a base malt to steep with my minute rice and instant grits to get conversion? If so can I use less than the pound of crystal or I could mill some bries on morris otter as I have them allready? Also how do you think columbus hopps would be in this at about 16 IBU, I have 4 pound of whole columbus hops I purchased on ebay.

I just put 5 gallons of this in bottles. OG was a little high - 1.052 and the FG finished at 1.010. I did add some extra grain when mashing but now I am getting better efficiency with my BIAB set up. I upped the hops just a little and the FG sample tasted great. This should be a great drinking brew for freinds and family come memorial weekend. Looking foreward to it.

I just realized that the 1oz of New Zealand Hallertau I used has a much higher alpha acid rating than plain old Hallertau. Sample tasted good going into fermenter, but this might come out a little more hopped than planned. LOL. Most of my good brews are happy accidents.

I got s-04 instead of s-05 by mistake. Ok to use?

biggc1 said:

I got s-04 instead of s-05 by mistake. Ok to use?

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It's not completely ideal but if you can keep your temps low enough it should ferment quite clean... otherwise you'll get some fruity esters. I'd shoot for about 60 to be sure.

bovineblitz said:

It's not completely ideal but if you can keep your temps low enough it should ferment quite clean... otherwise you'll get some fruity esters. I'd shoot for about 60 to be sure.

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Also let your mash rest for 75-90 minutes. That longer rest time will get you higher attenuation and get that beer to dry out nicely. I routinely use '04 with great results.

BierMuncher said:

Also let your mash rest for 75-90 minutes. That longer rest time will get you higher attenuation and get that beer to dry out nicely. I routinely use '04 with great results.

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Sounds good thanks. I'm giving it a go Thursday.

For a ten gallon batch would you batch sparge in a couple steps or all at once?

just brewed this up today. I used .5oz willamette, and .5 oz hallerau.

5 gallon batch.

I did my first AG via Deathbrewers method. started my mash way too high, but after about 20 minutes I got it to 152 and left it there. By the end of the 90 minutes it was about 150, so hopefully the first 20 minutes didn't kill everything.

Pitched washed us05, but it was my first attempt at washing, so hopefully it will ferment.

Anyone use anything other than Crystal/Hallertauer for the last addition? I don't have either.

I've used liberty.. It's a good substitute!!