Caramel cream ale?

Williams 728
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.
I must be missing something. I just read through all 20 pages of this post again, and I can't find any reference to Cheese using Maker’s Mark in either of the original recipe’s yet, above, he stated that he’s never made it without the bourbon. Did I miss something obvious here? I mean, I love Maker’s Mark and would gladly use it but I’m just confused as h@ll as to where this recipe change originated??? Cheese…please help me figure out what’s going on here… :confused:
 
Ya, props and (eventual) brew to the jeep fan (I know what your name means, but I keep wanting to call you Ollie...).

Hey Bird- any more thoughts on how to do the choc? I don't even want all that much bitterness in it- just enough to keep it from gagging you.

Debittered is a good idea. What do I do as far as actual chocolate flavor?
 
Green and Dumb said:
I must be missing something. I just read through all 20 pages of this post again, and I can't find any reference to Cheese using Maker’s Mark in either of the original recipe’s yet, above, he stated that he’s never made it without the bourbon. Did I miss something obvious here? I mean, I love Maker’s Mark and would gladly use it but I’m just confused as h@ll as to where this recipe change originated??? Cheese…please help me figure out what’s going on here… :confused:
Click to expand...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=82836&postcount=7

version 2 used bourbon. I got the idea because I was using bourbon vanilla.
 
P funky said:
Hey Bird- any more thoughts on how to do the choc? I don't even want all that much bitterness in it- just enough to keep it from gagging you.

Debittered is a good idea. What do I do as far as actual chocolate flavor?
Click to expand...

You can use some actual chocolate. Baker's chocolate, very low in oils. You'll have to get the sweetness up with lactose and/or your splenda. I'd be temped to put a little unmalted wheat in there to get some additional head retention, the stout has a small head (I didn't use much priming sugar) but it could use a little more.

You'll also want to use some chocolate malt in there, it doesn't really taste like chocolate but it kinda *suggests* some chocolate flavor.

As to the bitterness, don't worry about flavor or aroma hops, just bittering. Ifyou do anything on the flavor-hop side, I'd do something kind of earthy. Personally, my first though when I stuck my nose in a bad of Kent Goldings was that they smelled a bit like bitter chocolate, you might think about a small amount of those or something else kinda earthy at 30 minutes. But then again, I like me some hops. :D

EDIT: I might even think about some flaked oats in here, as well.
 
P funky said:
Debittered is a good idea. What do I do as far as actual chocolate flavor?
Click to expand...

The Miller I posted about uses cacao nibs. It has a very smooth chocolate flavor. I can't drink a lot of them, but the two I had last night were delicious.
 
Hopfan said:
Slightly off topic, but I made my own vanilla extract using a 750 bottle of Smirnoff that I already had (I suppose it's fairly cheap at Costco) and mexican vanilla beans from Vanilla.com ($7.50 for 3 beans) There's a thread here somewhere that gives the technique for doing this. It smells great and tastes better than the bottled stuff you get at the store. I'm guessing because the ingredients are better than the mass produced stuff which I assume uses a cheaper form of vanilla. And, since I have a 750 of extract, my wife is bottling some of it to use in Christmas gift packs of homemade cookie ingredients.

Here's the link: http://www.vanilla.com/cgi-bin/store/search.cgi?session=1&subcategory=Beans&category=Culinary
Click to expand...

FWIW my Vanillla was made with Dark Rum in the same fashion.
 
olllllo said:
FWIW my Vanillla was made with Dark Rum in the same fashion.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know someone that did that as well, but I didnt want to add any hint of molasses to the extract. I was afraid it would overpower my recipes because I like to push the vanilla envelope.
 
Well, i racked the CCA last night and was encouraged by the taste. It has a bit of distance to cover w/ the yeast still but I can now get a pretty good flavor profile. I am thinking of only throwing in an ounce of "vanilla" cognac and the lactose at the finish. It is pretty sweet, though, so I'm also tempted to leave the cognac out entirely. The hop profile is righ on. I didn't want them to dissapear.

I think I'm definitely going to keg condition this puppy, though. I don't think forcing will do anything for it but I'd ultimately like it on tap - with sweet beers like this I like to be able to have one and not worry about busting an entire liter out!

Shooting for the end of the month for kegging and aging for another month or so. Maybe pour off some growlers around the holidays.....should be a good "civilian" beer for the homebrew-skeptical to try!
 
Ok I finally got around to brewing it today. We'll see how it turns out, I followed the boom boom version except I cut the flavor hops in half (0.5 oz). I wanted it to be on the sweet side without hop flavor overpowering the sweetness. I kept the aroma hops at 1 oz, since I figured a nice hop aroma would go well with the vanilla.

Of course I had a total brain fart and didn't up convert the DME to LME amounts, so I ended up in my primary at 1.032 SG... Whoops. I boiled another 1lb light DME and 1 lb light LME with some water in a stock pot, cooled it to 80 degrees and mixed it in with the stuff in the primary. That brought me up to 1.047 which is a bit better. Hopefully that didn't take too much time and open me up to infection... And now I've got 6 gallons in the primary, so I'll have to keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't blow...

I also didn't make a starter in time, I used "EasYeast" American Ale yeast. Never used their yeast before but the bottle said it had 4 million viable yeast cells and didn't need a starter for a standard 5 gallon batch of beer.

Lots of unknowns, hopefully it turns out ok :)
 
debtman7 said:
I also didn't make a starter in time, I used "EasYeast" American Ale yeast. Never used their yeast before but the bottle said it had 4 million viable yeast cells and didn't need a starter for a standard 5 gallon batch of beer.
Click to expand...
I have some questions on this bearing in mind I've only done about 6 batches now. From what I've read and been listening to on The Brewing Network it sounds like that many yeast cells would attenuate quickly making what would normally be a dry beer. Is that correct? Does it matter that much in this recipe considering all the flavors and un-fermentable sugards that are in it?

Jason
 
iloman said:
I have some questions on this bearing in mind I've only done about 6 batches now. From what I've read and been listening to on The Brewing Network it sounds like that many yeast cells would attenuate quickly making what would normally be a dry beer. Is that correct? Does it matter that much in this recipe considering all the flavors and un-fermentable sugards that are in it?

Jason
Click to expand...

Smack Packs contain <dr evil voice>100 billion</dr evil> cells. 4 million isn't a lot. You'll end up with a few trillion cells after everythings done fermenting.
 
Chairman Cheyco said:
tag humor=geek

someone who thinks tag humor is funny=also geek


I guess that's me... :cross:
Click to expand...

You'll also notice my sloppy coding. I kinda left the tag open.
PHP: 
<?php echo "<div class=dr_evil_voice>100 billion</div>"; ?>

CSS is so much more efficient.
 
Cheesefood said:
You'll also notice my sloppy coding. I kinda left the tag open.
PHP: 
<?php echo "<div class=dr_evil_voice>100 billion</div>"; ?>

CSS is so much more efficient.
Click to expand...


Well I didn't want to embarrass you, but since you brought it up...

:cross: :mug:
 
Cheesefood said:
Smack Packs contain <dr evil voice>100 billion</dr evil> cells. 4 million isn't a lot. You'll end up with a few trillion cells after everythings done fermenting.
Click to expand...

Those are the big activator packets, the standard wyeast smack packs say '15-18 billion when fully activated', so I'd guess that when you buy the dormant pack, it's something significantly less than 15-18 billion. I got mine wrong, it had 4 billion cells, not million, but I still would have liked to have done a starter. Oh well, I pitched the yeast at 4PM and it was bubbling away the next morning, so probably good enough. Plus since I had nearly 6 gallons in a 6.5 gallon fermenter, it's probably good that the yeast got off to a slow start...
 
What an amazing thread. This sounds like a great brew. Gonna do it once I move my primary to secondary. Think I'll do version #1. Should be ready in time for Christmas consumption.
 
Yes I also want to throw this together for x-mas.

And pages ago, my fiance loves the smell when I brew. And loves the beer too! My (male) roommate on the other hand came out and said, "Uaghhh, GOSH, That's what stinks!" later that brew session, "I'm a miller lite man myself". Oui. hah

Oh well. To each his own I guess.

I can't wait to try this one. I have only kegged but I think I would like to bottle some of this brew too. A little off topic but if I were to bottle into some growlers, and use the coopers drops, would simply adding 5 (1-12oz, 64/12=5.3) drops do the trick? Or would I be messing with a little too much sugar/beer and end up with some rather large bottle bombs?

I wanted to do this to experiment a little with some spices, beyond that I think I would use some 12/20 ouncers.

Then again doing that much volume I guess I could just batch prime.

This should be moved to a new category, "Eternal and Illustrious Threads"
 
pstagaman said:
What an amazing thread. This sounds like a great brew. Gonna do it once I move my primary to secondary. Think I'll do version #1. Should be ready in time for Christmas consumption.
Click to expand...

ANother brewer in S.N.I.Z.Z.L.E. territory! Woo hoo!!!
 
I don't really have much to add to this thread... It's just that... well, I read the entire thread... I have a lot of time invested here (your tax dollars at work ;) ) I felt like after that much reading, darn it, I deserve a post, don't I? Doesnt take much to make me happy... a twenty page thread on Carmel Cream Beer... Yep, that'll work :)

This one is definately in line for one of my first brews in the new place. Prolly right after my very first brew, which I hope will be a ten gallon BigBeer/SmallBeer batch deal.

Cheers!
 
Put this in primary last night at about 2:00 in the morn. didnt start brewing till 8:30.

about 4 today it was bubbling about once every 30 seconds. went to dinner got home about 9:30 and the airlock is rocking. one bubble/second. huge krausen..............................can not wait to transfer and taste.
 
Brewed this one tonight... the day after thanksgiving... Smelled delicious the whole way through.

Cant wait for this one!
 
Brewing right this moment... more or less (I made a few adaptations given the peculiar tastes of my audience... but I'll post my version later).

HOWEVER- I forgot to buy the lactose, and the stores are (one would imagine) closed. If I don't put the lactose in the boil... how big of a deal is that? Can I put it in at primary? Secondary?

Please advise-

Your vanilla brother-
The Cap'n
 
You can add the lactose at bottling, just boil first in the water with your priming sugar. It's unfermentable so this is a fine time to add it.
 
I brewed up a batch last Sunday and checked on it before I went to bed. The airlock had blown off and the foam was running down the carboy. Cleaned it up and put on a blow off tube. It is still bubbling about 5 bubles a minute 5 days later.
 
I just brewed it as well. I don't know if the plain wheat DME listed in the v1.0 recipe is the same as Bavarian Wheat DME, but that was all they had and what we used. It smelled good with the crystal and extra light, but that Bavarian wheat smelled rough after putting it in.

Never new DME was so darn foamy...after pouring 6 pounds into 6.5-7 gallons wort, I had about 8 or 9 inches of foam..almost had an all foam boil over in a 14 gal pot!!

Tasted good during hydrometer. Forget what it 'should' be, but I got about 1.050 or so with it. I tasted no vanilla at all in my hydrometer test, so I think that'll be $5 saved if I try this again. Will update to see how it turns out.
 
I just kegged it today. I had added 1/2 C lactose and 2 oz vanilla after cooling and tasted it a week ago. We ended up adding 6 more ounces of vanilla extract (8 total) along with 2 ounces of bourbon and another 1/2 C lactose. That's a ton of vanilla, but I think it's pretty balanced. With 4 ounces total I could barely taste the vanilla. I also added an old vanilla bean I had around, split, and let it sit another week in the fermentor to mellow out. Tasted today and it was great, nice vanilla taste and the bourbon really adds a nice dimension, but you can still taste the malt and hops. I'm pleased with the end result, even though I added a lot of vanilla... It tastes like how I wanted the AB Vanilla Bourbon Cask Ale to taste :) Next time I think I'll do some oak chips as well...
 
I just bottled my second keg of this... still a great brew...!!!! one of the most asked for out of the beers I've brewed... people get upset when they come over and I'm out of the caramel cream ale...

debtman, thanks for leaving the amount of additives you've used... I was thinking of adding some oak chips and bourbon to the next batch...
 
Well, bottling now...

And it seems to have been hit by some kind of diacetyl bomb... eep.
It's like opening a bag of popcorn...

Oh well. It's...interesting. I'll add some vanilla extract (going to get it now), and sweeten it up some more, and maybe the diacetyl will disappear in the bottle...somehow?

Oh well.
 
Ha!

Actually, the buttery taste has now basically disappeared... not sure AT ALL what happened, but there you go. There may have been something in my baster? ("wine thief"?) Now it's just caramel-vanilla-y, and very sweet. Made for SWMBO. You may not like it anyway, I'll send you a sweet potato ale.

I'll be sending around a variety of beers, I think :)
 
Yeah, seriously. He turned on the suck hard-core. In fact, given his performance LAST week, the only acceptable description is one that I borrow from Spaceballs. He's "gone from suck to blow!!!"

Congrats though- Ron Dayne is an unearthly beast.
 
gp125racer said:
So I noticed in the orig. recipe it states:

Malts
3 pounds extra light DME
3 pounds light wheat DME
1 pound Caramel Caramel 60L (steeped for 45 minutes)

Hops
1oz Cascade for bittering (60 minutes)
.5oz Saaz for flavor (20 minutes)
.5 oz Tettnang for aroma (end of boil)

Yeast
WLP008 East Coast Ale

Extras
1 tsp Irish Moss (15 minutes)
A blend of:
4oz Lactose, disolved in 2 cups of boiled water
2-3 oz real vanilla extract
Added to the secondary and stirred.

A second version (the BOILING RIGHT NOW version) states that youre susposed to use >1cup lactose and 1 1/4 cup LIGHT DME during the priming stage.

Is this the 'preferred' method or shall I stay with the version above?

-=gp125racer=-
Click to expand...

The second version is less sweet and has less vanilla. I liked both versions and created the second in response to those who thought the original was too sweet.
 
D'oh! Opened one too early - I "lost track of time" (okay, I ran out of patience) and opened it at 10 days in the bottle. No head, a bit of carbonation. (sigh).

It is, however, going to be incredible. IN-credible. Very, very drinkable, and yummy.
 
I've had my batch aging for over a month now and it hit the taps this weekend. first day out i get a call from my brother that the majesty of the Carmel Cream has re-affirmed (his) SWMBO's faith in the homebrew. Some would take this a s knock on the local product (a commonly leveled SWMBO complaint) but I think it's testament to this recipe's longevity. Truly, truly a great beer.

FTR, I went with 1 cup lactose and no vanilla anything at bottling/kegging. It is simply excellent.
 
Fiery Sword said:
I've had my batch aging for over a month now and it hit the taps this weekend. first day out i get a call from my brother that the majesty of the Carmel Cream has re-affirmed (his) SWMBO's faith in the homebrew. Some would take this a s knock on the local product (a commonly leveled SWMBO complaint) but I think it's testament to this recipe's longevity. Truly, truly a great beer.

FTR, I went with 1 cup lactose and no vanilla anything at bottling/kegging. It is simply excellent.
Click to expand...

No vanilla at all?

Glad everyone liked it.
 
Cheesefood said:
No vanilla at all?
Click to expand...
My thoughts at bottling/kegging (I bottled half and keg/forced half) were that if I could taste vanilla I was not going to add extract or the cognac/vanilla mix - if the distinct tast of vanilla wasn't present...the I'd spike it with vanilla. Next time around (and this will happen soon) I think I'd go with a bit of the vanilla cognac but as-is w/o sweetning it is still excellent. I probably aged it out for longer than required, but the clarity of the end result is more than i would have thought for the half-wheat base.

I can't say it enough - this is a great, great beer.
 

Similar threads

Ali01
Some malty ale recipes?
Replies
12
Views
1K
jrgtr42
jrgtr42
F
what grains do i need to turn my straw pilsner into a golden lager
Replies
7
Views
763
hottpeper13
H
Architect-Dave
Leftover Magnum, Saaz, and Horizon hops
Replies
5
Views
698
pvtpublic
pvtpublic
Zippy123
Feedback on recipe to split mash for two different beers
Replies
2
Views
434
Zippy123
Zippy123
tracer bullet
Characterizing Crystal Malts - Caramel, Burnt Sugar, Raisins vs Lovibond?
Replies
7
Views
1K
tracer bullet
tracer bullet

Latest posts

Back
Top