Cream Ale Recipe -- Thoughts?

[frank_wood1966]

Hello, I am thinking of making a cream ale and was wondering what your thoughts on the following (scaled to 3GL batch size) recipe:

3.8 lb 2-Row (88.1%)
0.38 lb Honey Malt (8.8%)
0.13 lb Biscuit Malt (3%)
0.5 oz Cluster (60 min)
WYeast 1056 or White Labs WLP001

150 Degree mash for 60 minutes

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Frank

 

[dfhar]

It's going to have a stronger flavor than a traditional cream ale from all of that honey malt. That's more honey malt than I would use, but If you like that, then your grain bill looks fine.

As far as the hops go, I'm not a big fan of cluster because it tastes like a cat litterbox. People don't really use it anymore for good reason. Try Willamette instead.

This is a popular, proven recipe you might want to take a look at:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f62/cream-three-crops-cream-ale-66503/

 

[ericbw]

Cream Ale usually means it is a lager-like ale that's crisp and a little dry. I don't know if it's a "rule," but it ought to have corn or rice in it (they ferment more than barley, which means more alcohol and less body). I would call that recipe a blonde ale (and run with it).

You might consider dropping the biscuit and then swapping a pound of the 2-row for a pound of corn or rice. You'll have less body, which means crisp like a lager. That's IF you're concerned about "is it really a cream ale?"

Depending on your efficiency, you might end up with a low OG. My 3 gallon recipes usually have about 5-5.25 pounds total grain (about 1.045). You've got 4.21.

I've never used honey malt, but I assume that you'd get some honey aroma, which would be interesting.

 

[stpug]

Opinions here:
-Too much honey malt; try 2 oz or none
-I like that amount of biscuit (I use victory, same same)
-I like some corn (grits, flaked, corn meal, etc); maybe 20%
-I like a late addition of hops (noble, noble-ish, cluster even) at 5 or 2 minutes (0.5-1 oz)
-I like a kolsch yeast fermented cool, but any clean/neutral ale strain should suffice

 

[Yooper]

That's more of a blonde ale, than a cream ale. A cream ale is light and crisp, usually with some adjuncts like corn or rice.

I'm not a fan of beers with a sweet undertone, but if that is what you are going for here, it should turn out very well.

 

[falkaveli]

That's the Northern Brewer recipe, I believe.

I actually brewed the extract version (5g - pilsner LME) of that as my second brew ever and it was fantastic. I am a fan of honey malt.

I fermented at 67 deg F and bottle conditioned. I'd stick with that recipe and run with it.

 

[frank_wood1966]

I brewed this Sunday morning. I switched the biscuit for victory malt... Other than that I rolled with it. It's been fermenting for darn near a week at 67 degrees. I'll provide an update as to how it turned out in a few weeks. Thank you all for the suggestions.

 

[falkaveli]

You'll enjoy it!

I actually just had (last Saturday), my buddy brew this (extract) as his first brew ever. It's fermenting now also. Cheers!