Any experience with Cream Ales?

[azlane]

I did a search on Brewcraft's Cream Ale kit that I just purchased for my 2nd batch and could not find much. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with this kit? I am not sure I want to do a cream ale for my 2nd batch (1st was a First Born Pale Ale).

I want to stick to an Ale extract kit with steeping at this point and was maybe thinking a lighter colored beer might be popular with my friends.

 

[kevin0]

I'm doing an American cream ale from Brewers best as my first home brew. It's been happily fermenting for about 4 days now. Can't tell you if it's any good at this point but it was a pretty easy recipe to follow. It came with regular ol' hop pellets, so no steeping.

 

[balzern]

I bought an American Cream Ale kit from Northern Brewer. It was friggin' awesome. Everyone loved it and within a week 2 cases were gone....

 

[pvtschultz]

I just brewed up a Cream Ale AG clone tonight so we'll both find out at about the same time.

 

[jaycount]

I am currently bottle conditioning my Brewer's Best cream ale and it's ok. Tasted it at about a week and it was alright. It'll get better with time. Definitely more of a "crowd pleaser" lol

 

[RM-MN]

I bought an American Cream Ale kit from Northern Brewer. It was friggin' awesome. Everyone loved it and within a week 2 cases were gone....

It's too bad that your cream ale was gone so quickly. My cream ale got really good at about the 4th week.

 

[neovox]

I don't have any experience with the particular kit you're talking about, but I've brewed cream ales. If you're trying to introduce friends that generally only drink BMC beers to the beers you're brewing, it's a good way to go. Last year I brewed the Cream of Three Crops recipe posted here on HBT. It was very popular with both the folks who regularly drink my beer and the BMC crowd.

 

[Scooby_Brew]

Any experience with Cream Ales?

1. Pitch the yeast in room temps and leave the beer in room temp for the first 24 hours. This will aid the yeast to multiply before cold fermentation.
2. After first 24 hours, move the beer into cooler temps, 60F or so. Cold fermentation makes for a clean crispy tasting beer.
3. Krausening during primary fermentation. If possible, add more krausen (foamy head from freshly fermenting beer) at the end of primary fermentation. You simply scoop some foam from a new beer and add it to the "old" one.
4. Diacetyl rest. After a week or so in cooler temps, move the beer back into higher, almost room temperatures for 24h. This will help yeast finish the fermentation.
5. Cold crash or filter. If possible, after the fermentation is finished, cold crash the beer in cold temps (35-50F) to clear it up.

PS. Oh, one more thing: when using extract, use 1/2 of the extract in the beginning of boil and 1/2 at the end. This will assure a lighter color beer and avoid the "twang" taste from the extract.

 

[mlyday]

I did the brewers best cream ale, and fermented it around the 56F mark. And it was awesome. I brewed it to introduce some of my BMC friend that homebrew is awesome. They agreed.