Caramel cream ale?

[FourJ]

Well, this is a decent ale... but there's no way I could drink more than one a day I think! Wow, not sure if I'm lactose intolerant... but this sure makes my stomach rumble!

 

[cdelap]

This sat in secondary for a couple months now tasted good before the extra lactose and vanilla,then I kegged it and effectively made 5 gallons of cough syrup!!! I sure hope the vanilla calms down, I should have gone with my gut and used beans instead of pure extract

I must say if the vanilla calms down with time it will be a great beer.

 

[Mellow77]

I stumbled across this thread while searching for some help in determining the impact of adding real vanilla to a recipe for cream stout. Ahh the power of Google!

71 pages of reading later....this is on the short list of next beers to be tried.

 

[knuckledragger]

Well, this is a decent ale... but there's no way I could drink more than one a day I think! Wow, not sure if I'm lactose intolerant... but this sure makes my stomach rumble!

I agree. I halved the vanilla and lactose additions and it still is very sweet. I suppose its a hit for others but this ale isn't going to be brewed again anytime soon.

 

[hulkavitch]

I just read the entire thread. Excrutiating! This book of a thread is full of people asking the same questions over and over. Cheese must be going mad by now.

1 question for Cheese just to make sure. The 4oz of lactose is that a half cup or by weight. I believe you answered this once, just wanted to make sure (and add to the madness)

I think i will brew the extract v1 with slight mods:

3 pounds extra light DME
3 pounds light wheat DME
1 pound Caramel 60L (steeped for 45 minutes at 150'-165')

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

Yeast
Wyeast German Ale or dennys fav

Extras
1 tsp Irish Moss (10 minutes)
4oz Lactose + 1 cup [email protected] 15 minutes

Secondary: 3-4 whole vanilla beans

Priming*
2-4oz vanilla extra depending on flavor at bottling
1.5 cups light DME

 

[hulkavitch]

So the question....4oz lactose...., 1/2 cup or 4 oz or by volume?

This sounds like a stupid question because volume should only be used for liquids. But the recipe swings back and forth between cups and oz for solid substances (ie dme, lactose ext)

 

[glenn514]

I just ordered ingredients for the original recipe yesterday. I'm looking forward to brewing it...and drinking it!

I am doing the ORIGINAL recipe...is there anything I need to keep in mind as I brew it?

glenn514

 

[hulkavitch]

Screw it I am just going to do 8oz lactose

 

[aristurtle]

Finally got my batch of this on tap. It came out pretty good; the vanilla is slightly stronger than I was looking for but not too far off. I used 1.5 oz of Trader Joe's vanilla extract in the primary and 3.5 oz when kegging. I used corn sugar instead of DME for the keg conditioning. Overall I'm pretty happy with it; it reminds me of Boylan's Cream Soda crossed with beer.

There's almost no head in mine; did this happen to anyone else?

 

[billsquared]

There's almost no head in mine; did this happen to anyone else?

The head on mine was very temperature-sensitive. If it was right out of the fridge, it had practically none; 15 minutes on the counter helped. If yours is kegged, that may not help you much.

 

[humdawg]

Brewing this myself right now, using 3/4 pound of Caramel 40L and 3/4 of Caramel 60L, will also be using 2 vanilla beans in the secondary instead of the extract. I'm going to slit the beans open with a razor blade and scrape the guts out and use that though, I've heard the vanilla bean husk imparts really bad flavors to the beer.

 

[chriscorapi]

This sounds like it will be delicious, me and my father are currently brewing a simple Sam Adams like blend. He used to brew when he was younger and now its our father's day project to get back into it. This is definitely must do!

 

[sathrovarr]

I brewed it and just have tasted it:
The beer came out much more bitter than I had thought it will be, I thought it will be sweeter.
Also the I don't get any of the vanilla taste/aroma from my brew. Is it because I've used pure vanilla extract (Nielsen-Massey)?
I think that if I will brew it again I will lower the hops and raise the vanilla and lactose. I wanted it to be a very lite and drinkable beer that all my friends will like (also the girls that like sweet stuff) and what I got is far from it.

 

[Stevo2569]

I brewed it and just have tasted it:
The beer came out much more bitter than I had thought it will be, I thought it will be sweeter.
Also the I don't get any of the vanilla taste/aroma from my brew. Is it because I've used pure vanilla extract (Nielsen-Massey)?
I think that if I will brew it again I will lower the hops and raise the vanilla and lactose. I wanted it to be a very lite and drinkable beer that all my friends will like (also the girls that like sweet stuff) and what I got is far from it.

Let's see, you want a very lite-sweet beer. Umm. Not possible. Kinda like saying, I like very dry-sweet wines. Vanilla extract will work, but not as good as vanilla bean.

 

[MisterTipsy]

I don't understand how a thread for caramel / vanilla cream ale can have so many posts.

 

[Cheesefood]

I don't understand how a thread for caramel / vanilla cream ale can have so many posts.

Me neither.

 

[Bock_Lesnar]

I'm glad to see Cheese is still around and still on this thread.

So I bottled mine tonight after a few weeks fermenting. I took a couple of gravity readings over that time and, as always, tasted each, and each time I've been nervous about what I tasted. Incredibly sweet but bizarrely bitter at the same time. Almost effervescent too, which added to the sharp taste. I'm not overly confident on this one, though I keep seeing people saying this one does well in the bottle over time. I've boxed it all up and stashed it, hopefully to forget about it until it "comes of age".

 

[Bock_Lesnar]

I don't want to be negative, but thought I'd post here in case anyone manages to get to the last page of this thread to say that this is the only beer I've ever thrown out.

I've tried a bottle every week since bottling and at no point has it got any better. Brewed 100% to recipe, no issues with sanitisation and fermentation carefully managed so it tastes exactly as it should.

I would warn homebrewers that this is a massively polarising taste and, to this day, I have only met two people who have enjoyed this brew. Disappointing, considering the cost involved in brewing this one.

Oh well, you live and learn. Obviously there are a lot of people that really enjoy this, so it's obviously not a bad beer - props to Cheesefood for that. I will simply say that I wanted to love this beer but learned pretty quickly that I never would.

 

[bfinleyui]

So I've read through almost all the thread (I think, anyway), and I'm really interested, except for one thing...

SWMBO is terribly lactose intolerant. For the safety of everyone in the house, hoping to find a decent replacement. I'm told Maltodextrine will give the mouth feel, with a small amount of stevia or splenda for the sweetness...

What's a good rule of thumb for conversion? How much lactose = how much malto/stevia/splenda?

It's my second brew, and the idea of caramel+vanilla sounds awesome, especially in a crowd-pleasing beer, as I'm still developing a taste for the more intense, hoppy, darker, etc.

I may end up doing a full fermentation, then as I hit bottling, rack half of it off into another bucket, and use the lactose, and the other half, use whatever combination of malto/splenda/stevia, so there are 'fart friendly' beers around for those who can't deal with the milk.

 

[AlphaFISH]

Just read this recipe and i'm sold. I need a little help with priming though. Can you review your priming procedure for me? How did the carbonation turn out when it was all said and done?

 

[Brewskii]

Where is the latest recipe? This is a long thread!

 

[Brewskii]

Where is the latest recipe? This is a long thread!

Sorry; that was Douchey - I needed to sub to this thread and i was distracted.

 

[Catfish1320]

Brewed this about 5 years ago, I cant believe this thread is still alive. This beer off the recipe on the front page was really good. I actually had a restaurant here want to put it on tap. No I didnt let that happen, but it turned out that good. I have had alot of people over the years ask me about it. I had got out of homebrewing for a bit, but now that Im doing it again, I will probably do this again, but will probably change it to a PM. Enjoy.

 

[Brewskii]

I have a friend who was looking for " a vanilla beer that's not a porter or a stout" for a family member that's interested in brewing.

This looked good so I gave it too him. Neither he or I have used lactose before and I did make a couple mod's. Namely;
- I cut the 60 min hops to give me a total IBU in the mid 20's ( I thing I picked .5 oz of Northern Brewer).
- I changed the initial vanilla addition to 2 beans, split and scraped, to the boil at 15 min.

I figure since you add Lactose and Vanilla extract in the bottling bucket to taste, what goes in up front is not too critical.

Beersmith indicates Lactose is not fully fermentable..... What does that mean? If I add different amounts to the bottling bucket, will I have to adjust my priming charge?

Currently I have it set up to add priming sugar as if the lactose is not fermentable at all. - is that correct?

 

[Brewskii]

Ok , initial vanilla addition will be 2 beans, split and scraped to primary.

Lactose addition to the bottling bucket question; anyone?

 

[Safa]

You are correct. Prime like lactose is non-fermentable.

Made this in a 5 gal batch and have been sharing it around. Used 2oz of vanilla at bottling instead of the 4 in the recipe.

Everyone who has tasted it has loved it and had one person tell me I should enter it in a competition because its that good. Thanks for the recipe!

 

[Brewskii]

You are correct. Prime like lactose is non-fermentable.

Made this in a 5 gal batch and have been sharing it around. Used 2oz of vanilla at bottling instead of the 4 in the recipe.

Everyone who has tasted it has loved it and had one person tell me I should enter it in a competition because its that good. Thanks for the recipe!

Thanks for the reply. I'll pass it on to my buddy. I'm sure he hasn't brewed this yet as he's super busy with work. I don't even know if he got the initial recipie I passed along to him.

Thanks again.

 

[birdley123]

EDIT 2/20/07: Please do not PM me with questions on this recipe. Post them to this thread. I get way too many questions that are already answered within this long thread, so consider reading the entire thing (or using the Search function) prior to posting.


Here's the final recipe that I'm brewing RIGHT NOW.

Malts
3 pounds extra light DME
3 pounds light wheat DME
1 pound Caramel 60L (steeped for 45 minutes at 150'-165')

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

Yeast
Wyeast German Ale

Extras
1 tsp Irish Moss (10 minutes)
4oz Lactose @ 15 minutes
2 oz real vanilla extract

Priming
>1cup Lactose
4oz vanilla (Be careful! This may be too much vanilla for some people.)
1.5 cups light DME

I'm adding the Lactose in the last 15 minutes of the boil. I'll add the vanilla in the primary, because I don't want to risk losing any that bonds to the trub. So far, it smells fantastic but I'm still at the bittering hops boil. I think this should end up with a nice caramel flavor and a good hint (perhaps a suggestion size amount) of vanilla. I've had vanillas with way too much flavor and they tasted too much like candy. This should have a decent balance.

Notes: 11/4/05

So good. Can't even explain it - you simply must make this beer. I let it prime for almost 2 weeks before fridging it, then cracked one tonight after only about 30 hours. Great head, good lace, nice color, good body and nose. Pictures won't do it justice, but here's one anyways

I'm getting ready to make this; can't wait! Would someone mind please going over the "priming" part of this recipe for me? Is he talking about bottling?

 

[Safa]

Yes. Priming means getting the beer ready to carbonate itself in the bottles. If you are kegging, just leave out anything with sugar (i.e. the DME) but still add the lactose and vanilla.

 

[birdley123]

Yes. Priming means getting the beer ready to carbonate itself in the bottles. If you are kegging, just leave out anything with sugar (i.e. the DME) but still add the lactose and vanilla.

HUH? I'm not sure I'm following; So this is at the bottling bucket stage then right? Mix these three ingredients instead of just priming sugar?

 

[Safa]

Yes.

 

[preestupnik]

Wow. Just made my first batch of recipe #1 and I sure am glad that I put it in my largest fermenter, the layer is already 4 inches tall after only 12 hours. I'm definitally going to have to keep an eye on the water in the airlock, because man is it singing!

If the final product is as good as the OG sample this should be perfect for SWMBO.

Thanks cheese

 

[Inkdrop]

I couldn't read the whole thread, I tried. lol. I am a slow reader. I would love to do an AG of this. Has anyone done both recipes, an AG and extract of this? Did one come out better than the other? I really want to try this one, sounds Delicous.

 

[BrewYork]

Hey guys. I'm new, so I don't exactly know where to put this. If it goes in a new thread let me know. I tried the search, but "caramel cream ale corn" has 1,200 hits, so I need to appeal to you.

My grandma makes caramels every Christmas by boiling cream, sugar and corn syrup. I want to make a Christmas caramel recipe as a tribute to her many years of hard work. So, can you help me make the recipe a little more like hers?

Has anyone made this with corn in the mash? How much, and how'd it turn out?

Has anyone tried caramelizing the first runnings? It seems like it would work a bit like a wee heavy.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

 

[HerrHepcat]

I'm going to resuscitate this thread once again.

Caramelizing is exactly what I'm going to do with this recipe.

I don't yet know exactly when or how much I'll caramelize, but it'll be the Lactose I'll caramelize on its own, before it goes in the wort. I won't add anything to the recipe (sounds sweet enough as is) but I will basically just change up the chemical composition of some of the lactose.

I'm hoping to impart more caramel flavors into the beer that the grains do. From what I've read, that should do it.

Caramelization of lactose will remain completely unfermentable, while the caramelization of the corn sugar will be somewhat fermentable (depending on how dark you get it).

I think what I'm planning is very similar to what you are looking for.

It may be a month or two before I get this started, so it'll be a while before I can tell you how it came out.

 

[Inkdrop]

I did 5 gallons extract brew and kegged, and I did 5 gallons AG and bottled it. Both version#1. That are ready to during, but I am out of town at work. The good news is I will be home Christmas eve. Will make a great beer for Christmas. Can't wait.

 

[ldave]

Cheesefood, this thread has 227,327 views. You should talk to a bank about a loan.

 

[Schlenkerla]

Cheesefood, this thread has 227,327 views. You should talk to a bank about a loan.

Funny that you say this. The guy got banned about four years ago if not longer. He can only lurk as a non member, unless he got himself a new ip address and user name.

While he might have had good taste on beer his judgement about what to post was an issue. I think the rumor is he posted pictures of fecal matter... some people didn't think it was funny as he did.

After he got his frank spanked by a moderator, I think he attempted to delete this very thread and others. That's what closed his fate as member.

To your point it's a good recipe though.

 

[ldave]

I take it back, then. He probably shouldn't talk to a bank about a loan. They have even less tolerance of bad attitudes then forums do. And they can wind up with your house.

 

[Cheesefood]

While he might have had good taste on beer his judgement about what to post was an issue. I think the rumor is he posted pictures of fecal matter... some people didn't think it was funny as he did.

It was actually about 7 or 8 years ago and it was pictures of fat women, in the secret hidden site. I honestly didn't think it was much worse than the red haired chick in Walmart lingerie, but to each their own. Wasn't fecal though, just large women.

After he got his frank spanked by a moderator, I think he attempted to delete this very thread and others. That's what closed his fate as member.

To your point it's a good recipe though.

Yeah, there was a time when HBT was cool. Then the moderator thing started. The nanny state. The bans. The people leaving. Too many new people. Too focused on selling memberships. HBT stopped being a gathering and became a business. Started being run like a business. Killed all the fun of the community. I came on in 2005 when everyone celebrated milestone posts by posting porn. This was a site for men and it was run by men who acted like men.

Anywho, this place got hella lame. Thousands and thousands of new users and new posts. Always the same thing "Is it ruined?" or "If I change this for this how will it taste?" or pointless arguments and pseudo-science.

I'm still in the brewing community, but I hang out at different places.