Caramel cream ale?

Yakima 728
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Captain_Bigelow said:
I took a sample yesterday (3 weeks in). It really tastes quite bitter. I am sure it will mellow out with age. I plan to keg around the 6 week mark. I put 2oz of vanilla in with primary and will put another 2 oz in when I keg.
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Almost a month on from this post and the flavors are nicely balanced and it does not taste bitter at all. It is carbed and I had a glass yesterday. I am on the fence about this. I am not sure if I really like it or that it is just ok. I need to drink more before I make my judgment on this.
 
:confused:
Hey guys, I love the forum
Im new to brewing, have a couple extract kit brews under my belt, and I have a quick question about this recipe...after reading all 70+pages....whew!
Steep the Carmel 60L for 45 minutes....do I have to rinse them after that? and how much water did you start with? (many have asked and its not been clearly answered)
Im reading a lot of posts about partial mash and sparge water and Mash-in and Mash-out and Im confused!
I dont have a Mashtun....is this an experienced recipe that I should not try now?
Thanks, sorry for the newb question but you gotta start somewhere and I couldnt find the answers...
:confused:
Thanks again,
Sean
 
vcca.jpg


I find it very sickly and not a huge fan. My SWMBO loves it though and chugged 4 pints of it yesterday.
 
I followed the recipe to a T. After 3 weeks in the bottles, the beer is flat. There is little to no carbonation at all. I did not use priming sugar because the recipe called for lactose and DME. I've always had great carbonation with my beers. Anyone have some advice? I'd hate to scrap 2 cases of beer but there's no way I could drink it flat.
 
Brewed the original recipe over 3 weeks ago. Kegged it a week ago. Used 4 oz in the keg. Tastes like toasted marshmallows!
 
Cheesefood said:
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

cv.jpg
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You have vanilla on here two places - are you adding it in two separate spots? I was thinking it would just get added to the secondary with the lactose? Could you let me know the amount and where you add the vanilla/lactose? I see 4oz and 2oz in your above recipe. This looks like a great beer!

One last question- 3 weeks in primary, no secondary, and a few MONTHS in bottles before it was good to drink??
 
craig_reed said:
You have vanilla on here two places - are you adding it in two separate spots? I was thinking it would just get added to the secondary with the lactose? Could you let me know the amount and where you add the vanilla/lactose? I see 4oz and 2oz in your above recipe. This looks like a great beer!

One last question- 3 weeks in primary, no secondary, and a few MONTHS in bottles before it was good to drink??
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One is primary one is at bottling. I boil my vanilla w/ priming sugar and lactose, then add to bottling bucket and rack in from the carboy.

Add it in the two places ... the vanilla comes out stronger with age, so I'd suggest at most 3oz at bottling, whatever it says at brewtime leave it at that.

Basically, everything above >>PRIMING<< is for brew day, then you use the additional lactose, vanilla, and DME at bottling as your primer.

The longer it ages in bottles, the better it gets --trust me. I'd brew to batches back to back. I am on my 2nd now, cuz after just a month my friends drank ALL of this brew.
 
ctufano said:
The longer it ages in bottles, the better it gets --trust me. I'd brew to batches back to back. I am on my 2nd now, cuz after just a month my friends drank ALL of this brew.
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Ahh - So would you think the 1,2,3 method would work well for this beer? Or more like 1,2,6?

I am a believer in using the secondary fermenter, I like to get my beer as clear as possible. I know others just leave it all in the primary, I will try that someday, but for now I like using the secondary. :D
 
I forgot to ask... ctufano, did you brew the reciepe to Cheese's recommendation (my last post)?
 
Yup, i did the one you posted. As far as the staging, however you like man. Mine never got clear even in the bottle, I dont think you will get it very clear no matter how ya stage it .. only with time. But ya, 1-2-3 or 1-2-4+ :)
 
ctufano said:
Yup, i did the one you posted. As far as the staging, however you like man. Mine never got clear even in the bottle, I dont think you will get it very clear no matter how ya stage it .. only with time. But ya, 1-2-3 or 1-2-4+ :)
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Yeah I guess my statement of clarity was more of a general statement. In addition, I just think it helps eliminate particles as a filtration step I guess. I dunno, just me!

This beer looks awesome - can't decide between this and the Blood Orange Hefeweizen I have been wanting to do. Maybe I'll do both!
 
I plan on brewing this recipe this weekend! Sounds great - and now I have an opening to squeeze it in.

I am going to use LME instead of DME I think - see how that turns out.
 
So, this weekend, I pulled a half glass off of my keg just to see how it was coming along for aging, and I thought the beer was just ok now. So I got to thinking about what so I like about this beer, and what do I not like. As I was thinking, it came to me what it was missing. It felt to me, and maybe because it's cooling off and becoming fall, but the first thing I thought of is nutmeg. So I walked into the house in search of some nutmeg, and stumbled across a small container of clove. Remembering that a lot of styles have hints of clove, I opened it up and took a whiff. Instantly, I knew that this was the flavor component I was missing in this beer! Pure clove powder is extremely strong, so I took a small pinch and tossed it in my beer. Grabbed a spoon and mixed the beer up with it. In my opinion, this was one of the best fall/winter beers I've tastes yet. I may be adding some to the whole keg carefully, because this beer has now gone to the next level.
 
Hi. I'm very curious to try this recipe and would like to know if there is an optimal fermentation temperature for this beer.

Wyeast's website indicates that their 1007 German Ale yeast functions ideally (between 55-68° F (13-20° C). They also indicate that within this range, the "higher temperatures may produce mild fruitiness." I've used this yeast before at between 62 and 64° and found it to produce a very clean tasting (albeit cloudy) ale.

Does this cream ale recipe benefit from being on the cooler side or the warmer side during fermentation... or like many things is it simply a matter of preference?

Thanks.
 
I'm a long time lurker that just decided to try this recipe yesterday. I followed almost everything exactly for the v1 recipe. But I made a mistake. For the caramel I steeped it after I did the boil. So instead of steeping it at 160 for 45 min then raising it to a boil and adding the DME and then everything else; I boiled, added the DME and everything else, then lowered the temp to 160 and steeped for 45 min.

Now my brew has been sitting in primary for 14 hours. How can I fix this? I'm assuming the caramel flavor will be really weak as things are going. Also when I took the OG it was at 1.042 which seems lower than what most people got. Is it worth it for me to steep and boil more caramel, cool it then add it? or should I just leave it be?
 
welcome fellow atlantian. Check out chicken city ale raisers (local homebrew club in the north atlanta area).

now back on topic... dont do anything to it. I dont see how it will be an issue other than you didnt boil the liquid that came from those grains (read sanitize). Leave it be, but it should be just fine.
 
Thanks for the advice. And I will check out the club.

How much vanilla extract did you use? I used the 2oz when I put it into primary and I'm trying to decide how much to use for priming.

Also, what HBS do you go to? I've been going to Beer Necessities on old Alabama.
 
i honestly cannot remember. Are you bottling or kegging? If kegging add the 2 and you can always add more. my first batch was excellent.. my second.. horrid - too much vanilla.

I was going there and started getting stuff from brewmaster's warehouse (sponsor on here) which is in marietta. They have much better prices in my opinion.

Also the club gets a 7% discount with them. Its $25 to join and just for the parties alone it is well worth it if you enjoy brewing. Feel free to PM me.. dont want to get off topic too much :)
 
Do you still add the priming ingredients if you keg? Sorry prob a dumb question but have never kegged.
 
yes you can but at a reduced amount. I BELIEVE (search to be sure) you add half as much priming sugar to a keg as you do to the bottling bucket when bottling.

I say can because you can carb your beer this way but keep in mind that you still need pressure to serve it. most do NOT carb this way and simply put it under high pressure for a few days (to be ready sooner) or those of us that are patient put it under serving pressure (8 - 12 psi or so) for two weeks and it will carb up that way.
 
btw, kegging is the best thing you could ever do.. i highly recommend it!!!!
 
I see so in this instance would I use half of the recommended:
1cup Lactose
4oz vanilla (Be careful! This may be too much vanilla for some people.)
1.5 cups light DME
then carb at 8-12 for two weeks?
 
i should have clarified.. you only would be required to use half (again search and double check this half statement) of the priming sugar or in this case DME (if that is what is used at bottling to carbonate the beer).

Lactose is (virtually) non fermentable so that can be used in its whole amount.. the vanilla is to taste.. take a guess at what you want to use keeping the warning about 4 oz maybe being too much for some.
 
GottaGetABrew said:
Regular liquid vanilla extract from the cooking isle. Stay away from the imitation stuff.
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great thanks. BTW, can you also answer my previous question of whether it's either the lactose or Malto Dextrose that give this brew its "creamy" texture? If not, do you know which ingredient does?

I'm trying to iron out a clone of another recipe and I'm certain it's missing this ingredient...
 
I have one single bottle remaining of this beer, after brewing it in December 07. Either it never "peaked", or I wasn't watching it when it did, because it still tastes... weird... to this day.
 
Well, from my reading the dextrose will give it mouth-feel and the lactose will give it a hint of sweetness as its not fermentable. For the "creamy" perhaps you would consider the dextrose due to the added body. Maybe someone else will chime in as I am certainly not an expert. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. One suggestion on this beer, go easy on the vanilla....lol
 
GottaGetABrew said:
Well, from my reading the dextrose will give it mouth-feel and the lactose will give it a hint of sweetness as its not fermentable. For the "creamy" perhaps you would consider the dextrose due to the added body. Maybe someone else will chime in as I am certainly not an expert. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. One suggestion on this beer, go easy on the vanilla....lol
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thanks again. I'll go with the dextrose and cross my fingizz (New England inflection)
 
Is the Lactose 4 oz by weight, or volume? They end up being pretty close...I brewed this last night, and my 1 lb bag of Lactose held almost exactly 3 cups, so I used 3/4 C as 4 oz. by weight. By volume would obviously be 1/2 C. Which did you intend?

I combined both recipes (#1 and #2), so mine looks like this (brewed last night and sitting here bubbling away!):

Fermentables
3 lb Light DME
3 lb Wheat LME (didn't have DME in stock at LHBS)
1 lb Caramel 60L

Hops
1 oz Cascade @ 60
1 oz Saaz @ 15
1 oz Hallertau @ flameout

Additives
3/4 C (~4 oz by weight) Lactose @ 15
1/4 C Malto-dextrin @ 15
1 tsp Irish Moss @ 10
2 fl oz. Vanilla to primary

Yeast
Wyeast Irish Ale 1084

Priming (The plan as of right now)
1 1/4 C DME
4 fl oz. Vanilla
1/4 C Lactose
--------


I'm going for a sweet, vanilla version like the first recipe, with the added hoppiness of the second recipe to offset. The priming is the only thing I'm iffy on - the original recipe (this one) calls for >1 C Lactose for priming, but I took the 1/4 C Malto-dextrine from the Boom-Boom recipe...how should I adjust the Lactose to compensate for the added Malto-Dextrine in the boil? I've just guessed above - I'm not sure how the two translate.
 
I read through the whole thread and saw several people mention replacing the vanilla extract with vanilla beans. I just happen to have 4 vanilla beans left over from the holiday cooking spree, and would like to use them.

I saw no definitive answer on how many vanilla beans to use, when to use them (boil? secondary?), or whether the recipe even worked out okay with beans instead of extract. Any recommendations? These are Madagascar vanilla beans (not mexican, unfortunately).

I'm currently planning to heat two of them up in the oven for several minutes, then sanitize with a few sprays of starsan and dump them in the secondary fermenter.
 
moeser said:
I read through the whole thread and saw several people mention replacing the vanilla extract with vanilla beans. I just happen to have 4 vanilla beans left over from the holiday cooking spree, and would like to use them.

I saw no definitive answer on how many vanilla beans to use, when to use them (boil? secondary?), or whether the recipe even worked out okay with beans instead of extract. Any recommendations? These are Madagascar vanilla beans (not mexican, unfortunately).

I'm currently planning to heat two of them up in the oven for several minutes, then sanitize with a few sprays of starsan and dump them in the secondary fermenter.
Click to expand...

I actually just re-brewed this beer recently, and just put the vanilla in tonight. I picked up some Vanilla Extract from a local spice store, and it happens to be Madagascar bean extract. The rep at the store said that it would work really well with the Caramel aspect of this beer. I can let you know how it turns out. Last time, I used some artificial Mexican vanilla, and this new extract I bought is definitely less aggressive, AND you don't have to worry about those little vanilla seeds sticking to everything.
 

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