Caramel cream ale?

[efreem01]

Hey cheese, thanks for the speedy response. I'm buying the ingredients today and brewing this up next sunday. It looks a great recipe. I'll tell you how it goes.

 

[bobby1212]

I brewed this beer (ver. 1) 1 week ago and my SG was 1.054. After being in the primary all week the bubbling had slowed to about 1 every 15 seconds so I thought I would rack to secondary to finish off.

My gravity reading was 1.016. I don't remember reading anywhere in this thread what the FG should be. Well fermentation completely stopped.

I am pretty new to brewing and am wondering why it stopped for one thing. Also how is this going to affect the future of this batch, mainly will it carbonate in the bottles? I was thinking the yeast was still in suspension, but did it stop because I took it off the yeast cake?

Any insite is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Cheesefood]

I brewed this beer (ver. 1) 1 week ago and my SG was 1.054. After being in the primary all week the bubbling had slowed to about 1 every 15 seconds so I thought I would rack to secondary to finish off.

My gravity reading was 1.016. I don't remember reading anywhere in this thread what the FG should be. Well fermentation completely stopped.

I am pretty new to brewing and am wondering why it stopped for one thing. Also how is this going to affect the future of this batch, mainly will it carbonate in the bottles? I was thinking the yeast was still in suspension, but did it stop because I took it off the yeast cake?

Any insite is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

If you look through old posts, typical FG is about 1.012-1.014. You're not way high, but it could have ued a few more days. It stopped fermenting because you took it off the cake.

 

[AleHole]

I just brewed this last Thursday and it went from 1.050 to 1.012 in 3 days.

 

[attitude]

Brewed this on sat. the 24th and i took a look this morning and its giving me bubbles @ about 2 a minute

 

[bobby1212]

Cheesefood,

Thanks for the reply. If I leave it in secondary for a couple of weeks will it come down some more?

There must still be yeast in suspension, isn't that how it carbonates in the bottles when you prime.

 

[Proofman]

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

Cheese, is this v2 for the for the hopheads/not-so-sweet people or did you modify this one?

Edit: nevermind. I'll keep searching for the answer.

 

[efreem01]

I plan on brewing this either today (if i have time) or during the week. Today i get to bottle my Honey Brown Ale. I just have one question about the recipe. I plan on doing a partial boil and i'm wondering how many gallons everyone has used. If i'm not mistaken, Cheesefood used a partial boil for the original. In this long thread, i've seen someone mention that they did a 3 gallon boil.

Cheesefood, how many gallons did you use for the boil? Until now, i've generally used 2.5, but i want to get the right hop utilization for the recipe.

Thanks,

 

[McKBrew]

Cheesefood,

Thanks for the reply. If I leave it in secondary for a couple of weeks will it come down some more?

There must still be yeast in suspension, isn't that how it carbonates in the bottles when you prime.

Secondary is only for clearing, and very little if any fermentation takes place there.

Yes there are still yeast in suspension, but probably not enough to ferment what is left, because as Cheese said, you took it off the yeast cake too soon. It is enough for bottling, but keep in mind, you also add additional sugar prior to bottling, so the yeast have enough food to carbonate.

Your FG of 1.016 is fine. I'd wait the full two weeks in secondary, and check it again, but it probably won't drop too much. If it doesn't change you are still good for bottling.

 

[mcgeebc]

I just read all 40 pages of this post. Do I get some kind of award for that?

I am looking forward to brewing this tomorrow.

 

[delboy]

I just read all 40 pages of this post. Do I get some kind of award for that?

I am looking forward to brewing this tomorrow.

No this is only the first step you now have to move onto the apfelwein thread, which is over the 100 now, i think (actually 126).
Its a cracking drink, but a very simple one and i still can't understand why there is over 125 pages on how to throw apple juice, sugar and yeast into a container and ferment .

 

[olllllo]

There is another apfelwein thread just counting the gallons made that is 183 posts.
That's some good reading.

 

[Pedro-]

i still haven't been able to brew this beauty.

brewing temporarily suspended due to purchase of new house.

i find myself crying to sleep at night and getting shakes that won't go away while staring at pictures of boils and malted barley for hours on end.

is this normal?

 

[Pedro-]

BTW olllllo, how was it on nitro?

i'm actually thinking of seeking out a nitro system just for this. i can live with so so stouts, but if this is dynomite on nitro i'm definitely committed to putting together a nitro system! :rockin:

 

[olllllo]

BTW olllllo, how was it on nitro?

i'm actually thinking of seeking out a nitro system just for this. i can live with so so stouts, but if this is dynomite on nitro i'm definitely committed to putting together a nitro system! :rockin:

I thought it was outstanding this way. It's definately a luxury, though.

 

[JeanLucD]

I've soooo wanted to make this for a few months now, but I don't think I've got the equipment to make it - I'm not sure how big my largest pot would b, but probably only big enough to hold 4L (maybe I have a bigger one), but I think the biggest problem for me is the crappy electric elements that we have... It was struggling to keep 3 and a bit litres of water boiling, and that's at full tit. *sigh* Don't have the money to get a burner... I guess I'll just have to keep dreaming.

 

[Kayos]

that's at full tit. *sigh*

Does anyone else think it is just cool that he can say "tit" and get away with it 'cause he is from the underworld?

 

[JeanLucD]

Does anyone else think it is just cool that he can say "tit" and get away with it 'cause he is from the underworld?

Lol, underworld?? and yes I can say tit and get away with it, hehe.

I now wonder if I maybe could do this... I realised that I've got a big pot, that we use for steaming, it's quite tall, so I rekon I could get 5L in there... All I need to do now, is convert to metric (or actually measure in and use imperial ) and hope that one of the HBS around me has the ingredients. I have a feeling it might be a struggle.

 

[efreem01]

I just brewed up this recipe V1 yesterday. I used a partial boil with 3 gallons, and used Penzeys natural vanilla extract (which the bottle claims is 40% stronger in flavor). I wonder how this is going to come out and if i should adjust the vanilla in the recipe.

I have it in the primary now with a blow-off tube rigged up. I figured with all of the "raging" fermentations i've read about it's a good idea. I used a 2L soda bottle with water in it for the other end of the blow-off tube. I figure that should suffice.

I tried it yesterday after i took the SG (1.056), but after straining the pelleted hops there was still too much hop material in the brew. It tasted like a sour ball with vanilla (only 1/4 cup so far!) and sweetness. Now, 19 hours later the soda bottle is bubbling about once/second and there's a thick layer of trub material. I love it that even if you didn't strain the hops, all that just falls right out of the beer.

Oh, and BTW i used Wheat DME instead of light wheat. That's all that AHB had in stock. I can't wait to try this with all of the comments on this thread.

 

[mdf191]

Ok, I am trying not to say anything too blasphemous. Or be at risk of rioting crazed brewers at my doorm, for tampering with this reciple. With that said…I have a question…. I was hoping to brew a light wheat “ish” fruit-beer this summer (possibly blueberries). Now that I have read this thread I am hearing voices in my head saying “put the fruit in the Vanilla Caramel beer”. Are these voices that of the devil….or have I finally heard the fabled call of the beer angels?

 

[Cheesefood]

Ok, I am trying not to say anything too blasphemous. Or be at risk of rioting crazed brewers at my doorm, for tampering with this reciple. With that said…I have a question…. I was hoping to brew a light wheat “ish” fruit-beer this summer (possibly blueberries). Now that I have read this thread I am hearing voices in my head saying “put the fruit in the Vanilla Caramel beer”. Are these voices that of the devil….or have I finally heard the fabled call of the beer angels?

If you want a super-sweet dessert beer, I'd say through some blueberry honey and honey malt and a little biscuit malt into it and stop there. Maybe, if you're REAL nutty, use Wy3068 yeast or WL400. You can try fruit. My next few batches are going to play with malt combinations and varying hoppiness. Having tried a HOPPY AG CCA,I'm interested in seeing where this can go. My quest to create an award winning recipe out of this is within my reach.

 

[mdf191]

i was thinking more along the lines of fresh fruit in primary or secondary. Do you think that will take away from the CCA as it is?

 

[mdf191]

I guess I will forever go down in history as the one who killed the CCA thread...

 

[JeanLucD]

You didn't really kill it, I feel like it was sorta me...

Anywho, I'm making this RIGHT NOW! I'm hoping that I can fudge through it a little bit, cos I've had to convert everything into metric, and I don't quite have anything to measure 28.35g (1oz), lol, and I'm too stuborn to use imperial... I've just got a little question, though it won't really matter much cos I'm doing it now and I won't really wait for the answer... When I'm putting the hops and malts it should be at a boil right? and then I would let it cool down to 150'-165' when I put the caramel in 15 mins later?

I'm also doing this with a vanilla bean in the boil, hopefully 1 and a half will be enough - I might also make some extract, since I have heaps of vanilla beans, cos we have a friend that lives in Tahiti and he gave us quite a few fresh vanilla beans a little while ago. So all my vanilla is free , I'm also gonna use rum instead of vodka, mum said that it's what they do in Tahiti to make vanilla extract, so I'll see how that goes.

Edit: Everything went okish, but now that I've done it, I wonder if I should have filtered the wort somehow - I got a ton of stuff at the bottom of my fermentor, so much that it goes over the spigot, so went I went to take my OG reading (which I almost forgot to do) there was stuff floating around in my cylinder that probably mucked up my reading ~ 1.060?!?. Should I worry about this at all, or will it compact down a bit more as it settles down? and it won't effect the taste will it? I'm such a n00b at this partial stuff, sooo new to me.

 

[bpcsatx]

Let me start by stating congratulations to Cheesefood who obviously created a very special recipe. I did read almost the entire thread. Cheese, did you prefer version one or two. Your writing leads me to believe version two. It would be great to sticky all success stories and track modifications, lessons learned, and finally new ideas to great recipes. I wish you luck in any contest or marketability that could be derived from this recipe. I have yet to pull the trigger on my home set-up but lurking around here and reading threads like this makes some decision making easier.

Thanks again

 

[Rhoobarb]

...Cheese, did you prefer version one or two. Your writing leads me to believe version two. ...

Well, I had his latest version at his house last Friday night and let me tell ya - it is really, really good! Super smooth and, IMHO, just the right combo of vanilla. It finishes with a vanilla flavor that isn't overpowering. And the color is a nice toffee/caramel color. I plan to brew it myself in another month or so.

(BTW, thanks for the beer and pizza, Cheese!)

 

[Cheesefood]

Well, I had his latest version at his house last Friday night and let me tell ya - it is really, really good! Super smooth and, IMHO, just the right combo of vanilla. It finishes with a vanilla flavor that isn't overpowering. And the color is a nice toffee/caramel color. I plan to brew it myself in another month or so.

(BTW, thanks for the beer and pizza, Cheese!)

Good luck with v3. The secret is the boil-over which spills hops and about a half-gallon or more of water, then the pinch of Perle added to compensate.
I cut down the vanilla to about 1 shot, and the lactose to about 2 ounces.

It really did come out nice. I'm disappointed by the overall yield though, so I'll already have to make another batch soon.

 

[BarleyWater]

It was last month since the last post on this thread, just wanted to give it a little bump because I just put this into primary a few minutes ago. Still wavering on how I want to prime, but I have a while to think about it. Hope it turns out as great as everyone makes it sound.

 

[The Drizzle]

It was last month since the last post on this thread, just wanted to give it a little bump because I just put this into primary a few minutes ago. Still wavering on how I want to prime, but I have a while to think about it. Hope it turns out as great as everyone makes it sound.

i just brewed this yesterday, it is happily percolating in the basement!

 

[Paperface]

Well my first attempt is done and has been in the bottle for about 6 weeks.

I taste a HUGE amount of vanilla. So much that it makes it more bitter, but not a good bitter. And it tastes super sweet, overly so.

Next go around I think I'll half all the additives.

Glad to hear your other revisions are moving along nicely (boilovers and all)