Chloe's cream ale - my first recipe

[buraglio]

This is my first ever self built recipe, up until now I'd either used brewers best or taken a BB kit and added stuff / made minor changes. I based it on cheesefood's caramel cream ale (which I was originally planning on making but I couldn't find the hops). As an aside, it smelled awesome and the wort sample I used to take the reading tasted pretty good. I'm shooting for a creamy, sweet, enjoyable-by-many type of brew with good body and mouthfeel.
I plan to add another 2 FL OZ of vanilla and 3/4 cup of Lactos at bottle. I'm still debating on if I want to use DME or corn sugar for bottling.
I'm also debating on going to secondary on this one. I took my last 3 brews to secondary but I'm not married to the idea of doing it every time.

I tried to do as much reading on hop types, grain, adjuncts, etc. to maximize what I was able to get locally and to get the results I was shooting for. Please give opinions, advice, criticisms, etc. I'm looking to learn from it (with the added plus being a good beer).


Chloe's cream ale
From the BrewBlog of Nick Buraglio
Champaign, IL USA

Printed December 27, 2007
Specifics
Style: Cream Ale
Brew Date: December 27, 2007
Batch No: 7
Status: Primary
General Information
Method: Partial Mash
Cost: $45
Based on the AHS cream ale and Cheesefood's caramel cream ale and random other cream ale recipes I found.


(printed via brewblogger)

Recipe
Extracts
3.00 pounds DME - Extra Light 60% of grist
1.00 pounds DME - Light 20% of grist
4.00 pounds Total Extract Weight 80% of grist
Grains
1.00 pounds Crystal Malt 60L 20% of grist
1.00 pounds Total Grain Weight 20% of grist
Hops
1.00 ounces Cascade Pellets @ 60 minutes
Type: Bittering and Aroma
Use: Boil
0.50 ounces Williamette Pellets
Type: Bittering
Use: Boil
0.50 ounces Cluster Pellets
Type: Aroma
Use: Aroma
2.00 ounces Total Hop Weight
Yeast
Danstar Nottingham brewers yeast — Dry — 11G
Mash
Mash Type: Infusion
Water Profile
Source: Both spring water and champaign MWS
Notes: 1 gallon of sams spring water and 4 gallons of C-U MWS
Procedure
Poured 3 gallons of water in boil kettle on high heat.

Added 1lb of Briess 60L crystal Malt

Brought to 155 F

Steeped for 45 min.

Put 2 gallons of tap (C-U MWS) water into primary.

@ 45 min in added 1oz cascade hops

@ 40 min added 3lb Extra light DME

@ 38 min added 1lb plain wheat DME

@ 35 minutes added 8oz malto dextrin

Lots of stirring

@ 30 minutes added .5oz willamette hops pellets

@ 29 min added 1.5 cups lactos

reduced heat by 1/3

lots more stirring

Smells pretty dared good so far

@ 10 min added 1tblsp irish moss

@ 5 min removed heat

@ 5 min added .5oz culster hops pellets

@ wort chill added 2 fl oz azteca pure vanilla extract

Added wort to fermenting bucket @ 80 degrees F

pitched yeast and stirred.

OG 1.049



BJCP Style Info
Style: Cream Ale
O.G.: 1.044 - 1.055
F.G.: 1.006 - 1.012
ABV: 3.8 - 5.5%
Bitterness: 15 - 20 IBUs
Color: 02 - 05 SRM
Info:
Printed using BrewBlogger brewing log software for PHP and MySQL.
URL: http://buraglio.com/nick/brew/sections/print.inc.php?brewStyle=Cream Ale&id=11

 

[jezter6]

Be careful with the vanilla. 2 oz can be quite much if you don't let this sit for a few months.

 

[buraglio]

Both my wife and I are pretty big vanilla fans, so I opted for quite a bit. If it's still overpowering at bottling time I'll tone it back at that point. It'll likely bottle condition for a while too, so that should mellow it at least some if it's too strong, right?

nb

 

[jezter6]

I meant adding another 2 at bottling. You probably won't get much from the end of boil (at least I didn't when I made CCA), but when I did it in the bottle, it reeked of Vanilla for at least 2-3 months before it started to settle into a really nice beer. If you plan on letting it sit, then you're ok. If you want to drink straight up vanilla right after carbing, good luck.

 

[buraglio]

I meant adding another 2 at bottling. You probably won't get much from the end of boil (at least I didn't when I made CCA), but when I did it in the bottle, it reeked of Vanilla for at least 2-3 months before it started to settle into a really nice beer. If you plan on letting it sit, then you're ok. If you want to drink straight up vanilla right after carbing, good luck.

Did you do cheesefood's CCA recipe? How much vanilla did you add and when?

 

[jezter6]

IIRC we added 2oz at flameout and 2oz at bottling.

We got almost nothing at end of fermentation from the first addition, and it took a long time for the vanilla to settle out of the bottle addition. We figured if we would make it again (unlikely) that we would use half at both additions, or possibly none at boil time due to it's lack of flavor going into the bottling bucket.

You may want to consider splitting it up into 2 bottling buckets and doing 1 with a ratioed amount of your normal vanilla addition, and then doing another one at half the vanilla just to see what the difference is. You can always add a small drop of vanilla into a glass, but you can't take it away if you overdid it.

Hell, you could even slip an extra drop or two into a few bottles just to see what SUPER vanilla is. It should help you judge how much you really want to put in the next time around.

 

[DeathBrewer]

where's the maize?

 

[Steiner]

I'm planning on making CCA myself. What are the chances that adding vanilla when racking to a secondary would help this? I'm going to be gone for a while, so I plan on leaving my CCA in a secondary for several months...that's why I'm asking.

 

[buraglio]

where's the maize?

Growing all around me in fields. ... wait, I guess that is just field corn. =P In all seriousness I've never used it and was already a little unsure of how this would turn out so I skipped it. I've only seen it in a few recipes too, so I wasn't sure what exactly it brought to the table. It is, however, on my list of things to read up on.

nb

 

[DeathBrewer]

i just brewed a cream ale that's looking and smelling pretty good at this point.

Here's my recipe and Jamil's recipe, from his podcast.

i'm not too into vanilla, and a traditional cream ale isn't supposed to be "creamy" or soda-like but i hope it turns out great!

 

[buraglio]

i just brewed a cream ale that's looking and smelling pretty good at this point.

Here's my recipe and Jamil's recipe, from his podcast.

i'm not too into vanilla, and a traditional cream ale isn't supposed to be "creamy" or soda-like but i hope it turns out great!

Thanks, me too. Yeah, I know it's not traditional but hopefully it will meet the criteria Im shooting for. =)