Cream Ale Fermentation

[Super64]

I am fermenting a simple cream ale. Small batch (3 gallons) that has flaked corn and flaked rice in it.

I don't usually get bad advice from my LHBS, they said just add the adjuncts straight to the boil, which I did.

Once done, some of these solids made it into the primary which has just finished any obvious activity and the krausen has fallen back in.

I'm 4 days into what was going to be a two week primary, but I cannot find any advice on where to go from there.

The wort is still cloudy and I see that cream ales are not normally lagered, so do I cold crash it to drop the solids out? I can do this at 34 degrees in a spare fridge for a week.

Where do I go from here?

 

[Yooper]

Boiling the grains probably released tons of starch. I don't know how you'd get rid of it. After it's finished, crash cooling it can't hurt.

Next time, make sure you put any grains/adjuncts in the mash, not the boil!

 

[Super64]

Thanks Yooper,

It was one of those post boil thoughts I had that "maybe this was a bad idea", but not having used them before I had nothing to go on.

Next batch won't have the same mistakes.

 

[ryandlf]

I cold crash everything for about a week before I transfer to a keg. When you are transferring out of the carboy you could strain the wort or use a cheesecloth bag (or something similar to filter out the larger particles.

 

[Super64]

Thanks Ryandlf,

I bottle condition, but I guess a little filtering of the larger particles after crashing wouldn't hurt.

 

[Super64]

Just thought of something to complicate matters...

I used WLP-080 the Cream Ale Yeast which is a combination of Ale and Lager yeasts.

Currently the primary carboy is at 66-68 degrees if you believe the thermo strip on the side.

If I stick it in a 34 degree fridge, do I risk the lager yeast starting up and would that be a bad thing?

Oh the joys of brewing...:cross:

 

[Super64]

So, 10 days after brewing this batch, the gravity is 1.021

14 days after brewing, the gravity is still 1.021

I need to get it to 1.012 to hit the F.G number

If this is "stuck", I've moved it to a warm location and I'm trying to bring the temp up to 68 degrees, to see if I can get things moving.

A lot of the solids have dropped out, but it is still a milky-cloudy liquid. I assume there are still solids in suspension.

Would cold crashing to drop out the solids also lower the specific gravity?

 

[KAMMEE]

As Yooper noted earlier, throwing rice and corn into the boil would have added starches that cause a haze (milky color) and thus, you cannot get rid of that haze at this point unless you filter. If you have solids floating around, look for some threads on cold crashing with gelatin, that should help drop those out.