Cream ale hops medley

[Belgian Samurai]

Hi,

I'm getting ready to brew a cream ale, but I'm gonna do some things differently. I would like your input on hops.

The recipe is 5gal all-grain.
7# marris otter 2-row
3/4# honey malt
1/4# Belgian biscuit malt
1oz cascade @ :60
S-05 yeast

Changes I'm making to that recipe for both creative as well as time constraint reasons:
Kveik Voss yeast (I will be pressure fermenting in keg.)

I am adding ...
1oz saaz @ :60?
1oz azacca @ :40? (Arbitrary time stamp)
(?) 1oz cascade @ ??
1oz saaz @ :5

I considering replacing it with saaz @ :60 instead of Cascade. I don't want the pine, resin, spice as the forefront flavor. Now, I don't mind leaving it in there if you think it will be necessary to balance the other sweet hops, but if that's the case, I would like to make it a later addition.

Here is a screenshot of Beer Maverick's hop comparison chart of those three hops.


Thoughts?
Belgian Samurai

 

[AlexKay]

It probably doesn't matter much what you add at 60 -- go for the highest alpha, so you can use a little bit of azacca instead of a lot of saaz -- you're not going to get much taste out of them. Then put everything else (saaz, azacca) in at 5 or flameout or hop stand or something. If you want to split the saaz between 15 or 20 and flameout, you could do that, too. For my cream ales, I don't use more than an ounce of hops, total, between 0 and 20 additions, but if you're looking for something different, you could do more.

 

[marc1]

Isn't cream ale supposed to have corn in the grist?

 

[Beerd Bro]

This sounds delicious but definitely not a cream ale, you got yourself an IPA here. My cream ale uses 1 oz liberty 60 and 1 oz saaz at 5. High 20s IBUs tops.. What you have here is going to be wayyyy too happy. Especially a 40 minute azzaca.

A cream ale is just an American Kolsch that uses corn, and your hops and Kviek will not capture the this correctly. A cream ale rarely goes much over 20 IBUs.

You want a malt forward character and a Kolsch or California Lager yeast (Mangrove Jack's is great). By all means brew this, but it's most certainly a hoppy IPA haha. And that Kviek is going to be way too funky for a cream ale.

Your grain bill is spot on (except where's the flaked corn?), but the hops and yeast are taking this to polar opposite of a cream ale in the beer world haha.

 

[Belgian Samurai]

This sounds delicious but definitely not a cream ale, you got yourself an IPA here. My cream ale uses 1 oz liberty 60 and 1 oz saaz at 5. High 20s IBUs tops.. What you have here is going to be wayyyy too happy. Especially a 40 minute azzaca.

A cream ale is just an American Kolsch that uses corn, and your hops and Kviek will not capture the this correctly. A cream ale rarely goes much over 20 IBUs.

You want a malt forward character and a Kolsch or California Lager yeast (Mangrove Jack's is great). By all means brew this, but it's most certainly a hoppy IPA haha. And that Kviek is going to be way too funky for a cream ale.

Your grain bill is spot on (except where's the flaked corn?), but the hops and yeast are taking this to polar opposite of a cream ale in the beer world haha.

Let's do that! Hahaha I like the sound of it! okay, people, forget the cream ale. (Maybe I should rename the thread?)

 

[Beerd Bro]

It'll be interesting to see how biscuit and honey malt play in an IPA. For the record I am a novice partial mash brewer so take my advice with a grain of salt, but I do brew a mean Cream Ale and DIPA lol.

I say use that azacca as your 60 min hop.

I have only used Azacca as a whirlpool and it gave an amazing ripe mango note.

 

[Belgian Samurai]

What you have here is going to be wayyyy too happy.


Your grain bill is spot on (except where's the flaked corn?)

That's exactly what I'm going for! @ "wayyy too [sic] happy." I don't wanna make sad beers. Hahaha (I'm not poking fun, but I loved the accidental wording! Your overall reply got me really excited to try out this recipe!)

Btw, I think I may opt out of the flaked corn since this recipe has turned into an IPA, because I don't want a dryer (what I call a thinner body) beer. I like body to my beers.

 

[Beerd Bro]

LoL got me!

I make thinner body IPAs but what you have here is going to have a nice body, maybe just a small touch of dextrine malt? You'll have an IPA that really let's the malt and body shine some. Let me know if the hops play well with it! Cheers!

 

[Belgian Samurai]

I make thinner body IPAs but what you have here is going to have a nice body, maybe just a small touch of dextrine malt? You'll have an IPA that really let's the malt and body shine some. Let me know if the hops play well with it! Cheers!

I'm back to report the results. Where do I begin?
The beer is good. Drinkable. Hoppy! GRAPEFRUIT! Dry finish (as in a "dry" cabernet). Grapefruit on the back end for a lasting finish. I am probably going to make an avocado salsa to pair with it to compliment the intense tart citrus flavors. I'll post about those findings as well.

The mouthfeel is nice though. But what I really think it needs, is a fair amount more malt over all to balance the tart citrus flavors. I even diminished the amount of hops I used too. Here is what my hop additions looked like:

3/4 oz Cascade @ :60
1/4 oz Azacca @ : 60
1/2 oz Saaz @ :20
1/4 oz Azacca @ :10
1/4 oz Saaz @ :05
1/4 oz Azacca @ :00
1/4 oz Saaz @ :00

HUGE cheese-eating grin @ that list of hop additions. haha



Tag, you're it!

 

[Beerd Bro]

I am so jealous.....stealing this recipe and so happy it turned out!! Appreciate the followup! Cheers!

 

[Beerd Bro]

Also what was the grist and yeast you ended up using exactly?

 

[Belgian Samurai]

Also what was the grist and yeast you ended up using exactly?

All grain; 5 gal
7# Rahr 2-row
3/4# Gabrinus honey malt
1/4# Belgian biscuit malt
Kveik Voss

Pressure fermented in 2 corny kegs using Trong's Spundit 2.0 Valve @ 25~30+ PSI at 94F~104F. The beer was done pretty quick. One quick note though, don't reference my temps and pressure, because though they're in the ballpark, I was not able to get an exact temperature reading. Next time, I will use a sponge taped to the keg to isolate the Ink Bird temp controller thermo sensor. I ran into ambient temps and liquid temps during daily testing to be different. I will get this resolved next brew day, but seriously, for anyone reading this, pressure fermenting is an amazing thing. I'm tired of waiting weeks for beer to ferment. I learned everything about pressure fermenting from this YouTube playlist on the topic and from talking to Trong. It was a game changer for me.

When you brew this recipe, please follow up with your results on this thread. I would love to hear about changes you made and how you think it could be improved. My buddy and I brewed a clone of Fresh Squeezed IPA 4 times now adjusting it each time. It's so dang good now. I want to brew it again as it's been about 2-3yrs. It's amazing if I do say so myself. hehe So, please keep me posted on your approach to this recipe. Name pending; I don't name my beers until I taste them and I just finished the first glass. I'll come up with a name for it this weekend.

Cheers!

 

[Beerd Bro]

Fresh squeezed is my favorite! I am going to need to partial mash this and won't be fermenting under pressure, I may add a touch more specialty malt and bump the late additions to whirlpool. But I will certainly report back!!