Cream Ale Questions? Help Please

[Pirate Ale]

Ok here goes...SWMBO wants me to brew something she will like, SO I have the following:
.75lbs Honey malt,
.25lbs Biscuit malt,
6lbs Alexanders Pale LME,
1 oz. Mt. Hood - 60 mins,
1 oz. Willamette - 1min.
Using Wyeast#1056

Assuming 75% app. Attenuation, what ABV should it have?
Should I consider a longer boil time on the Willamette? like maybe 5 minutes?

AND if I want to add Belgian Candi sugar to the mix to boast the ABV%, how much and what affect will it have?

 

[Fiery Sword]

I'd read this thread and give it a shot. It seems to be 'locally' famous. I've got one in secondary - can't wait!

 

[Pirate Ale]

Thanks Bro, but I have these ingredients, and want to use them.

If SWMBO likes Cream Ales, then I will make Cheese's Caramel.

Can anyone help me with this question?

 

[Fiery Sword]

Thanks Bro, but I have these ingredients, and want to use them.

If SWMBO likes Cream Ales, then I will make Cheese's Caramel.

Can anyone help me with this question?

gotcha. unfortunately, if i crunched the #'s for you i'd only give it 50/50 chances of being accurate. i need more practice.

 

[the_bird]

Cheesefood's recipe isn't really a cream ale in the traditional sense, anyway. It's supposedly very sweet and has a very strong, direct vanilla flavor.

 

[Pirate Ale]

Thanks Bird...but how about my original questions?

 

[debtman7]

Ok here goes...SWMBO wants me to brew something she will like, SO I have the following:
.75lbs Honey malt,
.25lbs Biscuit malt,
6lbs Alexanders Pale LME,
1 oz. Mt. Hood - 60 mins,
1 oz. Willamette - 1min.
Using Wyeast#1056

Assuming 75% app. Attenuation, what ABV should it have?
Should I consider a longer boil time on the Willamette? like maybe 5 minutes?

AND if I want to add Belgian Candi sugar to the mix to boast the ABV%, how much and what affect will it have?

If you're wanting to formulate recipes, you can buy promash/beertools/etc, download the free qbrew software (http://www.usermode.org/code.html), or use the online calculators at tastybrew (http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/). Or alternatively you could do the calculations by hand, but that's no fun...

 

[the_bird]

I'll do the calc for you tonight if you want, I usually just plug the info into BeerSmith (which is a really good program, well worth the $20 if you're looking to develop your own recipes).

The candi sugar will boost the ABV while leaving the beer light bodied, still appropriate for the style.

If you toss the hops in a bit sooner, you'll extract a little more flavor from them. I like my beers hoppy, so I usually have a lot more additions that this. I would think for this style, you could get away with adding them three to five minutes before the end of the boil, get a little bit more flavor out of them while still maintaining most of the aroma. The longer they boil, the less the aroma, and boiling for more than a relatively short period of time results in less flavor being left behind. I would be inclined, personally, to add them with five minutes and a very small amount (like, a quarter ounce) at flameout to replace the aroma.

One basic question I have - what kind of beer does your SWMBO like? "Cream ales" I don't think is a particularly apt description of the style; it makes me think of a very sweet, full bodied beer, whereas cream ales are really more in line with a typical BMC than with something like Cheesefood's brew. So before going too much further, what does she like?

 

[Pirate Ale]

Thanks much Bird. She likes BMC. Bud-light and Mich ultra, so i am trying to bring her around to home brew slowly.

I downloaded Promash but I haven't been able to figure out how to work it yet....
LOL I am at work after all, so shame on me for wasting "the Man's" time.

 

[the_bird]

Personally, I think BeerSmith is a lot more intuitive. It has a three-week trial, so no commitment if you don't like it. Lots of peeps like BeerToolsPro, but no trial (unless they've added one recently) and I've never used it myself.

 

[Pirate Ale]

When using either software, wouldn't brewhouse effeciency be 100% if you are using Extract? If not, what value would extract be?

 

[the_bird]

BeerSmith, at least, is smart enough to know that you are using extract and you don't have to worry about it.

 

[Blender]

I think to have a Cream Ale you need to use corn sugar or rice. They do not leave any flavor. The beers you mention do not reach the 28 IBU level. Still, if she doesn't care for it you might I am making a guess on ABV but with 75% I think it may be around 4.8%.
Your recipe runs out as follows:

A ProMash Recipe Report

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (Gal): 5.00 Wort Size (Gal): 5.50
Total Grain (Lbs): 7.00
Anticipated OG: 1.049 Plato: 12.10
Anticipated SRM: 5.4
Anticipated IBU: 28.6
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
85.7 6.00 lbs. Alexander LME - Pale America 1.037 2
10.7 0.75 lbs. Honey Malt Canada 1.030 18
3.6 0.25 lbs. Biscuit Malt Belgium 1.035 24

Potential represented as SG per pound per gallon.


Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.00 oz. Mt. Hood Pellet 6.50 27.6 60 min.
1.00 oz. Willamette Pellet 5.00 0.9 1 min.


Yeast
-----

WYeast 1056 Amercan Ale/Chico

 

[Blender]

BeerSmith, at least, is smart enough to know that you are using extract and you don't have to worry about it.

So is Promash.

 

[the_bird]

Not doubing it

Just speaking of the program that I'm comfortable with.

 

[Pirate Ale]

Alrighty then. Blendeer, I am open to promash tutorials, until then though, this is what I came up with at tastybrew.com.

03C. Light Ale, Cream Ale Partial

Color

Stats
OG 1.052
FG 1.013
IBU 22
ABV 5.0 %
SRM 8

Specifics
Boil Volume 6 gallons
Batch Size 5 gallons
Yeast 75% AA

Style Comparison
Low High
OG 1.044 1.052 1.055
FG 1.007 1.013 1.010
IBU 10 22 22
SRM 2 8 4
ABV 4.4 5.0 5.7



Fermentables
% Weight Weight (lbs) Grain Gravity Points Color
9.4 % 0.75 Canadian Honey Malt 1.5 3.8
3.1 % 0.25 Belgian Biscuit 0.5 1.2
75.0 % 6.00 Light Malt Extract Syrup 40.8 2.4
12.5 % 1.00 Candy Sugar 9.0 0.2
8.00 51.8

Hops
% Wt Weight (oz) Hop Form AA% AAU Boil Time Utilization IBU
50.0 % 1.00 Mount Hood Pellet 5.0 5.0 60 0.269 20.2
37.5 % 0.75 Willamette Pellet 5.5 4.1 3 0.034 2.1
12.5 % 0.25 Willamette Pellet 5.5 1.4 0 0.000 0.0
2.00 22.2

 

[Sully_PA]

My 2 cents .....my SWMBO drinks light beer crap also Mic ultra is her fav (yuk...It's carbonated water with a hint of beer) but any way I just got the canned Muntons American light. It called for 2.2 pounds of corn sugar...used 1.1 of light malt and 1.1 of corn sugar and she likes it! Never thought she would.....cant account for taste....