Cream Ales

[FatBaldBeerGuy]

Hey all;

I am planning my 3rd brew soon; and I was thinking of a cream ale. My wife didn't care for the Wheat beer I did first (it was good; but not great, Hop flavor/aroma was a bit strong for a wheat beer and the color was off); so I want to do something I think she'll enjoy; you know; keep the boss happy

I found a couple threads on cream ales and I was reading up on them; about using corn to add the creaminess to it. However, I am unsure how to do this? I need to do an extract kit as I don't have the equipment and I am not comfortable with moving to grains quite yet, so I was looking at Brewer's Best Cream Ale or Midwest's Liberty Cream Ale; and I was wondering how to go about adding corn to "improve" the basic recipe, any tips?

 

[dedndcrusr]

There's nothing necessarily "creamy" about a cream ale. The corn is used to add fermentable sugar and lighten the body of the beer without adding color or strong flavors. Flaked corn needs to be mashed, so for extract you could use some corn sugar to get much of the same effect.

 

[Rifester]

I almost never drink lighter beers, but I really liked NB's Speckled Heifer Cream Ale. Everybody that tried it, loved it including me. I was sad to see it go... You might want to give it a look.

 

[Frankiesurf]

I did the Brewers Best Milk Stout kit recently. What makes it "cream" or "milk" is the addition of lactose. It does certainly give it a very smooth mouthfeel.

My suggestion is to use two packs of yeast or a high alcohol strain of yeast when using a lactose additive.

The lactose is a non-fermentable sugar and the Danstar Nottingham supplied in the kit did not bring down the gravity enough to what the FG was supposed to be.

I re-pitched to achieve what was needed and it came down to what I wanted.

 

[FatBaldBeerGuy]

There's nothing necessarily "creamy" about a cream ale. The corn is used to add fermentable sugar and lighten the body of the beer without adding color or strong flavors. Flaked corn needs to be mashed, so for extract you could use some corn sugar to get much of the same effect.

Thanks; that makes much more sense now.

I almost never drink lighter beers, but I really liked NB's Speckled Heifer Cream Ale. Everybody that tried it, loved it including me. I was sad to see it go... You might want to give it a look.

I'll take a look at that one as well, thanks for the tip!

I did the Brewers Best Milk Stout kit recently. What makes it "cream" or "milk" is the addition of lactose. It does certainly give it a very smooth mouthfeel.

My suggestion is to use two packs of yeast or a high alcohol strain of yeast when using a lactose additive.

The lactose is a non-fermentable sugar and the Danstar Nottingham supplied in the kit did not bring down the gravity enough to what the FG was supposed to be.

I re-pitched to achieve what was needed and it came down to what I wanted.

Excellent, thanks for the info

 

[urbanmyth]

I did the Brewers Best Milk Stout kit recently. What makes it "cream" or "milk" is the addition of lactose. It does certainly give it a very smooth mouthfeel.

My suggestion is to use two packs of yeast or a high alcohol strain of yeast when using a lactose additive.

The lactose is a non-fermentable sugar and the Danstar Nottingham supplied in the kit did not bring down the gravity enough to what the FG was supposed to be.

I re-pitched to achieve what was needed and it came down to what I wanted.

Cream ales do not contain lactose...

 

[sclabrl]

I bought Midwest's Liberty Creme Ale for my first brew based on the good reviews. 6 days in the primary as I type, hope it turn out as good as everybody says...