Cream Ale Cream of Three Crops (Cream Ale)

SSBrew - 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I'd like to also point out, the corn flavor was really strong in the first few pints I pulled. I let it sit for a few more days and poured again and it really mellowed out, even in that short time period (at least in mine it did). Delicious!
 
Hoping this is better carbonated than it tastes in the fermenter.............
 
planning on brewing this on saturday.

Curious, has anyone dry "hopped" this with coffee beans or added some cold brew at bottling -- sort of like Carton's Regular Coffee?
 
BierMuncher said:
Cream Ale Recipe

This is a very simple, inexpensive cream ale recipe that will get every BMC drinker in the room enjoying homebrew. So named because of the three different crops that go into the grist (Barley, Corn and Rice).

I brewed up 10 gallons of this and after kegging, bottled up a case to take to a family event (Mothers Day). Even my 78-yr old FIL, who is strict Miller Lite drinker, ended up having two pints. The chics dug it and we ran out well before the end of the evening.

The grain bill is cheap and in this case, you can use Minute Rice instead of flaked rice. No step mashing required. Simply combine the ingredients and follow a simple single infusion mash at around 152 degrees. I also mashed this for 90 minutes to get a highly attenuated beer. FG was 1.005...leaving a very dry, crisp beer with no noticeable graininess.

While this doesn't adhere to the strict beer laws, and I don't consider this one of my "craft" efforts, it is without a doubt the beer that I get the most "you really made this beer?" comments.

So if you've got some hard core "If it ain't Budweiser it ain't beer…" drinking friends…give this a try.

This beer clears up quickest of any of my recipes.

View attachment 5581


Batch Size: 11.50 gal
Boil Size: 14.26 gal
Estimated OG: 1.040 SG
Estimated Color: 2.9 SRM
Estimated IBU: 14.3 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
12.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)
4.00 lb Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM)
1.00 lb Minute Rice (1.0 SRM)

1.00 oz Willamette [5.20%] (60 min)
1.00 oz Crystal [3.50%] (60 min)

Click to expand...

If I brew this but ferment with WY 1007 German Ale will I basically be making a Kolsh with corn? Still sound ok?
I have some 1007 pounding away at 55* right now that I plan on harvesting...
What do you think?
 
Corn flavor is NOT pleasant. This is a generally wimpy beer with it's low IBUs and wimpy hopping. The flavor of corn is pretty dominant, and unpleasant to my taste. Absent the corn flavor this might be a decent brew without the corn..... perhaps in time it will mellow out, but I do not see myself brewing this again....... I just don't like it.

H.W.
 
Owly055 said:
Corn flavor is NOT pleasant. This is a generally wimpy beer with it's low IBUs and wimpy hopping. The flavor of corn is pretty dominant, and unpleasant to my taste. Absent the corn flavor this might be a decent brew without the corn..... perhaps in time it will mellow out, but I do not see myself brewing this again....... I just don't like it.

H.W.
Click to expand...

How long ago did you brew?
 
treacheroustexan said:
How long ago did you brew?
Click to expand...

It's only about 3 weeks old.... I brewed January first. Perhaps I'll put it a couple of Tap-a-Draft jugs and age it for a couple of weeks..... It's not a DMS problem as I have never had even a hint of DMS, it's a flavor like field corn in the bin.... like the stuff people ship in in semi loads to feed livestock.......... This is a 2.5 gallon brew, carefully scaled down from the original recipe.

The plan from the outset was to brew with flaked corn, then sub in sugar in place of corn in a second brew..... which I plan to brew in about a week and a half, and possibly sugar for both corn and rice in a third brew......... for a comparison.



H.W.
 
Owly055 said:
It's only about 3 weeks old.... I brewed January first. Perhaps I'll put it a couple of Tap-a-Draft jugs and age it for a couple of weeks..... It's not a DMS problem as I have never had even a hint of DMS, it's a flavor like field corn in the bin.... like the stuff people ship in in semi loads to feed livestock.......... This is a 2.5 gallon brew, carefully scaled down from the original recipe.

The plan from the outset was to brew with flaked corn, then sub in sugar in place of corn in a second brew..... which I plan to brew in about a week and a half, and possibly sugar for both corn and rice in a third brew......... for a comparison.



H.W.
Click to expand...

Is it carbonated? I noticed the corn really mellowed after mine carved.
 
Owly055 said:
It's only about 3 weeks old.... I brewed January first....
Click to expand...

Well there's your problem. I would consider this the quintessential lawn mower beer. It's hard to cut the grass in January! ;)

I brewed it in the summer and really enjoyed it. It certainly is not a hoppy beer but didn't pick up the big corn taste you describe. It's just stripped down to the bare essentials, easy drinking, beer.

Give it some time. Maybe it will mellow/blend??
 
jbb3 said:
Well there's your problem. I would consider this the quintessential lawn mower beer. It's hard to cut the grass in January! ;)

I brewed it in the summer and really enjoyed it. It certainly is not a hoppy beer but didn't pick up the big corn taste you describe. It's just stripped down to the bare essentials, easy drinking, beer.

Give it some time. Maybe it will mellow/blend??
Click to expand...

I'm hoping............ Perhaps it's just my personal taste. My neighbor who is also a home brewer loves it........... I don't!

H.W.
 
Owly055 said:
I'm hoping............ Perhaps it's just my personal taste. My neighbor who is also a home brewer loves it........... I don't!

H.W.
Click to expand...

We all have different tastes. If it doesn't improve after a few weeks, maybe time to arrange a trade with your neighbor??

:mug:
 
well, aimed to do this today during the blizzard. Mashed in (3.5g BIAB) and grain/water temp was about 151, i put the burner on real quick to get to 152-153. During this time I stepped away from the stove and went outside to get a look at the snow. A strong wind blew the door shut behind me, unfortunately my apartment doors lock as they shut and my neighbor was not home. After a few emergency calls and immense panic I was finally able to get into my apartment. During this time my mash hit 193 degrees after heating for roughly 40 minutes.

Guess I'll have to remake this another week. Damn.
 
chrisisnapping said:
well, aimed to do this today during the blizzard. Mashed in (3.5g BIAB) and grain/water temp was about 151, i put the burner on real quick to get to 152-153. During this time I stepped away from the stove and went outside to get a look at the snow. A strong wind blew the door shut behind me, unfortunately my apartment doors lock as they shut and my neighbor was not home. After a few emergency calls and immense panic I was finally able to get into my apartment. During this time my mash hit 193 degrees after heating for roughly 40 minutes.

Guess I'll have to remake this another week. Damn.
Click to expand...

This is probably the worst luck I have ever seen someone have.
 
chrisisnapping said:
well, aimed to do this today during the blizzard. Mashed in (3.5g BIAB) and grain/water temp was about 151, i put the burner on real quick to get to 152-153. During this time I stepped away from the stove and went outside to get a look at the snow. A strong wind blew the door shut behind me, unfortunately my apartment doors lock as they shut and my neighbor was not home. After a few emergency calls and immense panic I was finally able to get into my apartment. During this time my mash hit 193 degrees after heating for roughly 40 minutes.

Guess I'll have to remake this another week. Damn.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the chuckle... Good luck on the next one!

:mug:
 
I haven't made a beer yet I like right out of fermentation...they all take at least some time....also I have noticed beer recipes are not always linear when reduced or enlarged. You scaled down quite a bit, that could be it.
 
I just bottled the gallon of this that I fermented on blackberries and it was the most beautiful color ever. If you could picture a pink catawba wine.. very similar color! I'l post a picture later this week when I crack one.
 
treacheroustexan said:
This is probably the worst luck I have ever seen someone have.
Click to expand...

yeah, not the best day haha.

I did get the temp back down to 152 and mashed for 20 minutes at that point, squeezed to all hell. took a pre-boil reading of 1.028. Going to go through the boil and see what I get before I pitch the yeast. If it's around the 1.044 mark I may just pitch and see what happens. I have a spare fermenter so really only harm is the $4 cost for s-05 and the cost of .46oz of hops.

update:

transferring to carboy now, gravity came it at 1.0445. Guess I'll pitch it and see what happens.

edit 1/25: Happily fermenting away. Going on vacation soon so it'll be in the fermenter until 2/15, so just over 3 weeks.
 
Friend tried this this weekend pushed to 5.3 % or so and loved it....

My second batch is ready to be kegged... I pushed it to 6% and kicked up ibu s slightly.... Staple tastes great

Thanks so much for the recipe
 
Here it is. Fermented on blackberries. SO TASTY. I'm in love. Still a very light beer, but you get a nice blackberry flavor come through. Looks like a light pink in the light. This is also only 3 days in the bottle... I couldn't wait. I'l try another bottle in a week and see how it is.

blackberrycreamale.jpg
 
I haven't posted her in ages but I recently brewed this beer for a wedding (to be held on Feb. 20th).

I had brewed this about 2 years ago when I first started kegging. No filtering, no temp controls, plain old kegging and trying to carb at room temperature. My friends thought it was OK.

This time I ended up using 1kg of popcorn for 10 gallons, 600 grams of instant rice and adjusted for desired gravity with 6-row base malt. (got it for cheap and wanted to give it a try).

The beer has just been kegged and will be carbed appropriately but it already looks awesome and tastes great. It will definitely be a hit with the non-craft-beer-drinkers at the wedding.

|
WFMpn6v.jpg
 
I always use popcorn for this beer. I've actually never used any other form of corn. It's much cheaper than flaked maze or other forms of corn, and it works darn well.
 
Greg1Cruickshank said:
I always use popcorn for this beer. I've actually never used any other form of corn. It's much cheaper than flaked maze or other forms of corn, and it works darn well.
Click to expand...

Isn't most popcorn popped in sunflower or other vegetable oils? Would that have an affect on head retention? Also, at least by me, it's less easy to find unsalted popcorn. Sounds interesting though. Do you grind up the popcorn?


Rev.
 
Greg1Cruickshank said:
I always use popcorn for this beer. I've actually never used any other form of corn. It's much cheaper than flaked maze or other forms of corn, and it works darn well.
Click to expand...

First time I brewed it I tried crushing the kernels. Being Lazy I just put them in the mash tun and I almost hit my gravity. Kernels went from yellow to plain white. I agree, popcorn was great!

Rev2010 said:
Isn't most popcorn popped in sunflower or other vegetable oils? Would that have an affect on head retention? Also, at least by me, it's less easy to find unsalted popcorn. Sounds interesting though. Do you grind up the popcorn?


Rev.
Click to expand...

I popped it with a hot air popcorn machine. You basically put some kernels in there and it produces hot air that will give them no flavor and no grease whatsoever. No grinding of the popcorn, just be careful not to get a stuck sparge. They will practically dissolve in contact with water.
 
That's exactly how I do it. I air pop the kernels and dump the popped corn into my mash tun.
In fact I've done several 'cream of 2 crop' beers and simply skipped the rice.

7lb domestic 2 row and 4 Lb (pre popped weight) popcorn.

Best dang American light lager (ale) I've ever taisted.
Perhaps a touch sweeter than the Cof3C as the rice would dry it out a touch though.
 
A Corona mill handles corn just fine. I have my dad's old Corona, and the reason he bought it was to make cornmeal.

I haven't tried this yet, but I'm going to use broken jasmine rice (cooked ahead of time in a rice cooker) and Maseca corn tortilla mix. The Maseca shouldn't need a cereal mash, the only problem is it might be ground too fine.

ETA: Would it hurt anything to use pilsner malt instead of plain 2-row? I've got a 25 kg bag of MFB pils.
 
Love this recipe, but my recent batch has some major aceteldehyde going on. I fermented around 66 with US-05 for 3 weeks with a week then to cold crash prior to transferring to the keg. It's been in the keg almost 3 weeks now and it's a green apple bomb. I've done 3 batches of this and the past 2 had the apple flavor. I was very careful with sanitation on both accounts. I did the first batch with 1056 and did not have aceteldehyde issues. Any chance this will fade with some more time?
 
AJStank said:
Love this recipe, but my recent batch has some major aceteldehyde going on. I fermented around 66 with US-05 for 3 weeks with a week then to cold crash prior to transferring to the keg. It's been in the keg almost 3 weeks now and it's a green apple bomb. I've done 3 batches of this and the past 2 had the apple flavor. I was very careful with sanitation on both accounts. I did the first batch with 1056 and did not have aceteldehyde issues. Any chance this will fade with some more time?
Click to expand...

I have brewed this a dozen times and find that after 2-3 weeks of cold conditioning in the keg that the acetaldehyde taste does fade. Let us know how this turns out.
 

Similar threads

N
Stuck recirculation BM’s Cream of 3 Crops
Replies
10
Views
1K
Niatras
N
MrClint
Super Simple Cream Ale Recipe
Replies
8
Views
2K
Hoppy2bmerry
Hoppy2bmerry
B
Double Hopped Psuedolager
Replies
0
Views
569
Brewsterguy
B
S
Autumn Wheat Ale
Replies
5
Views
1K
kwilson16
kwilson16
rtstrider
Wyeast 2565 in Cream Ale advice?
Replies
16
Views
2K
rtstrider
rtstrider

Latest posts

Back
Top