Cream Ale Cream of Three Crops (Cream Ale)

Williams 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 have been brewing this recipe for a few years now. It seems to me that mashing for 1 1/2 hours may be necessary because of the corn and rice. Is the 1 1/2 hours boil time necessary? Thanks
 
Has anyone used enzymes in the mash or in the fermentor to dry this out even further? This sounds a lot like the recipe in the is Miller Lite Really Triple Hopped thread. I think that one is all 2 row and corn with a ibu of 18 and enzymes into the fermentor after krousen. I may have to pick up the ingredients Thurs to brew this weekend. Maybe a 10 gallon batch with different dry hops going in during fermentation. :mug:
 
I use Quaker Quick Grits too, it's about $0.50 a pound. I found that I need to gelatinize tem first.
 
d40dave said:
I use Quaker Quick Grits too, it's about $0.50 a pound. I found that I need to gelatinize tem first.
Click to expand...

I just throw 2 lbs into the grain bag after I mill the the grains and give it quick mix while dry. I BIAB and I thought they would clog the bag, but mixing them with grains seems to work just fine.

How do you gelatinize them? What's the benefit?

~HopSing.
 
Last edited:
I found if I don't gelatinize the grits first I get very poor efficiency. I leave about 4 gallons of water in my kettle and simmer the grits for about an hour then let it sit overnight. I have the same issue with the clogging. What I have been doing is to put the grits and rice in a BIAB bag and put that bag in another BIAB bag which has the grains. Eventually the grits and rice starts to get less "gluey"
 
d40dave said:
I found if I don't gelatinize the grits first I get very poor efficiency. I leave about 4 gallons of water in my kettle and simmer the grits for about an hour then let it sit overnight. I have the same issue with the clogging. What I have been doing is to put the grits and rice in a BIAB bag and put that bag in another BIAB bag which has the grains. Eventually the grits and rice starts to get less "gluey"
Click to expand...

Interesting. I've read you need to do that with "real" grits, but the quick grits were already par-boiled then dried. I have my 3 crops recipe dialed in and my efficiency is consistently within 2% +/-. I'm going to give it a shot and see if it comes up. Thanks for the info.

~HopSing.
 
d40dave said:
I have been brewing this recipe for a few years now. It seems to me that mashing for 1 1/2 hours may be necessary because of the corn and rice. Is the 1 1/2 hours boil time necessary? Thanks
Click to expand...

I believe the first time I made this recipe, I boiled for about 80-90 minutes. But I've since switched to 60m boils and have not noticed any difference, even when using pilsner malt.

dwhite60 said:
No matter what, I do a 90 minute mash.

Nothing gets boiled 90 minutes. Everything gets 60.

Your mileage may vary.
Click to expand...

I've started mashing a lot more recipes for longer than 60m lately. I know folks say biab mashes can be shortened, but I've had better luck pushing the FG down with longer mashes. This recipe benefits from it.
 
The first time I used quick grits was with an American lager recipe which called for a pound of flaked corn and a pound of flaked rice. I got around 72% efficiency. I then started to gelatinize the grits and rice and my efficiency went up to around 85% which is what I get with flaked grains.
 
I haven't noticed any difference in the way the ferment looks compared to using flaked grains. In the end it clears up nicely.
 
d40dave said:
I haven't noticed any difference in the way the ferment looks compared to using flaked grains. In the end it clears up nicely.
Click to expand...

every notty fermented brew i've done has brown crud on top of the foam.
this ferment looks like I filled a keg with oxyclean and left the hose in to long while filling, foamy bubbles.
pure clean tiny bubles.
 
I was concerned about the strong corn smell coming from the fermenter but this hit an FG of 1.006 (4.7%) and the sample tastes really nice.
cold crashing and kegging this.
 
ok, so something went slightly wrong.
beer is sorely lacking in flavor. I went light on the CTZ because of high AA% but they are a few yrs old so possibly have lost some.
tastes as bland as mic ultra to me, but people who drink mic ultra told me it had no flavor.
its crisp but I need to dry hop the keg with something while keeping it an easy drinker.

I'm thinking an oz of the 3% tetnang I have after some googling.
 
Betting you're right with older hops. I use Crystal and Williamette and the only time I had an issue with flavor is when I overcarb'ed it. Your FG is also a bit lower than mine (1.010 - 1.012) so that may have dried it out too.

Plan for some fresh hops and higher mash temp and give it another try. Tettnanger would probably work well!

~HopSing.
 
HopSing said:
Betting you're right with older hops. I use Crystal and Williamette and the only time I had an issue with flavor is when I overcarb'ed it. Your FG is also a bit lower than mine (1.010 - 1.012) so that may have dried it out too.

Plan for some fresh hops and higher mash temp and give it another try. Tettnanger would probably work well!

~HopSing.
Click to expand...


that feel when the lid gasket falls into the keg......:no:.
thankfully i got plenty of extras but it's still annoying.
 
Just finished off a keg of this beer. Overshot the OG targets by about 0.1 and used some water to liquor it back. Did 90min mash and 90’min boil. In future will only do 60 each. I did the 5G recipe on the front page exactly.

next time I do this beer (likely soon) I wanted to try some variant to up the flavour a bit.In general, I found the flavour to be a bit citrusy and had some feedback from people that it had sour like
Qualities. I Was thinking of playing with this add whirlpooling some lemon drop hops next time. Any thoughts on this variant? Really novice at modifying recipes but was thinking 1oz whirlpool at 170F for 20min as a way to get more citrus and flavour into this great quaffable beer.
 
so first keg was not good and I ended up throwing 2 oz of summit into it to make it taste good. (hiding off flavor)
I just pulled the 2nd keg out of the basement and hooked it up.
I let that naturally carbonate.
it's still warm (65 ish) but it tastes completely different from the first. no strong after taste.
like a Genesee Cream Ale which is THE cream Ale in central and western NY since the 1960's.
let's see how it does when it is cold.
 
Last edited:
Tobor_8thMan said:
Man, you're sweating things too much. 0.1. Relax and have a homebrew.
Click to expand...
Maybe so but to be clear my OG was 10 points higher. Had this wrong. Was 1.052 or so instead of 1.04. So pretty big jump.
Great beer though which is why I’m curious about a whirlpool hop addition to experiment to add some unique flavour
 
Consigliere said:
Maybe so but to be clear my OG was 10 points higher. Had this wrong. Was 1.052 or so instead of 1.04. So pretty big jump.
Great beer though which is why I’m curious about a whirlpool hop addition to experiment to add some unique flavour
Click to expand...
You are correct 1.052 is higher than 1.040.

Did you use brewing software? If so, please realize the recipe FG, ABV, etc are estimates based on the malt, yeast, etc. Malt specs change, even within a batch. So, unless you're getting the malt specs directly from the maltster and updating the specs in the software ingredients the software is "in the ball park".

What was the estimated ABV? What was the actual ABV?
 
I just copied the recipe. To be honest it’s all good. Every time the equipment etc all matters so i see the first brew as an experiment every time and if you like it you can tune it for your setup and ingredients next time.
 
Yup. Just hoping for some feedback on the hop idea. This part of brewing is very new to me in making additions to existing recipes.
 
Consigliere said:
Yup. Just hoping for some feedback on the hop idea. This part of brewing is very new to me in making additions to existing recipes.
Click to expand...

I made this back in February. Three gallons.

1/2 ounce of Amarillo at 20 minutes, other half at flameout, steep for ten minutes. Lots of flavor and aroma. Didn't realize Amarillo was so potent. Took a couple months for this to get really enjoyable but then it was REALLY enjoyable.
 
dwhite60 said:
I made this back in February. Three gallons.

1/2 ounce of Amarillo at 20 minutes, other half at flameout, steep for ten minutes. Lots of flavor and aroma. Didn't realize Amarillo was so potent. Took a couple months for this to get really enjoyable but then it was REALLY enjoyable.
Click to expand...
Awesome thanks for the feedback. I’m not very patient with beers and go for 5G batches so may think about 1/2 -3/4 oz at whirlpool but was gonna use lemon drop.
 
NitrogenWidget said:
so first keg was not good and I ended up throwing 2 oz of summit into it to make it taste good. (hiding off flavor)
I just pulled the 2nd keg out of the basement and hooked it up.
I let that naturally carbonate.
it's still warm (65 ish) but it tastes completely different from the first. no strong after taste.
like a Genesee Cream Ale which is THE cream Ale in central and western NY since the 1960's.
let's see how it does when it is cold.
Click to expand...
Waiting to hear on this. How did this end up comparing to Genny Cream?
 
BongoYodeler said:
Waiting to hear on this. How did this end up comparing to Genny Cream?
Click to expand...
Genny tasted better after it chilled and carbed.
My friends thought it was ok and drank it.
Nothing amazing.
I picked up a corn taste I just did not like.

I'm screwed something up.
Pretty sure the 60 min addition ctz hops needed bumping up Due to age or just dumped.

Ill make a gallon batch over the winter to see if I can do better since I still have a lb of instant grits left.
 
NitrogenWidget said:
ok, so something went slightly wrong.
beer is sorely lacking in flavor. I went light on the CTZ because of high AA% but they are a few yrs old so possibly have lost some.
tastes as bland as mic ultra to me, but people who drink mic ultra told me it had no flavor.
its crisp but I need to dry hop the keg with something while keeping it an easy drinker.

I'm thinking an oz of the 3% tetnang I have after some googling.
Click to expand...

I brewed a cream ale a few months ago using Columbus hops. (it wasn't C3C, I used 5% sugar to lighten it instead of corn and/or rice because I read something about that in BYO) I just use 1/2 ounce at 30 minute, and no late hops. (it was a 4 gallon batch) When very young the beer was skunky even though it was not light-struck, which I thought was odd. After about 2 weeks in the bottle the skunk went away but the beer was just meh; nothing particularly wrong with it, it just wasn't good. After a full month of conditioning it was a good beer. Could still use just a little more bitterness and hops aroma, so next time I brew it I will add a little Willamette, Mt Hood, or Crystal late hops -- but it's good like this and I'll be sad when it's gone. It was also very economical to brew.

I used Voss Kveik yeast, but overpitched and fermented at 70°F instead of 80°+ and there's very little esters or other yeast character; it's just clean, but was slow to carbonate. (the sugar didn't help, I probably should have added yeast nutrient) I think this yeast could be great for mock-lagers if you keg it and force carbonate it.
 
I brewed 16 gallons of the original recipe for a small wedding reception. Only thing I did different was adding an extra pound of 2 Row.

Filled three 5 gallon kegs, and polished them all off that night. Everyone loved it, and two couples asked me to brew more for their own receptions. 10/10, definite crowd pleaser.

EDIT: I might try dialing the corn back on the next batch. The corn flavor isnt bad by any means, but it is a bit sweet.
 
Last edited:
Anyone come up with a good label/logo/icon/etc. for this beer? I want to add it to Raspberry Pints.
 
hi, im wating to make this beer but, i cant get the corn or the rice at least not the flaked ones, i do have pop corn and normal corn, but i have to malted this corns??, can i use regular rice the one you use to cook??
 
i have to check if i can get istant grit, but im not so sure about the corn, BTW does the corn and rice add starches to the gravity of the beer ors they are just for flavoring?
 
copachono said:
i have to check if i can get instant grit, but i'm not so sure about the corn, BTW does the corn and rice add starches to the gravity of the beer or they are just for flavoring?
Click to expand...
The corn and rice add starch without adding much protein; that's the main thing they are for but they add a little flavor too.

I just saw your other question about popcorn. Do you have an air popper? You can add air-popped corn (no oil or salt) directly to the mash.

You can use regular rice but you have to cook it. The weight in the recipe is the precooked weight. Boil the rice in a gallon of the water until it's overcooked, then use it water-and-all in the mash.
 
copachono said:
hi, im wating to make this beer but, i cant get the corn or the rice at least not the flaked ones, i do have pop corn and normal corn, but i have to malted this corns??, can i use regular rice the one you use to cook??
Click to expand...

I've used corn meal and did a cereal mash. Takes some time but I thought it was well worth it. The corn flavor really come through.
 
copachono said:
hi, im wating to make this beer but, i cant get the corn or the rice at least not the flaked ones, i do have pop corn and normal corn, but i have to malted this corns??, can i use regular rice the one you use to cook??
Click to expand...
You probably already know but flaked corn and flaked maize are the same thing. Minute rice or instant rice should give you a similar effect. I add a few ounces of red wheat to mine to give it a bit more head retention.
 

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
535
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
InkBird 300

Latest posts

Back
Top