Frosted Flakes cream ale experiment

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Stormcrow

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While I wait for ingredients to arrive for my next "legit" brew, I'm planning on doing a little experiment. I've got a little pale malt left, so I had my wife pick up some generic frosted flakes from the grocery store to incorporate into a quick small batch.

As it stands, the 2.5 gallon recipe is
4 lbs. Pale malt
12 oz. Frosted flakes
4 oz. Flaked oats
Bitter with Simcoe (have it laying around) to around 20 ibus.

I've heard it both ways as far as what to expect from the cereal, but since I haven't found a whole lot on HBT in the way of experience with it, I thought I'd log my experience here for anyone interested.

Hoping to brew it tomorrow.
Any last minute advice besides "don't do it!"?
 
Why frosted flakes?
If you want a maize flaked substitute then just use normal cornflakes, they aren't identical to flaked maize as they are toasted.

If you need the extra gravity points just add some plain sugar.

I believe there are ingredients in cornflakes that might reduce head retention.
 
Why frosted flakes?
If you want a maize flaked substitute then just use normal cornflakes, they aren't identical to flaked maize as they are toasted.

If you need the extra gravity points just add some plain sugar.

I believe there are ingredients in cornflakes that might reduce head retention.
I hear ya. First thought was regular corn flakes, but thought this might be fun for a couple more gravity points. I've heard the concern about head retention. Thought the oats might help a little. If it's an oil or chemical thing though, probably not.
 
If you're just looking for a particular flavor I'd try to do that with ingredients which you know how they'll work.
I do make my cream ale with flaked maize, lactose and vanilla bean. It tastes awesome to me, but isnt for everyone. Is that what you're trying to achieve? Like a "cream soda" kinda thing?
 
If you're just looking for a particular flavor I'd try to do that with ingredients which you know how they'll work.
I do make my cream ale with flaked maize, lactose and vanilla bean. It tastes awesome to me, but isnt for everyone. Is that what you're trying to achieve? Like a "cream soda" kinda thing?
Just having some fun. Like I said, I'm kinda between brews right now and waiting on ingredients. I think I heard about this kind of thing on a podcast or something. I'm just calling it a cream ale because that's the closest thing.
 
Around the second world war brewers in UK encouraged to use oats in their bitters, plenty of uk bitters have pale malt and flaked maize in them,
so you could say it's tending towards a retro British ale with a " different " hop.
I did use cornflakes in a Spitfire bitter clone, took ages to clear but not totally blaming it on the cornflakes, could have been the windsor ale yeast that seemed to go on and on. All the bottles are overcarbed now.
 
Not worried... scientifically interested.


lol, we need a malt-o-meal brew plan for tonight too! i looked out to see if there was a full moon, but it does look like there's a planet aligned!

but i'm all for monday morning breakfast plans if it involves beer! :mug:
 
@bracconiere
Pop round I'll get a brew on but do hurry, by the time you get to me from Arizona having done the impossible and got a place in managed isolation, the borders are closed, ( only for NZ citizens at the moment ) and they have a several month waiting list plus done the 2 weeks in the hotel the beer will be
a) ready
b) Finished
c) Gone off

PS disgruntled non kiwi stuck in lockdown.

But time to brew!
 
If you start adding things with preservatives, it can affect, retard or stop the fermentation process. I’d run a 1 gallon pilot batch first to make sure it is going to work.
 

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wth - is there a full moon out tonight?
No, I think homebrewers are just a creative and eccentric lot in general. I’ve said it many times - some need to learn that just because you CAN do something doesn’t always mean you should. I love Herrs Cheese Curls but have never thought about making beer with them.

I always thought the worst categories to judge in a homebrew contest are herb, spice, and vegetable beer or the much dreaded experimental category.

Somebody out there is probably planning a chocolate chicken chipotle porter as we speak.
 
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No, I think homebrewers are just a creative and eccentric lot in general. I’ve said it many times - some need to learn that just because you CAN do something doesn’t always mean you should. I love Herrs Cheese Curls but have never thought about making beer with them.

I always thought the worst categories to judge in a homebrew contest are herb, spice, and vegetable beer or the much dreaded experimental category.

Somebody out there is probably planning a chocolate chicken chipotle porter as we speak.
Herbal can be ok. But sometimes I wake up at night, shaking and sweaty still tasting the bacon milkshake neipa I just dreamed of....
 
No, I think homebrewers are just a creative and eccentric lot in general. I’ve said it many times - some need to learn that just because you CAN do something doesn’t always mean you should. I love Herrs Cheese Curls but have never thought about making beer with them.

I always thought the worst categories to judge in a homebrew contest are herb, spice, and vegetable beer or the much dreaded experimental category.

Somebody out there is probably planning a chocolate chicken chipotle porter as we speak.
Ironically, I'm not one who really goes in for unusual flavored beer or ones brewed with weird ingredients. This will certainly be the strangest one I've done to date. I'm not out to prove this will make a great beer or anything. I just know that flaked corn is a common beer adjuct and that this cereal is a similar product. My interest lies in finding out whether the differences between the two are the difference between a passable beer and garbage. I have plenty of good beer in the fridge if anyone is concerned for me, and will be back to "normal brewing" this weekend. 😀
 
If you start adding things with preservatives, it can affect, retard or stop the fermentation process. I’d run a 1 gallon pilot batch first to make sure it is going to work.
The generic label is pretty similar, but it interestingly doesn't list BHT as an ingredient. Some of the other things listed may be preservatives for all I know, but I looked up BHT to see what it actually does. Apparently it's an antioxidant that protects fatty acid and oils from reacting with oxygen. It removes free radicals. I don't think that ingredient in particular would hurt fermentation much, but I don't know about all those other acids listed.
I tried to upload the ingredients label here but couldn't. The cereal is Great Value brand Frosted Flakes if anyone cares enough to look it up.
 
I think Alpen would be all right as an additive in the mash, oats, nuts, raisins sometimes with berries and sugar a Christmas breakfast beer.
 
Wouldn't the oils kill head retention? I'd love to be wrong because that would open me up to some creative additions to my own beer.
 
Update: Brewed the frosted flakes cream ale this evening. Pretty uneventful. My software didn't have frosted flakes listed as a grain (for some reason) so I wasnt sure exactly where OG would land. With flaked corn in the app, the target OG was 1.051. This wort came out at 1.058. I figured the extra sugar in the cereal would bump it a couple of points. I might have ended up with slightly less volume than intended too.

Mashed at 152 for an hour. Boiled for a half hour, which was a first for me. I figured this was a good beer to try out some of brulosophy's "short and shoddy" methods. I also read in an article earlier that beers brewed with corn adjunct are less likely to develop DMS, so I figured this was a safe bet. If by some chance I ever want to make this again though, I know that the grain bill can make a larger batch and wind up at that 1.051 mark. I added 1/10th of an ounce of simcoe with five minutes to go. The other .25 oz. boiled for the full half hour. Should be around 20 IBUs. Nothing really weird to report yet. The boil and finished wort smelled and tasted like several other beers I've done. I wish I had a ph meter. I've never had a problem mashing yet, but it would be interesting to know what those numbers were.

Pitched US-05 (rehydrated) and put it in the ferm chamber set at 63F.

Next step is to see what fermentation looks like. Hopefully I'll have some bubbles in the morning.
 
Wouldn't the oils kill head retention? I'd love to be wrong because that would open me up to some creative additions to my own beer.
There's a good chance of that. I don't know how much oil is in this particular product. Certainly nothing I could detect by sight throughout the mash and boil.
 
There's a good chance of that. I don't know how much oil is in this particular product. Certainly nothing I could detect by sight throughout the mash and boil.

Just be sure to post results. Especially concerning head rentention. I don't like beer without at least a bit of lacing. Looks too much like apple juice. That would be a deal breaker for me if I were to try something similar, and I'd like to.
 
Nice. Definitely let us know how it goes.
I'm going to try (just for S&G) a bottle or two of a new flavor of V8 Splash. I think it was grape/blueberry. Sometimes the mood strikes to try something weird!
 
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