HELP - cream ale too dry

[BoozeMedic]

So someone forgot to cold crash the cream ale over the weekend. Expected attenuation with Nottingham was 75% due to us crashing it on Friday. This morning we're at 93.6%.
This beer has 4% lactose added to the bill and is usually your typical crowd pleaser, simple, slightly sweet cream ale.
Now this beer is very dry with an almost cider-like nose (strangely, with hints of tropical fruit, almost like a Belgian strain). I need to either fix this beer back to something close to a cream ale OR sell it as something different.

I'm going to take one keg and attempt putting in some lactose to see if that rectifies. Not sure how I'll do that -- I need to find a way to accomplish this either in the conditioning tank or in-line
Any other suggestions?

 

[jaspass]

I've not done this personally, but have read about this topic. Seems like back sweetening are the key words you are looking for here, to add sweetness or sugars after fermentation. There are techniques discussed across this forum if you search for those key words. I think the general goal is to remove all yeast, possibly by heating or maybe adding some potassium metabisulfite to kill off any remaining yeast, then with nothing left to eat sugars you can add whatever sweetness you need back in. This is done more often in ciders I believe as they finish very dry. If adding Lactose, I've always heard that adds more to body than sweetness, so if sweetness is a goal maybe a more simple sugar should be added. Again, I've not done these steps personally, but based on what I've learned this seems the general direction you are looking to go.

Your other option is to just call it another kind of Cream Ale! Cream Ales were created in the US to compete with Light Lagers that were getting popular back in the 1800's. Traditionally a Cream Ale is meant to be an ale version of a light lager, so high attenuation is acceptable. BJCP guidelines have a Cream Ale FG range at 1.006-1.012. I think now-a-days people get caught up in the "Cream" of Cream Ale. That's fine if the style is migrating more that way, I enjoy those types of Cream Ales too that maybe add more flaked oats for creaminess, and sugars for sweetness and an increase in mouthfeel. However based on what you've stated, I think your beer still technically can be considered a Cream Ale.

Good luck!

 

[Toga]

Back sweetening is the key if you want it a bit sweeter. You could achieve this with some dme and potassium metabisulfite when you keg it. Unfortunately it sounds like you also have some off flavors thrown off by the yeast that likely will not be fixed by backsweetening (what you described as cidery, tropical fruit, belgian).

 

[bleme]

So someone forgot to cold crash the cream ale over the weekend. Expected attenuation with Nottingham was 75% due to us crashing it on Friday. This morning we're at 93.6%.
This beer has 4% lactose added to the bill and is usually your typical crowd pleaser, simple, slightly sweet cream ale.
Now this beer is very dry with an almost cider-like nose (strangely, with hints of tropical fruit, almost like a Belgian strain). I need to either fix this beer back to something close to a cream ale OR sell it as something different.

93.6% of 1.050 OG (guessing) would be 1.003 FG or so right? Nottingham doesn't usually go that dry, especially not with lactose. Those off-flavors don't sound like Nottingham either.

Are there any visible signs of infections?

 

[thehaze]

Nottingham does attenuate high, like between 80 and 85%, but it usually stops at around 1.008 or so. I never experienced any " hints of tropical fruit, almost like a Belgian strain " even when fermented at 72-74F, which is kinda high for this strain.