Improve my Cream Ale

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frezel

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3 gallon batch size

7 lbs of Briess Pale
1lb of Flaked Maize

0.5 oz perle hops @ 60 min
0.5 oz Liberty hops end of boil.

yeast us 05

mash at 152 for 60 min

any suggestions?

great tasting but seems to simple, maybe some more body or head retention.
 
Cream ale is a light and refreshing style, so simple is fine. But if you'd really like to play with it:

By Brewer's Friend, you're getting 50% brewhouse efficiency. That seems low - you might review your mashing procedure.

You could trade a pound of barley malt for a pound of corn, if you'd like a little more of the corn flavor. You could add a couple of ounces of aromatic malt to enhance the maltiness, as JR Brewer does in his Old School American Cream Ale. You could add a few ounces of a crystal malt to enhance the caramel flavor. Herky21 uses CaraPils and C10L in his Second Best Cream Ale, and Anderson Valley uses C40L and C80L in their Summer Solstice. A little flaked wheat or oats would give you a richer mouthfeel. Swapping a pound of your pale for a pound of Vienna or Munich might add a layer of flavor. So a possible grain bill could look like this (assuming your already established 50% efficiency): 5 lbs. Pale 2-row, 2 lbs. Flaked corn, 1 lb. Vienna, 4 oz. C40L. You would still get an OG of ~1050, and your color would still be pretty light (~8 SRM), but you'd get a little more layering of flavor.

On the hops side, it looks a little heavy-handed, with 29 IBU. You could try maybe 0.3 oz. of Perle, and maybe split your Liberty into two additions - 5 minutes and flameout - which would take you down to closer to 20 IBU, letting the malt shine more.

For yeast, US-05 makes a fine beer, but if you'd like a little more fruitiness, you could try S-33 (if you want to stick with dry) or Wyeast 1272 Anchor, 1332 Northwest, 1450 Denny's, or 1010 Widmer (if you're looking into liquid).
 
You could also sub in some flaked rice. I'd say 1# at most, and it will help to give you more "dry" beer.

Another possible hops pairing would be Tettnang and Willamette. 1/2 ounce each @ 60 would given you around 20 IBU on a 5 gallon batch. And the "bonus" is that if you do a boil with the lid on (to keep the DMS), you'd get something like Rolling Rock! :)
 
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