I was in Canada for my hols so I devised a couple of recipes when I was over there. I'd never heard of cream ale before, which is fairly common there, and it was great for hot weather drinking so I'm going to have a go based on the style guidelines. It's basically a lightly hopped 'lager' brewed with an ale yeast, with some corn to lighten the body and add some creamyness. I used corn in my last ESB and I really enjoyed it! I'm brewing this for a party so hopefully it will be a crowd-pleaser.
So here's what I'm brewing today:
Based on 70% efficiency and for 5 UK gallons, shooting
for an SG of around 1.045 to 1.050.
Pale ale malt (maris otter) - 9 Lb
Carapils - 0.75Lb
Flaked Corn - 1.5 Lb
Munich Malt - 6oz
Gypsum - 1tsp
Mashed at 66C/151F for 90minutes, 1.5Qt:1Lb
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Hallertau Hersbruker 1oz (60mins)
Hallertau Hersbruker 0.5oz (15mins)
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WL007 Dry English Ale yeast.
Going to ferment it at the cool end of the range and maybe cold condition for a week or two. Sorry for the pounds and ounces I designed it in pro-mash!!
Brew Day030706Cream Ale
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Bigster
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mysterio
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mysterio
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BitterTed
QUOTE (mysterio @ Jul 27 2006, 08:35 PM) I'm drinking this one at the moment... Good for the summer weather but a bit boring. Needs more hops!
I like Cream ale myself, and yours looks pretty nice! You might try a traditional No American hop for bittering, I like Cluster in my Cream Ale. There are folks that absolutely hate that hop, I find it rather nice. If you cant get them, maybe Brewers Gold or Bullion or Nugget. Or maybe you could simply up the amount of Hersbrucker and get the IBU into the low 30's.
I like Cream ale myself, and yours looks pretty nice! You might try a traditional No American hop for bittering, I like Cluster in my Cream Ale. There are folks that absolutely hate that hop, I find it rather nice. If you cant get them, maybe Brewers Gold or Bullion or Nugget. Or maybe you could simply up the amount of Hersbrucker and get the IBU into the low 30's.
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mysterio
Thanks for the feedback BT.
To be honest, the ale was a bit of a disappointment. Still good but not much like a cream ale. If I were to do it again I would probably use Safale US-56, drop the munich malt, reduce the carapils a bit and mash at 64/65C. More flavour hops too. I'm a fan of the lemonyness of Hersbruker so I'd probably stick with them. I've never tried any of the hops you've mentioned but I'll put them on the 'to-hop' list
To be honest, the ale was a bit of a disappointment. Still good but not much like a cream ale. If I were to do it again I would probably use Safale US-56, drop the munich malt, reduce the carapils a bit and mash at 64/65C. More flavour hops too. I'm a fan of the lemonyness of Hersbruker so I'd probably stick with them. I've never tried any of the hops you've mentioned but I'll put them on the 'to-hop' list
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Frothy
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monk
I made a Cream Ale with just extract and it turned out fairly well. The IBU's were around 25 and I used rice extract instead of corn. It was a while back, but it was one of my most celebrated brews. My friends and family are not all that into the malty/hoppy ales that I love, so the light flavor of the cream ale was a hit. I added some apricot to part of the batch and that turned out lovely, too. The addition of the fruit upped the abv to around 6%, so with the light taste it took many by surprise and I had a lot of very tipsy friends sort of slumped over in their chairs and asking, "what'd you put in this thing, Alex?"
It's fun to homebrew.
I recommend the rice extract, especially. You probably wouldn't want to use a lot, but about a pound makes for a very light ale.
monk
It's fun to homebrew.
I recommend the rice extract, especially. You probably wouldn't want to use a lot, but about a pound makes for a very light ale.
monk