This is a quick and easy way to brew an ale that sort of mimics the light lagers that I make during the colder days of winter. With the temperatures rising now I don't have a way yet of producing lagers, so cream ale is a convenient alternative. (If you know about some type of miniture air conditioner that I could place in my fermentation chamber, leave a message in the comment section.) This style of beer is also clean, light, low alcohol and refreshing for the hot days of summer where all you want to do is sit back in the shade and quaff copious amount of cool homebrewed beer. Oh yes.
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| Yellow goodness |
Once brewed, I try and let it sit in my kegerator for as long as possible before tapping, allowing the beer to mature and clarify. It really just gets better with age. I age it under refrigeration for at least six to eight weeks.
This is also a good introduction beer for friends that are curious about homebrew but drink light lagers because it mimics the flavor of Bud and Coors and my personal favorite PBR.
Anyway, here's my recipe:
Cream Ale
For 11 gallons of wort going into the fermentor
efficiency of 92%
attenuation 75%
abv 5%
srm 5
ibu's 23 (next time I brew this I will reduce the IBU's to 18, at 23 it's a tad bit to bitter)
o.g. 1.048
f.g. 1.012
13 lbs 2-row
.5 lbs Munich
1.75 lbs Minute Rice (some people use corn but I prefer using minute rice because of the convenience and how little flavor and color are produced during its use)
Mash for 60 minutes in 5 gallons h2o at 154f.
Sparge with 11 gallons h2o at 180f.
Boil 60 minutes
Add .8 oz. Chinook hops (aa 11%) for last 60 mins. of boil
Add 1 oz. Centennial hops (aa 9%) for last 10 mins. of boil along with some Irish moss
Chill to 60f. and pitch 3 pkgs US05 or rack to US05 yeast cake from previous ale
Ferment until complete (in this case at on yeast cake at 68f. it took 4 days)
Rack to kegs, carbonate to 2.6v and set in kegerator to age at 47f. for 6 weeks.
I recommend you try this recipe and tell us how it turns out here.
4 comments:
I've not heard of the style before, but it sounds great. I probably wont get chance to brew it soon, but It's definitely on my 'to do' list. I'll let you know how it goes when I get around to it.
BTW I ferment in a fridge wired up to an ATC800 unit to regulate the temperature with a strip light inside the fridge to provide the heat.
Enjoy the NHC!
Hi Mark, I always enjoy your posts.
Question:
Do you see a difference using 3 vs. 1 pack of yeast. I thought one pk was enough for most beers.
Thanks,
Oscar
I like to use a lot of yeast to get a quick fermentation started so I will use 2pkgs of us05 ale yeast for a 5 gallon batch. I tried using 3pkgs for a 10 gallon batch but found that 2pkgs works just as well, so now I use 2 pkgs only. 1pkg will work o.k. for 5 gallons but doesn't take off fast enough for me and the yeast is relatively cheap.
Hi Mark,
Good site. I have found that brewing a light cream ale or commercial beer lagar clone is harder than a more robust ale or complex craft brew. I think the reason is that the simplicity is hard to achieve. I like to try for clarity low color (3-4 srm) a nice head and drinkability that the bud light crowd could accept. Not easy really.
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