perfidy

Two-Cycle Cream Ale

4 lbs dry malt extract, light
1 lb rice extract solids
4 oz Crystal malt, 10L
4 oz Crystal malt, 20L
1 oz Perle hops, 7.8% AA (bittering)
1.5 oz Liberty hops, 3.8% AA (aroma)
1 packet SA-56 American ale yeast (dry)

Since summer is coming, I decided to make a decidedly light and dry-finishing beer with moderate bitterness and a light hop nose. Lawnmower beer! I used a pound of rice extract in place of some of the barley malt extract to both lighten the body and dry out the finish, and added a good amount of Liberty hops to provide the floral, crisp nose I'm after. Basically, I'm after a homemade version of Ballantine's or Genesee Cream Ale but with, you know, flavor.

Procedure:
Brought 2.5 liters (10 cups) water to 160 degrees, added the Crystal malts in a muslin bag, and held at temperature for about 45 minutes. Meanwhile, began to heat 3.5 gallons water in brew kettle. Swished grain bag around in brew kettle to get all the sugars out of the malt, and discarded. Added crystal malt tea to brew kettle and brought to boil. Turned off heat, added dry malt extracts and Perle hops, and set the boil clock for 60 minutes. Added Liberty hops for the last 5 minutes..

Removed kettle to bathtub with water and 35 pounds of commercial ice. I had the temperature in the kettle down to 79 degrees in about 40 minutes.

Added one gallon of chilled spring water to fermenter bucket. Added wort, and topped up to 5.25 gallons (approx) with some more spring water. (I like to add a little extra water to my recipes to make up for what I'll lose to the yeastcake and general inefficiency in the racking and bottling process. It makes very little difference to the final flavor, in any case no difference that I'd ever notice.) Poured back and forth between kettle and bucket to aerate wort, and pitched yeast at 69 degrees.

Here's the description of the yeast I'm using: "Produces well balanced beers with low diacetyl and a very clean, crisp end palate. It accentuates the hop flavors and is extremely versatile. Sedimentation is low to medium, and final gravity is medium."

I don't think I'll put this one in secondary fermentation. Although it would probably benefit from a couple extra weeks conditioning time off the yeastcake, I don't want to risk oxygen-damage or contamination upon transfer to the secondary vessel. In a beer this light, any off-flavors have nowhere to hide. Also, I'm running low on beer in the cellar, and it'd be really nice to be able to enjoy this batch a month from Friday.

This recipe is very similar to the Cream Ale kit recipe that my beer supply store sells. The only difference with theirs is they use even lighter Crystal malt (3 degrees Lovibond, the very lightest) than I do, plus some Carapils malt. Also called Dextrin malt, Carapils doesn't contribute sweetness as much as it contributes unfermentable starches that give a beer some body. In a cream ale, that would be very welcome: as long as this recipe works well, next time I'll use his grainbill and some spicy German Tettnanger hops for the nose.

[wik] On bottling, the beer is very good - light malt sweetness upfront with nice soft spicy complexity from the hops, and crisp and dry on the finish with more hop notes. Pretty much exactly what I was going for. It might be a shade too bitter - not a dealbreaker, especially since Perle are a fairly polite bittering hop, but we'll have to see how things develop in the bottle.

Primed with 4 oz corn sugar at bottling.

[alsø wik] The final estimation was "ok, not great." I would have done better to use a cleaner ale yeast, like a Kolsch or Chico strain, and some more flavor/aroma hops.