My 2nd boil (a lesson learned)

Elmer · Mar 24, 2015

wineinmd said:
I think you'll end up with a good beer, but like you said, not a cream ale. The Windsor yeast and the Hallertau hops would give you some English ale backbone with some citrusy/floral taste/aroma from the Cascade and Citra. That's a bit of an unusual pairing, but it'll probably be a nice, low ABV spring/summer drinker.

I have no doubt it will be drinkable.

Incidentally I have been arguing back and forth with my LHBS.
I have been informing them that this is NOT a cream ale.
LHBS has told me it is and otherwise wont listen to reason.

Eitherway, I have learned a lesson and I have beer that is conditioning and will be drinkable (hopefully) in 3 weeks!

wineinmd · Mar 24, 2015

If you want to pursue it with them further, you can try plugging your ingredients into the recipe creator on Brewer's Friend and compare it to the BJCP style guidelines. I did a quick run, using a 5.0 gallon batch size and 2.5 gallon boil size, and using their estimated FG of 1.011, it is out of style low on ABV and high on IBUs for a cream ale, using their estimates of 7% AA on the Cascades and 3.9% on the Hallertau.

Based on what you've said about them so far, it probably won't do you much good. They probably don't care a whole lot about the BJCP guidelines.

Elmer · Mar 24, 2015

wineinmd said:
If you want to pursue it with them further, you can try plugging your ingredients into the recipe creator on Brewer's Friend and compare it to the BJCP style guidelines. I did a quick run, using a 5.0 gallon batch size and 2.5 gallon boil size, and using their estimated FG of 1.011, it is out of style low on ABV and high on IBUs for a cream ale, using their estimates of 7% AA on the Cascades and 3.9% on the Hallertau.

Based on what you've said about them so far, it probably won't do you much good. They probably don't care a whole lot about the BJCP guidelines.

I am moving on to my next recipe.
Luckily one of the better LHBS has some recipe's posted by style and variant.
I just spoke to the guy about tweeking a recipe I have been working up.

1# Flaked Maize (Corn),
1# Pilsner Malt
3.3# Pilsen LME
2# Pilsen DME

1 oz Cascade hop pellets (5.5 AAU) full hour.
½ oz Cascade pellets (2.8 AAU) 15 min of boil.
½ oz Cascade pellets at flame out

Brewers friend indicates a 5.47%ABV IBU: 26.01

wineinmd · Mar 24, 2015

Onward and upward!

The Brewer's Friend recipe creator is a good starting point if you're interested in developing a recipe from scratch or want to figure out how changes to a certain recipe will affect ABV, IBU, color, etc. Let's say you find a recipe that use Cascades with 10% AA and the ones at your LHBS are 7%. You can run the original recipe into the calculator to determine the IBU. You could then change the AA% down to 7 and then increase the amount until you get back to the target IBU. You could do the same thing if you want to increase or decrease the ABV but keep the rest of the stats the same.

It can also calculate the changes necessary if you want to scale the recipe or if you want to assume a different batch efficiency.

Elmer · Apr 4, 2015

2 weeks in the bottle & I couldn't wait, popped a bottle and it has carb.
I tried one that was dry hopped with 1/2 oz citra .
It is very hoppy, very light body. It is light enough that I downed it in about 3 mins, But at 4% it packs a punch if you drink too quick.
I have yet to try the in hopped version