I’ve had this blog now for over a decade now. Brewed and posted a lot of beers. But sadly in the few times that I have moved servers and locations, I’ve lost some of the first few years.
Since I’ve been brewing much much longer than when internet was easily accessed, I have some notes scribbled here and there in notebooks as well.
I think I’ll start doing some rebrews of my old beers. I’ll throw in one of those old old recipes now and then, but they are almost all the same stout over and over.
I didn’t really start branching out into different brews until around the 2000’s and that’s where a lot of my notes started going going on to floppies. I seen no reason to keep 5.25 disks.. so they got chucked.
The earliest posts I have that survived are from 2010 so there is more than enough brews to choose from.
So to start out with, I’ll give the Laceration a go. It’s a Scottish 60 that I brewed first back in the extract days and moved it up to all grain… Plus I believe this was my first 10 gallon batch. And did a split ferment with 2 different yeasts.
I’ll get it re written for a 5 gallon batch this weekend and will do a brew day report. I did a lot of spur of the moment things so an accurate rebrews may not be so easy. But check out the original post to see what I mean.
Cream ale has always been one of those those beers that seems to get misunderstood. People like it because its a good, lighter, middle ground of a beer. And then again.. people hate it just because its a light, middle ground beer.
I have always been one who loves this style. Its nothing fancy, nothing extreme. Just beer. 4-5%. Light colored, and just enough hops to know they’re in there. Its was a hidden step up from the bud and miller lights of the time.
I say hidden, because you told people you were drinking Cream Ale and that sounds great! They think you are all fancy by getting away from the old adjunct, corn and rice lager swill that old men drink. But, you either didn’t tell them, or didn’t know that this fantastic tasting Cream Ale was in fact an old adjunct corn and rice… ale.
And yes. The new wave of beer drinkers loved cream ales. People discovered the liked flavorful beers. Hops. Malt. Its all good!
Then the snobs came. And I’m not exactly sure when in this game it happened. But suddenly craft beer became afraid of using corn or rice. Like it made them seem less legit or something. The Cream Ale didn’t just fall off the craft beer map, it was generally shunned and avoided
But The homebrewers (who at this stage were generally less snobby then they seem to be now), kept cranking them out for a couple of reasons.
Its a straightforward easy going style that homebrewers can understand and it doesn’t over power even newcomers to craft beer.
Its on the lower end of cost. Small grain bill and low hopping keeps it affordable
Because it is a neutral flavored beer, Its often a good pick to add things to and experiment with..
As with all things beer, the circle is coming back around again and these Cream Ales are finding popularity again. Todays version is still very simple and cost effective to keep one on tap at all times.
Try this one. I’ve made many variants of this basic formula and they all have been great.
8 lbs of a 2 row.. American, British, Pilsner… All of one kind or a mix of them
1 to 1.5 lbs of an adjunct. flaked corn or flaked rice, wheat or a mix of them. A bit more or less or how ever you want.
Hops. An Ounce of cascade, cluster, or Liberty, or Goldings or Saaz… at 60 min, then maybe another ¼ ounce at 15. Almost any hop works. Stay around 20 IBU with a smidge at 15min and your good.
Any yeast works here. A clean American yeast like California Ale yeast and its a Cream Ale, Use a British yeast like US-04 and its a Golden ale. Lager yeast,, then its an American Lager, German yeast you start getting into Kolsch territory…
Mash around 152 to keep some body
Simple but great beer with lots of playroom. Go brew one again.
I have already seen the complaining about beers being released too early for their season. I dont care about that. Irish Stout in Sept? Right on. Oktoberfest in June? Yes please. And my favorite summer beer of all…? Pumpkin Spiced!
Being nearly out of the 2019 spiced beer I needed to get a batch up before the real heat of August arrives. So I dug up my regular Amber Ale recipe and tweeked down the bitterness a tad and proceeded to brew this years batch at last months brew club meet.
8lbs Maris otter 1/2 lb 40L 1/2 lb 60L 1 oz Black Pat 1oz Hallertau @60 1 oz Saaz @ 10 2 TBS Tone’s Pumpkin Spice Mash 152 Nottingham Yeast
Now I did call this a pumpkin spiced beer, and I used Tone’s. This blend is pretty tame and balanced,, but you could of course add more of any of the single spices,, like.. cloves. (Everything needs more cloves)
But, I could have called this an actual pumpkin beer.
While pumpkins them selves are on short supply this time of year, pumpkin flowers are not! The one pictured above was more than a foot across when I cut it and threw it in the mash,, so technically I used pumpkin.
Well its already fermented and kegged and is awaiting an the next opening in the fridge,, which should be today or tomorrow.
9stripe Brewing 