Brew Dudes Homebrewing Blog

Tips for Brewing American Cream Ale

On January 22, 2014

American Cream Ale is my go to summer beer. It’s a little more interesting than some of your typical lawnmower beers, but still very easy on the palate as an every day, all day drinking beer.

I’ve brewed this beer enough times to have developed a feel for what I think works well.

First of all, the heart of this style lies in the use of flaked corn as an adjunct. The flaked corn contributes fermentables but not at the cost of body and crispness. Flaked corn helps the base malt characters shine through. Another aspect that corn has, that other adjuncts won’t, is the corn character. Normally, corn flavor in a beer is unwanted and I certainly agree. But in this style of ale, you want a slight hint or touch of corn-ness to make it seem more lager like in it’s flavor character. Using one pound in the recipe won’t create a DMS/vegetal bomb. It will be just enough to keep that clean almost lager like fermentation profile.

Next up is the use of table sugar. I use a pound of it. This ingredient can in some recipes be 5-10% of the total fermentables. Using corn sugar ensures a dry beer and a dry finish. The yeast will rip right through it getting you a couple extra degrees of attenuation and a lower FG. The lower FG is what makes the beer very approachable and very refreshing. There isn’t much left to keep your palate wonder, so another sip is what you’re encouraged to do.

Lastly, with a beer like this there isn’t much character in the malts and hops being used to hid things so your water choice is crucial. Mineral-ly water will stand right out. But improperly pH will make the beer seem flabby. So you need soft water here with just a touch of gypsum to balance things out. 50 ppm or so usually works well for me. (Of course your base water may be very different than mine).

If you’re thinking about brewing something refreshing for the summer, think about brewing an American Cream Ale. I like to split my base malt 50/50 with pilsner and 2-row, and I stay true to the style with American Ale yeast. However, making this type of beer with a Kolsch or lager yeast would work well too. These are a couple areas I haven’t experimented with yet to any significant degree.

If you have tried Kolsch or Larger yeast for brewing American Cream Ale let us know!

Black Lager Bottling Day

By John Krochune

On January 21, 2014

In Brew Log

After a long lagering period, the bottling must be done. Someday I will keg, but until then I will bottle.

Usually I store the beer in the fridge for six weeks before I move it to its final storage phase, but this one only went five. Is one week a big difference for this kind of beer? To be honest, I am not sure but didn’t feel like waiting*. The black lager was more of an experimental brew and not one I was trying to win major style points. This is my Yule Lager, don’t you know?

I brewed this beer in late November as a more roasty schwarzbier. The addition of roasted barley was the key difference between what I would consider brewing to style would be. The typical schwarzbier should taste like a pilsner but look like a stout.

At bottling, I sampled the beer as it was being racked from the carboy. My comment to Mike about the taste was that it was the “my cleanest stout”. He chuckled and opined about the nature of the style. It didn’t seem to make sense to him that a beer should look a certain way without the characteristics of the grains that would normally provide its appearance.

I know this question is like giving a thumb to the nose to the history, but shouldn’t this style showcase some roastiness? If the Schwarzbier style can’t be expanded, could there be an American black lager subcategory?

Meh, I am trying to justify my Yule lager to do well in a competition. I will be entering it but I won’t be getting any awards for the Yule lager.

*One thing about bottling lager is that the mellowing and conditioning continues in the bottle. In my experience, even if you bulk condition for only say four weeks, there will be further conditioning in the bottle that will improve the look and taste of the beer.

Summer Hops Profile

By John Krochune

On January 17, 2014

In Hops

Not to be confused with Summer Shandy hops, which are an ornamental variety, these are Summer hops – sometimes shown as AU Summer hops because they do come from a land Down Under.

Hops Products Australia (HPA) is the breeder of this variety. They are a part of the Barth-Haas Group, which is headquartered in Nuremberg, Germany.

Lately, the most interesting varieties are coming out of AU and Summer is not an exception. Here are the details:

Origin: As mentioned above, Australia

Aroma/Flavor: Subtle Melon and Apricot.

Alpha Acid: 5.6 – 6.4%

Typical Usage: Aroma

Beer Styles: A plethora of American ales, especially IPAs

If you were looking for a hop variety to complement the melon aromas and flavors, Belma hops could be a good one to pick up.

To bolster the apricot presence, you could add some Palisade hops to the mix.

Summer hops were one the first successes HPA had in attempting to breed a true aroma hop by European standards. With its low alpha acids, a home brewer could up the addition of this hop with good results and without fear of making the beer too bitter.

The other thing I picked up in reading the specifications from the HPA site was that the hop profile truly reveals itself when you dry hop with it. Is that a comment on the subtly of the hop or was it just worth noting that dry hopping with Summer hops provided some great results in the beer?

There are so many new fruity hops out there that you could brew a beer with a simple base malt foundation and a little bit of bittering hops at the start of the boil to set up for a huge hop burst with many different varieties added at the end of the boil. Dry hop for a few days before bottling or kegging, this beer would be a fruity masterpiece. Drink it fresh and I don’t think there would be a better homebrew for hop heads.

Brewing Tips for Northern English Brown Ale

By Mike

On January 15, 2014

In Videos

We’ve decided to replace our fairly one side tasting videos with something new. We’re going to be offering our perspective on key tips for brewing better versions of our favorite beer styles. For the most part, we want to relate some points that we think have made better versions of beer for us. Its a way to highlight one mans brewing process to help improve, inspire or just simply give you something else to try in your brewing adventures.

Our first up video in this format is for Norther English Brown Ale!

Norther English Brown is one of my favorite styles to drink. I think its a well balanced malty but complex beer. Usually not as strong as a porter or stout from a flavor standpoint so you don’t fatigue to quickly with it on the palette.

When people thing Brown Ale they are normally thinking Northern English Brown Ale. Northern English Brown is nutty and rich. Subtly roasty with hints of chocolate and caramel. Warm toasted bread like finish. Hops in this beer really serve to keep the combination of chocolate and caramel malts from seeming too sweet.

Key points for making a successful Northern English Brown are as follows:
1. Roasted Malt. No other combination of malts really makes up for the toasty, mild roast like character of Roasted malt. I have found this malt to really be the back bone of a great nutty version of this style.
2. Chocolate Malt 350L color. Seriously there are so many chocolate malts on the market now for homebrewers its daunting. I got caught in a trap of 400-450L chocolate malt (normally UK derived malters) and could get the subtle chocolate notes I was looking for. Chocolate 350L (form Briess) to me delivers the chocolate notes needed without making the beer seem to porter like.
3. Lastly, water should lean towards the malty side. Stick with something that favors your Chloride ions. Using Calcium Chloride with deliver that and offer needed calcium to your brew. Of course some gypsum is needed to enhance the slight minerally character needed to really make the beer seem English like in character.

Lastly, this style and these recipe basics really are a great jumping off point for any brown ale style English OR American. To take this same concept and go American with it, I would simply back off on the chocolate malt slightly (keeping it to 3-3.5% of the grist) and sub American hops like Columbus and Cascade for the English Goldings in the English style.

That’s how The Brew Dudes do Brown Ale.
Leave us a comment or a question if you got ’em.
BREW ON!

Crush It With A Barley Crusher Grain Mill

By John Krochune

On January 13, 2014

In Equipment

I read the reviews. I looked at the product descriptions. I decided to buy this mill.

It’s the Barley Crusher. Northern Brewer sells two models – one with the hopper that can hold 7 pounds of grain and one that can hold 15.

With a 100 dollar gift card to that particular homebrew shop, it was hard not to choose where to purchase the mill.

I am going with the model with the larger hopper. It’s the more expensive of the two but in the long run, the larger capacity will suit me since there is not plan to upgrade the mill in the future. Whatever grain mill I buy should be the one I use for the rest of my homebrewing days.

The feature that caught my eye right away was the crank that did not need an adapter to fit on to a power drill for non-manual milling. Large hopper + motorized cranking equals time and (human) energy savings.

I also like that this model is coming with a solid base that fits on top of a bucket. I don’t have a work bench or a solid table to mount a mill. This thing will have to be mobile and having the ability to place it on a bucket wherever I need to put the bucket is ideal. It would be great to figure out a way to mill the grains right into the mash tun. I guess that will be a project once I get the Barley Crusher.

The lifetime warranty and the adjustable rollers for a consistent crush are good things too, of course. It will take me some time to get the hang of it but after a few batches, the crush should look the same each time I use it.

The particular model received a nice review so I feel like I am making a sound decision.

If you have used this mill, I would like to know your experience with it.

Brew On.