Blueberry Cream Ale- Critique

Alright I have come up with a recipe for the annual famliy vaca down the cape (Cape Cod for those not from NE). This will be a lighter beer to appeal to all beer drinkers. A nice refreshing beer after a long day at the beach.
Last year I did a hefe (the simple hefe recipe in the database), but I already have 18bs of lme, so I dont want to get more wheat extract.
I figure this would be a good one, since all like blueberry ales. I looked around at cream ales, and figure this would work well. I have never made a cream ale, nor had one, but they sound good. I already have hops I bought, so I will use the columbus, as thats the best "bittering" hop I will use. I dont want to use all my good ipa hops I have. I'll use blueberry extract, because I want to keep the color and not have purple beer

This will be a 6 gallon batch, I have my extract in 9 lb pouches from moorbeer. I dont feel like weighing out less, so I figure make more of this and then bring some down to friends for labor day.

18 min boil to make it a quick one, and for the right IBU's

9 lbs Light LME
8 oz. Cyrstal 10
8 oz Maltodextrin
Columbus 15.4%aa 1 oz. 18 mins
wlp080- cream ale yeast
Add 2 oz? Blueberry Extract- at bottling - I will check to see where I want it at bottling.

OG 1.060
FG 1.015
IBU- 18
SRM 6.4
ABV- 5.9%

Comments please!

I was deciding on yeast, and I think the cream ale yeast sounds like a good choice. It was either that or something like a clean 1056 american ale yeast.

I think with 9lbs of LME,it looks a lot like the London Cream Ale recipe on beersmith. but with your changes & other things you didn't use as compared to BS2 recipe. The pound of flaked corn isn't the same as the 1lb of corn sugar in the BS2 one. It uses 8oz of maltodextrine & 1lb of corn sugar. The maltodextrin gives mouth feel,but it also adds a sort of creaminess.
The flaked corn must be mashed with barley malt,as it can't self convert.
So if you wanna stay all extract with the crystal,swap the flaked corn for 8oz maltodextrin.

And dont be fooled by the name "creme ale". If it ends up to style, it will be dry and crisp, and have a little ajunct (corn) flavor. Im not sure that the corn flavor will play nice with the blueberries.

I just made a creme ale (my first one) and late hopped with Citra. The passion fruit flavor of the citra did not play nice with the corn flavor.

I dont think I would fruit a creme ale. Maybe swap the corn for some flaked oats to give it a silky texture which would go better with the fruit IMO

Thanks for the advice guys. I think I'll go with something else, and maybe perhaps just get some wheat lme and make a blueberry wheat. That will be a nice drink, so I'm not playing about with trying to make a style what its not.
I'll make some changes to this recipe and change the thread title.

It's a realtively easy recipe with just taking out the flaked corn & adding the maltodextrin. The difference in color being off by .3 is the light LME. Extra light/pilsen is typically used. So without the flaked corn,which as I said must be mashed,the blueberry extract might still work.

Can i make a suggestion to sub Columbus with another C hop? Im thinking Columbus may be a contrasting flavor for something like this. To me, Columbus has that garlicy kind of taste, i think Cascade or pretty much anything would suit you better. Good luck!

I found columbus to be citrusy in my BuckIPA. Def a strong hop that's good for aroma/dry hopping. Being strong,care should be taken not to use too much at 14-16%AA.

unionrdr said:

It's a realtively easy recipe with just taking out the flaked corn & adding the maltodextrin. The difference in color being off by .3 is the light LME. Extra light/pilsen is typically used. So without the flaked corn,which as I said must be mashed,the blueberry extract might still work.

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Ya I thought about that. I did like the sound of using the cream ale yeast, as its a mix of ale/ lager yeast. It might give it some interesting flavor?? Ok, I might have to come back to this now :cross:

Is this the cream ale yeast you're referring to?
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/white-labs-cream-ale-yeast-blend-wl080.html
Sounds like it's qualities would work well with the columbus.

unionrdr said:

Is this the cream ale yeast you're referring to?
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/white-labs-cream-ale-yeast-blend-wl080.html
Sounds like it's qualities would work well with the columbus.

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Yes thats the one I was looking at. It looks like this beer will be down to a vote. Cream vs. Wheat... hmmm, maybe mix it together for Cream of Wheat!?

I'd say cream ale. Seems like a lot of BMC'rs would go for that more than a wheat beer.

unionrdr said:

I;'d say cream ale. Seems like a lot of BMC'rs would go for that more than a wheat beer.

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My brothers, dad, even my mom, likes non bmc. My dad did get suck with the Miller Light for a long time until we slowly showed him the real stuff, now he goes out to try and find more craft beer. My hefe from last year was well recieved; and my sister in law, said it was the best beer she has ever had. She doesn't drink much beer, but i guess it goes to show that a wheat could work. I probably shoudn't have said this was only to be a light beer, or whatever I said in the OP, I forget. But, either one I think people would enjoy. The guys would be doing most of the beer drinking. I'll also have some porter, some of those wee heavies, and I'm doing a comparision of my first RIS and my 2nd Imperial stout. It just stinks I wont be able to drink much until after Novermber (I have 2 competitions).

I did forget about the Labor day crowd... those guys/ girls like wheat beers. I think a lot of people enjoy wheat beers, even bmc guys.

I'm still thinking how a cream ale yeast would work in a wheat beer... with blueberry flavoring

Ok it looks like I'm going to stick with the cream ale. I'll brew it up the weekend after next, since I'll be away for memorial day weekend. I'll edit my recipe.

If you can get a hold of them I would suggest you concider Comet hops. They are pretty rare far as I know (got the last about 300g of the 2012 harvest from the farmer right here in Germany), but they can give you some very nice blueberry flavour. As a 10min addition I recon the would work nicely.
Got onto them by having a Hopfenstopfer Comet IPA which had a very seriously blueberry flavour going and was all in all pretty darn nice. All from the hops!

Thanks for your input. I looked them up and saw they give citrus, grapefruit and pineapple flavors/ aroma's. I already have the hops I'm going to use, I dont want this being a hoppy beer in the sense it has a lot of flavor/ aroma from the hops, but more from the blueberry extract.
I'll be brewing this Sunday it looks like because Saturday I'll be dead after Tough Mudder.

1.065 OG. Forgot the whirfloc! Looks like I didn't fill it quite to the 6 gallon mark.

I bottled this last night. I didn't get a good gravity reading because I think the beer was still cold from taking out of the fridge to cold crash it. It read something like 1.024, but it did not taste sweet at all. I let it sit out for a few more days (I got very busy), then I bottled. I added 2oz of the blueberry extract, and I couldn't tell I added anything, so in it all went, haha. Even then it wasn't much, but it had a nice faint blueberry taste.
The beer looks wicked light and clear. I got absolutely no trub/yeast in the bottling bucket. I could rack right up to that trub level, thanks to cold crashing I think. It's the first time I've done that. I cold crashed for 5 days. I also did it because the cream ale yeast is a mix of ale and lager yeast.
47-3/4 bottles. I'll get a pic of one this weekend.

Sounds like the flavor balance came out pretty good. I got a 2nd batch of Berlin Wheat I'm adding Trulemon to the priming solution to bottle later today. Darn life keeps getting in the way of my bottling days lately.

unionrdr said:

Sounds like the flavor balance came out pretty good. I got a 2nd batch of Berlin Wheat I'm adding Trulemon to the priming solution to bottle later today. Darn life keeps getting in the way of my bottling days lately.

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It definitely tastes like a cream ale. I've only had the style once, and I can see why the bmc guys like it. The temps got up high a few days with the heat we had up here, and I dont feel like paying a huge electric bill keeping my AC on all day and night, haha.
I think I'm going to be happy with the carbonated outcome. I think the blueberry flavor might pop a little more with carbonation.
I still have a ten fidy clone and a cider I need to bottle. And my huge barleywine has been difficult, very difficult. The gravity is not dropping adding more yeast, but that's a different story
I need more time (and bottles)!

I'd love to come up with a recipe for Little King's cream ale from Schoneling brewing myself. I was addicted to that stuff in my youth. They still make it,but not available very often up here.

Turned out great!

Success! Everyone really liked it. The only recommendation was to not carbonate it as much, which was my fault being the FG finished way high. Which in turn caused a bottle to break in my car when it got very warm inside, which in turn caused the beer to bottom to get very soft, which in turn caused some of the bottles to slide out of the bottom and smash into a milllion tiny little (and bigger) pieces. That stunk wicked bad, but smelled good! Also, the blueberry flavor was a nice subtle finish, but my brother thinks it could have been kicked up a little. Other than that, the whole family really liked them. I have another case in the fridge being ready to serve during labor day weekend.
I also gave my neighbor one to try, as she picks up some packages when I'm not at the apartment, and she really liked it and got a quick buzz off of it, haha.

I really liike this one, and I will definitely will make it again in the future. A great beer on a hot day.

3.5 years later I am going to brew this one up again possible this weekend if my shipment comes in and I have time. Adding in some minute rice to it. I won't have a fridge to cold crash it this time... Married now and our fridge is always full. But our basement should be cool enough, hopefully to drop it in temp at the end. Plus It'll get that lagering when it's in the fridge after carbonating.
Love spring/ summer for good crisp beers. I have a saison waiting to be bottle soon

Are you still using only the 2 oz blueberry extract? This sounds gooood.

treacheroustexan said:

Are you still using only the 2 oz blueberry extract? This sounds gooood.

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Last time I used the whole thing (4 oz) and it wasn't overpowering at all. I tried 2 oz. and there was almost nothing there. I think I'll be doing the same thing this time. It really is a nice beer on a warm day after being outside all day!

Brewed this up on (thinking.....) the 30th??
Well, I know it's been about a week and a half and I brought it up from the basement where it was fermenting at 58* for all that time. I took the gravity and it's sitting nicely at 1.020, from a higher gravity then expected 1.068. It'll be in the mid 60's until next week when it starts getting back into the 70's/80's outside (finally!) and it'll be finishing in the upper 60's maybe up to 70. Our house stays nice and cool out when it's pretty warm outside.
I forgot to get the minute rice, I had already had a few, so I didn't want to run out, and my wife was busy doing something, so I just used some honey instead. Less and less from a real cream ale, but next time I'lll use it!
I'll bottle it up probably next Friday most likely.