• The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind - Humphrey Bogart

• Always do sober what you said you would do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut. - Earnest Hemingway

• Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. - Benjamin Franklin

• He is a wise man who invented beer. - Plato

• I feel sorry for people who don’t drink. When they wake up in the morning, that’s as good as they’re going to feel all day. - Frank Sinatra

• Give me a woman who loves beer and I will conquer the world. - Kaiser Wilhelm

• I would kill everyone in this room for a drop of sweet beer. - Homer Simpson

• Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza. - Dave Berry

• 24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? - Stephen Wright

• Everybody has to believe in something…..I believe I’ll have another drink. - W.C. Fields

• May your glass be ever full. May the roof over your head be always strong. And may you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you’re dead. - Irish Toast

• You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline – it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer. - Frank Zappa

• I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts, and beer. - Abraham Lincoln

• An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools.- Earnest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls

• Always remember that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me. - Winston Churchill

• Ah, beer. The cause of and the solution to all of life’s problems. - Homer Simpson

• Beer makes you feel the way you ought to feel without beer. - Henry Lawson

• I would give all my fame for a pot of ale and safety. - Shakespeare, Henry V

• God made yeast, as well as dough, and loves fermentation just as dearly as he loves vegetation. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
  

Thanks for joining us on the BeerSmith blog – happy brewing and happy 4th of July!

• The Advantages of Home Brewed Beer
• An Interview with Dan Listermann (of Phil’s fame)
• 5 Ways to Improve your All Grain Beer Efficiency
• An Interview with Brewing Author John Palmer
• Brewing a Kolsch Beer Recipe: Beer Styles

Good Brewing Sanitation

Anything that comes in contact with your wort or beer after it has been boiled should be both washed and sanitized. Items used prior to boiling should be washed, but need not be sanitized as boiling the wort will sanitize it.

Washing is simply the act of removing dust, dirt and grime from your equipment. Sanitizing your equipment is a separate step to kill off remaining bacteria and micro-organisms that might linger after washing. A thorough washing is a precursor to sanitizing, as sanitizing agents alone will not be able to remove built up grime and deposits on equipment that harbor bacteria.

Cleaning Agents

A good mild anti-bacterial dish detergent makes a good primary cleaning agent. A scrubbing sponge or brush will help to remove any deposits, though be careful not to use abrasives on plastic as this tends to scratch and pit the plastic, creating a home for micro-organisms.

For stubborn stains, a number of stronger cleaning agents are available. These include Oxiclean, PBW, and Straight-A.  Oxiclean is widely available, and as little as 1-3 tablespoons per 5 gallons will rapidly clean the residue found on fermenter walls. Powdered Brewing Wash (PBW) provides a somewhat stronger solution for tougher stains. Straight-A is another specialty cleaning agents that works well on tough stains.

Personally, I primarily use a mild detergent for day-to-day cleaning, and oxiclean if I have a tough problem to clean up, as it is readily available at most retail stores and I generally clean my equipment right after using it. Note that all of the cleaning agents require a thorough rinse, as they all can leave a filmy deposit if not rinsed properly.

Do not leave bleach based cleaners in contact with stainless steel for any extended period of time. A short wash is acceptable, but extended bleach exposure will pit stainless steel and may even bore a hole in it if left long enough. Similarly you should not soak plastic in cleaning agents for extended periods as plastic tends to absorb many of the chemicals.

Sanitizing Agents

After washing your equipment, it is important that anything that touches the wort or beer after boiling is thoroughly sanitized. Some of the most popular sterilizing agents include household bleach, iodophor, Star San and B-brite.

Bleach is one of my favorite sanitizers as it is inexpensive and easy to get. Using 1 tbsp per gallon of water yields a solution that will sanitize with a soak time of 15 minutes. Some care needs to be taken when using bleach with stainless steel or plastics, as you should never exceed the 15 minute soak time – bleach will pit stainless steel or soak into plastics if left in contact with the materials too long. Rinse thoroughly with hot water.

Another sanitizer I use extensitvely is iodophor. Iodophor is a iodine based sanitizer available in liquid form. I like to use iodophor for stainless pots and kegs as it works rapidly and is not as corrosive to steel as bleach. It requires a relatively small amount of iodophor (read the instructions – as concentrations vary) and will sanitize very quickly – as little as 60 seconds. Again you should not leave metals in contact for an extended period. Iodophor does not require rinsing, but I usually rinse lightly after use.

Star-san and B-Brite are available from your local homebrew store and are also easy to use. Star-san requires only 60 seconds to sanitize and does not require rinsing. B-Brite takes approximately 15 minutes to sanitize and does require mixing. B-Brite can also be used as a cleaning agent with a good soak.  One advantage of star-san is that it can be stored for an extended period of time and reused several times.

As a final point, be sure to clean and sanitize any piece of equipment that comes in contact with your fermenting or fermented beer. This includes fermentation vessels, siphoning equipment, spoons, hydrometers, tubing, and your kegs or bottles. Clean, sanitary equipment will result in better beer that is free from infection of off-flavors.

Thanks again for joining us on the BeerSmith Home Brewing blog. Please subscribe for regular weekly email or RSS delivery.

• Yeast Washing: Reusing your Yeast
• Bottling Beer: 10 Tips for Home Brewers
• How to Keg Homebrew Beer
• Ten Top Tips for Home Brewing Beer
• How to Brew Beer – 5 Steps for Making Beer at Home – Part 2

I assembled a new BeerSmith Home Brewing Guide from the collection of articles we have here on the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog.    The guide is basically a book containing just about everything an average person needs to know about home brewing.  The new guide has something for everyone from beginner to advanced brewer.  It represents almost all of the articles we’ve done on brewing for the last 15 months.

The guide is organized into chapters, with each chapter linked into posts on that topic.  It starts with simple topics like brewing your first batch of beer, and continues to more advanced brewing techniques.  Later chapters include articles on specific beer styles and recipes, as well as links to other brewing resources.  I may someday link these together into a complete book for publication, but for now you can enjoy the online version for free.

You can click on the link above or the image to the right to jump to the new guide.

Thanks again for your continued support of our BeerSmith Software and the Home Brewing Blog.  I continue to add new articles each week so please make sure you have subscribed to our blog (also free) for weekly delivery by email or RSS.

• Radical Brewing by Randy Mosher – Book Review
• “Designing Great Beers” by Ray Daniels – A Book Review
• New BJCP 2008 Style Guide and BeerSmith Batch Sparging Release
• Home Brewing Social Sites: Beer and Web 2.0
• An Interview with Brewing Author John Palmer

English Pale Ale is a classic beer style and a personal favorite of mine.  This week we take a look at how to brew this classic style at home including the history of the style, formulation of recipes and brewing of English Pale Ale.

The History of English Pale Ale

English Pale Ale shares much in common with classic English Bitters.  The defining example of the style is arguably Bass Ale from Bass Brewery in Burton on Trent, England.  The Bass brewery was established by William Bass in 1777 as one of the first breweries in Burton on Trent.

Pale ale and bitters both are derived from English “real ales” which were widely produced in England in the 18th and 19th century, and originally served with little to no carbonation from hand pumped cellar kegs.

Pale ale can also trace its origins to the start of the industrial revolution in England.  The availability of both coal fuel and high quality steel allowed the production of pale colored malts in the early 1700’s.  Previously only brown and dark malts with smoky aroma were available due to the use of wood in malting.

The English Pale Ale Style

English Pale Ale has a medium high to moderate hoppy flavor and aroma.  Often a malt or caramel flavor and aroma is present, with a slight alcoholic warmth.  The hops should balance the caramel and malt flavor at a minimum, though many examples have a slightly hoppy balance.

The body of a Pale Ale is medium to full, and carbonation is generally low except for some bottled commercial or export ales.  The finish is generally dry with no secondary malt flavors, and no diceytl.  Fruity esters, often a byproduct of English ale yeast, is often present.

Original gravity is generally between 1.048 and 1.062, with 30-50 IBUs of bitterness.  Color is golden to deep copper (6-18 SRM).  Alcohol by volume is a healthy 4.6-6.2%.

Brewing an English Pale Ale

The base malt for English Pale Ale is english pale malt.  The classic type is English two row barley malt with low nitrogen content, traditionally a bit darker than classic pale malt due to the use of higher kilning temperatures.  Pale malt composes about 90% of the total grain bill.  For extract brewers, start with a pale base extract and add the appropriate color steeped caramel malt to achieve your desired color.

Crystal and caramel malts are used in most pale ales, both to add color and body.  Crystal generally makes up 5-10% of the total grain bill and is selected in a color to balance the overall target color.

Maltose syrup is used in many commercial pale ales, but is hard to find for use in home brewing.  Corn or cane sugar can be used in small quantities (generally less than 10%) to give a similar effect.

Wheat, cara-pils, or flaked barley are occasionally used in pale ales to add body.  Generally only a few percent are added, as any larger amount will result in a cloudy finish to the beer.  Chocolate and black malts are used very rarely in some recipes, but I recommend not including them in your pale ale.

BC Goldings and Fuggles hops are the favorite varieties for Pale ales.  Target, Northdown and Challenger are occasionally substituted.  My personal preference is BC Goldings.  Often three hop additions are used – one for boiling/bitterness, an aroma addition at the end of the boil and finally dry hops for added aroma after fermentation.

A single step infusion mash is sufficient for mashing a pale ale, as the highly modified English malt will convert easily.  A medium to high body mash profile (153-157 F) will give you an authentic rich bodied beer.

For Burton style English Pale Ales, the water profile is extremely high in Calcium Carbonate and Bicarbonate.  Burton water has 295 ppm Ca, 725 ppm Sulfate and 300 ppm Bicarbonate.  This exceptionally hard water accentuates the bitterness in the hops giving a sharp finish to the beer.  However, achieving the appropriate water balance can be difficult for homebrewers.  Usually a small amount of Gypsum (CaSO4) added to the brewing water is sufficient to give a slightly sharper finish.

English Pale Ale yeast is used for traditional Burton ales like Bass, and the major liquid yeast manufacturers even carry a special strain for Burton ales.  Other english ale yeasts are also popular with homebrewers for all types of pale ales.  Finally, many homebrewers use American ale yeast for its clean finish and neutral flavor.

Pale ale should be fermented and aged at traditional ale temperatures (generally 62-68F), lightly carbonated and served slightly warm if you are a traditional ale fan.  American brewers may prefer higher carbonation and a colder serving temperature.

Pale Ale Recipes

Here are some recipes from our BeerSmith Recipe Archive:

• Burton Ale – All Grain
• English Pale Ale by Gregar – All Grain
• Alexander the Great – All Grain
• Battle of Britain ESB – Extract
• Bitter Bald Guy – All Grain
• Burton Pale Ale – Extract
• Lancaster Bomber – All Grain
• Pond Hockey Pale Ale – All Grain
• British Pale – All Grain

We have hundreds of other recipes and recipe packs available on our BeerSmith recipe site.

Pale ale is flavorful, robust, and smooth to drink.  I hope you enjoy your home brewed pale ale!  Thank you for joining us on the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog.  If you enjoyed this week’s article, consider subscribing for regular weekly delivery via email or RSS.

• Brown Ale Recipes: Brewing Styles
• Cream Ale Recipes – Beer Styles
• Scotch Ale Recipes: Beer Styles
• Brewing an Irish Stout Beer Recipe
• Steam Beer and California Common Recipes: Beer Styles

Partial mash beer brewing provides an intermediate step for those experienced with extract brewing, but not yet ready to make the investment to brew all grain beer. This week we take a look at how to do partial mash brewing using equipment already available in the average kitchen.

Extract brewers have access to a fairly broad set of ingredients, but there are a number of specialty grains that do require mashing for proper use. Examples include malted wheat, Munich malt, Vienna malt, flaked barley, and many high protein adjuncts. Brewing many authentic wheat beers, German beers and specialty beers requires one to mash.

While many brewers make the direct leap to all grain brewing, partial mash brewing techniques provide a great intermediate step to achieve the benefits of all grain mashing without the investment in large amounts of new equipment. Today we’re going to look at countertop partial mash techniques that minimize the need for extra equipment.

Partial Mash Equipment

Countertop partial mash brewing requires little in the way of new equipment beyond that needed for regular extract brewing. At a minimum, a grain bag is needed to contain the grains. Many partial mash brewers also use a small, clean drink or picnic cooler to hold the temperature of the mash during the mash period.

The Partial Mash Method

In partial mashing, only a portion of the grains required for an all grain beer are mashed, while the bulk of the wort is made from malt extract. Typically only the specialty grains plus a small amount of pale malt are actually mashed, and then the runnings of the mash are mixed with malt extract and boiled to produce the beer.

When formulating a partial mash recipe, you need to have a combination of the specialty malts needed for the beer plus a pound or two of pale malt. The pale malt is needed to provide the critical enzymes needed for mashing, as specialty grains do not normally contain these enzymes.

The mashing process converts long, complex sugar molecules into shorter ones that yeast can consume. For mashing, a combination of grains and water must be mixed together and held at a constant temperature range between 148-158 F – ideally around 154 F. The challenge is to maintain a constant temperature for the time it takes the mashing to complete – typically 30-60 minutes.

Two methods are typically used to maintain temperature. One is to heat the mash mixture over a stove and attempt to regulate the heat to hold a constant temperature. A second method, called infusion mashing, simply heats a premeasured quantity of water and mixes it with the grains in an insulated container like a small cooler, relying on the insulation of the cooler to maintain a constant temperature.

I’ve tried both methods, and I strongly prefer the latter. Maintaining a constant temperature within just a few degrees over a typical stove is very difficult. Further if you overshoot your target temperature by a significant amount you can bring the mashing process to a halt resulting in an incomplete conversion of the sugars.

For infusion mashing, place your crushed grains in a grain bag and determine the correct amount and temperature of water to add. Typically 1.2-1.7 quarts of water are added per pound of grain. The temperature of water needed can be calculated using the BeerSmith infusion tool. Preheat the water, add it to your cooler, and then add the grain bag and seal the top to maintain a constant temperature for 30-60 minutes.

You can confirm that the mash is complete with a small amount of iodine. Pull a small amount of liquid from the mash, and add a few drops of iodine. If the added iodine turns clear, then the mash is complete. If it is still dark blue, then the mash is not complete.

Once complete, simply slowly remove the grain bag from the mash. Add the resulting hot liquid to your boil pot, mix in your malt extract and top it of with water to proceed with the boil, cooling and fermentation just as you would with any normal extract beer.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s article on partial mash brewing from the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog. Subscribe or join us next week for another great beer brewing article.

• All Grain Beer Brewing With An Infusion Mash Setup
• Steeping Grains for Extract Beer Brewing
• Brew in a Bag (BIAB) All Grain Beer Brewing
• Infusion Mashing and Decoction for Brewing Beer
• Converting All Grain Recipes to Malt Extract

The cause of a stuck sparge is quite simple – a stuck sparge occurs when your grain bed and filter mesh at the bottom of your lauter tun get completely clogged with bits of grain and no longer allow wort to flow.  The flow of wort from the lauter tun into the brewing pot will slow to a trickle and then stop completely.  While this problem occurs more often when using high protein adjuncts such as wheat malt, it can occur with almost any brew.

Avoiding the Stuck Sparge

The best thing to do about your stuck sparge is avoid it in the first place.  Here are some strategies for doing this:

• Properly Mill your Grains: The crush of your grains has a significant impact on your sparge as the grains form the filter bed needed for proper sparging.  You can control the milling of your grains using an adjustable dual roller grain mill such as the Barley Crusher.  An ideal milling with break the internal bits of grain into a coarse powder while still leaving the bulk of the husks intact.  The husks then form the filter bed for your sparge.  In general dual roller mills do the best job overall.  Adjust the gap on your mill to achieve as fine a crush as possible without destroying the hull integrity.
• Use a Well Designed Mash Tun: There are many systems home brewers use to act as a filter such as false bottoms, stainless steel braid, and cut copper tubing.  In general the filter area should be as broad as possible with the width and height of the filter area approximately equal to the depth of the grain bed.  Cylindrical Gott or Igloo water coolers with a false bottom work very well.  Whatever system you use, be sure you have a large area covered by the filter, and the filter elements evenly spaced across the bed.  Poorly designed filters are more prone to clogging.
• Sparge Slowly - Most first time all grain brewers attempt to lauter their mash much too quickly.  A full sparge of a 5 gallon batch should take 20 minutes or more.  Use a clamp on your sparge line to slow the flow of the wort.  Rushing your sparge not only reduces your extraction efficiency, it also can lead to a stuck sparge.
• Mash Out - A mash out step raises the temperature of the mash to approximately 168F, and halts the active enzymes used during the mash.  More importantly, a mash out step raises the mash temperature making the sticky sugars in the wort more soluble, resulting in a slightly thinner and less sticky wort.  The less sticky wort helps reduce the chance of a stuck mash.
• Keep the Grain Bed Afloat - If fly sparging or batch sparging, it is important to keep the grain bed afloat with a small layer of water above the grain bed.  If you let the sparge water run too low, the top of the grain bed will dry out, compressing the entire grain bed and increasing the chance of a stuck mash.  Adjust the flow of water into your lauter tun to keep a layer of water over the grain bed so the top of the grain bed is floating and not compressed.
• Add Rice Hulls - Rice hulls, available from most brewing stores, add no flavor or sugars to the beer but can significantly reduce the chance of a stuck mash by providing a proper grain bed that filters the wort.   Rice hulls are particularly useful for recipes using high protein additives such as large amounts of wheat or flaked barley.

Dealing with a Stuck Mash

What should you do if you already have a stuck mash?  Here are a few steps you can take if you are faced with this difficult situation already:

• Float the Grains – Unless you are at the very end of the sparge, add water to float the grains which will help to expand the grain bed and free your stuck sparge.
• Add Hot Sparge Water - If the temperature of the grain bed is below 168F, you can add hot water to the grain bed to raise the overall temperature to 168F.  This will help reduce the viscosity of your wort and aid in breaking the stuck sparge.  However, make sure you don’t raise the temperature above 170F, as this could result in extraction of unwanted tannins from the grains.
• Stir the Grain Bed – Though in general you always want to avoid disturbing the grain bed once it is set, you can stir up the grain bed as a last resort.  This will almost always break the stuck sparge, but it also will result in some grain material being released into the wort and also hurt your overall efficiency.  You can help mitigate both of these by drawing a few quarts of wort off the grain bed after stirring and recycling these back into the top of your lauter tun until the wort runs clear again.

These are the basic strategies for dealing with a stuck mash that I’ve collected over the years.  If you have your own ideas to add, please leave us a comment below.  Thanks again for joining us on the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog.  Please consider subscribing for regular email or RSS delivery if you enjoyed this week’s article.

• 5 Ways to Improve your All Grain Beer Efficiency
• How to Batch Sparge: A Guide for Batch Sparging and No Sparge
• The Barley Crusher Malt Grain Mill Review
• All Grain Beer Brewing With An Infusion Mash Setup
• Brew in a Bag (BIAB) All Grain Beer Brewing

Brew in a Bag (BIAB) all grain beer brewing is a new method for all grain brewing that originated in Australia.  BIAB is an inexpensive way to for homebrewers to transition to all grain or partial mash brewing.  Brewers also enjoy brew in a bag methods for the shorter setup, brewing and cleanup times.

The concept behind “brew in a bag” is to move to all grain brewing with minimal extra equipment, setup or time.  The BIAB method involves using a grain bag set in the brew pot to mash the grains, followed by a no-sparge step where the bag is removed from the pot and the remaining wort is boiled as you would any other beer.  While less efficient than traditional methods, you can easily compensate for this by using a little more grain in the mash.  (Ref and Image Credit: BN Article on BIAB by Thirsty Boy)

Brew in a Bag Equipment

For an all grain batch, you need a full size (batch size plus a few gallons) boil pot and ideally a propane burner to quickly boil it.  For partial mash brewers, a smaller pot (3-4 gallons) is acceptable as you will not be mashing or boiling the full size of your batch.  The brew in a bag method eliminates the need for a mash tun, hot liquor pot, or lauter tun.

The only other equipment needed (aside from normal extract brewing equipment) is a large grain bag.  The bag should be made of a mesh material and sewn together like a great pillowcase.  It should be large enough to cover the entire inside of the boil pot, and have a drawstring or tie at the top to allow the bag to be closed.

The bag will line the boil pot and closed to hold the grains during the mash.  At the end of the mash the bag is slowly withdrawn and the remaining wort is boiled, cooled and fermented as any beer would be.

The Brew in a Bag Method

Brew in a bag is usually done using a single step infusion mash, the same profile most all grain brewers use.  This involves preheating the water in the mash tun to a predetermined temperature before adding the grains.  In a major departure from traditional methods, the entire pre-boil volume of water is used for the mash.

In BeerSmith, you can do this by choosing a single infusion, no mash out mash profile and then setting the first mash step volume (choose details next to the mash profile, then double click on the first step) equal to your boil volume.

You can also use the infusion tool to calculate initial strike additions, setting the strike volume equal to the initial boil volume for your batch.  For a partial mash BIAB, less water is typically used – but again it is equal to your starting boil volume.

Once the strike water is heated to the appropriate starting temperature, the bag is added to line the edge of the boil pot, and the grains are added.  Done appropriately, you should come very close to your target temperature for mash conversion – usually between 148 and 156 F.

Once you reach your target mash temperature, it is best to cover your pot and maintain the temperature as steady as possible for the next 30-60 minutes while the complex sugars in the grain are converted to simple ones.  You can also wrap the pot in towels to help maintain temperature.

After the mash is complete you have the option of heating the mash slightly to a mash out temperature (around 168F).  If you are planning to heat the pot while the bag is still in it, you do need some kind of screen or false bottom at the bottom to prevent the bag from getting burned or melted by direct heat from the burner.  For BIAB, the mash out aids overall extraction efficiency when you remove the bag.

Finally, slowly lift the grain bag out of the pot and let it drain.  Once the bag has drained you can empty it, spray it down and clean it off for reuse on your next batch of beer.

From this point forward, the wort left in your boil pot can be boiled, cooled and fermented just as you would any batch of beer.  If brewing all grain, simply boil the wort with hop additions, cool it and transfer to your fermenter.  For partial mash, you can add your extract, hops and continue to brew.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Some of the advantages of the brew in a bag method include:

• Equipment Cost – If you have a large brew pot already, the only additional equipment needed is a bag, which you can make yourself if you have access to a sewing machine.
• Simplicity – Brew in a bag lets you move to all grain or partial mash brewing in a simple way, and the method itself is very simple to set up and execute, even with limited space.

The limitations include:

• Batch Size – All of the grains have to fit in the bag, and the bag has to be lifted out without breaking, so this does place some limitations on high gravity batches.
• Efficiency - Since BIAB is a no-sparge method, you will lose a few percent efficiency – overall batch efficiency is usually lower than 70%. However, this can easily be compensated by adding a little more grain to the batch and formulating your recipes with the appropriate lower brewhouse efficiency estimate.
• High Water to Grain Ratio – Mashing at a high water to grain ratio, as is the case here, results in lower levels of beta-amalyse, resulting in more dextrines in the finished beer. This can translate to higher body than desired at the high end of the mash temperature range (156-158F). Conversely, the thin mash also works poorly at the low end (148-150F), creating dry beer. In general BIAB works best in the mid mash temperature range (150-156F). Finally, if you are brewing a beer high in non-barley adjuncts such as flaked wheat, BIAB may not be the best option. (Ref: BN Article on BIAB)

I hope you enjoyed this week’s article on brew-in-a- bag.  Thanks again for visiting us on the BeerSmith home brewing blog.  Don’t hesitate to subscribe for regular delivery, and have a great brewing week.

• How to Batch Sparge: A Guide for Batch Sparging and No Sparge
• Partial Mashing
• Brewhouse Efficiency for All Grain Beer Brewing
• All Grain Beer Brewing With An Infusion Mash Setup
• 5 Ways to Improve your All Grain Beer Efficiency

Cream Ale is a distinctly American beer style that is refreshing and smooth.  It has enjoyed a resurgence recently as many microbreweries have taken up the style and even improved upon commercial versions.

Cream ale enjoyed broad popularity in the pre-prohibition era, and was particularly popular in the Midwest.  The distinct style emerged in the latter half of the 19th century as a variation of increasingly popular pilsners.  A darker, slightly sour variation called Dark Cream Common or Common Beer was brewed in the area surrounding Louisville Kentucky. (Ref: Wikipedia)

In the UK, the term “cream ale” is also used to describe nitrogen-dispensed beers that have a rich creamy head, though these ales bear little relation to the American style.   The term “smooth ale” is now more commonly used to describe these beers.

The Cream Ale Style

Cream ale is essentially an ale brewed with lager yeast at warm ale temperatures, much like its California cousin, Steam Beer.  The beer is brewed from American 6 row barley usually with corn adjuncts.

The flavor profile of a cream ale has a hint of malt, along with a sweet corn-like aroma.  A hint of DMS is common due to the lager yeast.  The hop and malt should be balanced with neither dominating.  They generally have a crisp body with a clean finish.

Starting gravities are in the medium 1.042-1.055 range, and color ranges from pale to moderate gold color (2-5 SRM).  Bitterness is subtle but balanced, in the 15-20+ IBU range.  Cream ales are served refrigerated and highly carbonated.

Brewing a Cream Ale

The bulk of the grain bill (80%) for any cream ale is American malt, usually 6 row pale barley malt, though sometimes 2 row is used.  Corn adjuncts such as  flaked maize may be used for up to 20% of the grain bill.  Corn based sugars in the boil are also commonly added in the place of corn.  Other adjuncts are less common, but some recipes use carafoam or very light caramel malt to add body.

American hops should be used, but it is wise to avoid high alpha modern hops which can unbalance the pale malt flavor.  Noble hops are also acceptable.  The normal hop schedule uses both boil and finishing hop additions to add to the flavor profile and aroma.

The choice of yeast and control of fermentation temperature is perhaps most important to this style.  Some modern brewers often use a mix of ale and lager yeast strains, though historically just lager yeast was used.  American lager strains, perhaps mixed with an American strain ale work best.

Fermentation temperatures should be controlled, though fermentation is done well above normal lager temperature ranges.  Generally fermentation in the 65-68F range provides a reasonable balance without excess ester production from the lager yeast.

Many modern cream ales are cold lagered to enhance clarity and flavor, though historically cream ales were not lagered in this way.  If you do lager, I recommend keeping the beer at cold temperatures (around 40F) for several weeks once your beer has completely fermented and has carbonated if you are bottling before lagering.

Cream ale is designed as a cold refreshing drink on a hot day, so it should be served cold and well carbonated (2.6-3.2 vols) much like a lager beer.

Cream Ale Recipes

• Cream Corn Ale – All Grain
• Creamy Goodness Ale – All Grain
• Creamora Cream Ale – All Grain
  
• Easy Cream Ale – All Grain
  
• London Cream Ale – Extract
  
• Vanilla Cream Ale – Extract

More recipes are available on the BeerSmith Recipes Page.

Thanks again for joining us on the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog.  Don’t hesitate to subscribe for regular delivery, leave a comment or drop a vote on your favorite social web site if you enjoyed this week’s article.

• Scotch Ale Recipes: Beer Styles
• Steam Beer and California Common Recipes: Beer Styles
• English Pale Ale Recipes
• Brewing a Kolsch Beer Recipe: Beer Styles
• Brown Ale Recipes: Brewing Styles

In our earlier series on beginner brewing, we covered the basic process for making extract beer at home.  This week we’ll take a look at brewing extract beer with steeped grains.  Steeped grains add authentic flavor, body and color to your beer.

Steeping grains is a remarkably simple method.  The grains are added to 1.5 or 2 gallons of plain water before the extracts are added.  Heat the water to between 150 and 170 degrees F, and then add the grains.  The grains should be crushed to expose the sugars within the grain.  It is usually best to put the grains in a grain bag to make them easy to remove, however you can remove the grains by running the hot mixture through a strainer if necessary.

The grain bag will float at the top of the mixture.  Leave it in and attempt to hold a constant temperature for 20-30 minutes.  If you leave it in too long or steep at temperatures above 170F you will extract excessive tannins which will result in a dry astringent flavor in the finished beer.

Steeped grains will not add many fermentables to your beer (i.e. your original gravity will not increase much).  Steeping grains, unlike mashing, does not convert the complex starches in the sugar into fermentable sugars, so only a small percentage of the steeped grain (< 10%) will ferment.  However, since unfermentable proteins are added by steeping, the body of the beer will be increased.

Whenever possible, use freshly ground grains as crushed grains will slowly oxidize over time.  If you leave your crushed grain exposed to air for more than a few weeks you may add off flavors to your beer.  Storing your crushed grains in an airtight package in a refrigerator or freezer will help them to last longer, as hot temperature and moisture spoils the crushed grain more quickly.

Specialty grains are usually used for steeping.  Caramel malt is often used to add body and color. Darker malts such as chocolate and black patent are also commonly used primarily for flavor and color.  Other popular additions include carafoam and carapils for body and roasted barley for a deep coffee flavor.

Not all grains are appropriate for steeping however.  Pale malt, for example, adds very little flavor and should be mashed.  Flaked and torrified ingredients such as flaked barley, wheats, munich malt and oats also need to be mashed.  To get a complete list of grains that may be mashed, visit our grain listing.  Grains marked as “Must mash” should, in general, be mashed and not steeped.

Steeping these “must mash” ingredients will rarely produce the desired flavor or body and in some cases may generate off-flavors.  In order to properly use these ingredients, you need to switch to a partial mash or all-grain brewing method that will mash the ingredients to take full advantage of them.

To add freshness and complexity to your extract beer, try steeping some freshly crushed grains in your next batch of all extract beer.  Thanks again for joining us on the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog.  If you enjoyed this article, consider subscribing for regular email or RSS delivery.

• Making Full Bodied Beer at Home
• Partial Mashing
• Malt Extract Beer Brewing
• Converting All Grain Recipes to Malt Extract
• The Barley Crusher Malt Grain Mill Review

Radical Brewing opens with a “embellished history of beer” that defies description.  A sampling:  “5,000 BC: Formerly nomadic people of ancient Middle East settle down to avoid having to lug around heavy jugs of beer.   Civilization begins.”  He does not stop there – the entire book is packed with Randy’s dry wit and it makes it an enjoyable trip from cover to cover.

The book has a short introduction to brewing including some sound tips on technique, recipe design and tasting.  However, Radical Brewing is not intended as a “How to Brew” book, so these chapters merely set the stage for what follows.

What follows is a Disney-world E-ticket ride through the world of off-beat beer and brewing.  Randy presents chapters loosely organized by style to include British ales, lagers, big brews, herb beers, fruit beers, Belgian beers, non-barley beers, ancient beers, mead, organics, and a chapter on off beat beers.  I particularly enjoyed the chapters on Belgians as well as some of his off-beat beer styles as these styles are not often covered in other brewing books.

Through each chapter, Randy goes well beyond a collection of recipes by interspersing offbeat brewing techniques, short anecdotes about beer styles, historical tidbits and other off beat facts all written in Mr Mosher’s dry style.  The visual style of the book is also stunning.  Every page is packed with margin notes, pictures, antique illustrations, old ads tip boxes and quotes.  Its easy to get lost in the notes on the margin and forget the main content.

The final chapters focus on social brewing including brew clubs, matching beer with various foods, and tips on expanding your home brewery and even a few words about going pro.  Again, Randy delivers a great collection of brewing tips, radical ideas and thought-provoking commentary.

If you have not figured it out by now, I really enjoyed Randy Mosher’s Radical Brewing.  He manages to somehow entertain his readers while simultaneously teaching them.  The book is also unique in the way it expands the world of the possible.  After all, Radical Brewing is not about conventional techniques and ingredients.  It manages to shed light on seldom seen corners of the brewing world and energize even an old brewer like me to try something new.

I place Randy Mosher’s book in the “must have” category for an intermediate brewer and give it five stars out of five.  Here’s the Amazon Link to the book if you want to pick up a copy.  Thanks again for joining us on the BeerSmith Home Brewing Blog. Have a great homebrewing week, and don’t hesitate to subscribe for free email delivery every week.

• “Designing Great Beers” by Ray Daniels – A Book Review
• The BeerSmith Home Brewing Guide
• The Advantages of Home Brewed Beer
• An Interview with Brewing Author John Palmer
• Soft Pretzels: A Recipe for Bavarian Pretzels