Dry Extract Brewing

[Chookers]

I have the same question in Kit and Extract section.

I was reading Brewing Classic Styles, and I decided to do the lawnmower beer.. but I wanted to do it using dry malt extract.

My questions are about the rice syrup, I assume he means rice malt? could I use honey in place and what difference would it make if any? would it be noticeable.

I am intending on doing a nanobrew... lol (1 gallon) Incase it sucks, I don't want to have loads of the stuff. This hole thing would really be to sample my hops flavours.


Totally off topic, but can anyone tell me why cream ales are called cream ales, what is cream about them..

 

[Bribie G]

Rice malt syrup, available from Asian groceries in the 500ml tub. Dirt cheap, you can get something similar from supermarkets in the odds and ends section with the tahini, palm sugar etc but it's about three times the price.

Cream ale was a "faux lager" beer brewed in the USA by breweries who cranked it out for the refreshment of the hard working proletariat of the time, it was called "cream" ale as it was light and frothy and low hopped and ... sort of creamy.
For example in the UK when nitro-served "smooth" beers became popular in the early 2000s a few brands were advertised as "cream flow" for similar reasons.

Here tis

 

[MHB]

Not sure why they are called "Cream Ales" Cream ales are perhaps the only unique American beer and were originally made as a frontier beer. As a guess you could speculate that as they tend to be made of 6 row barley malt and fairly high in adjunct (grain other than Barley Wheat Oat Rye Malt) and these were probably a catch as catch can made from what ever they can get so lots of corn and rice used in early examples. The use of lots of adjunct can give beer a very smooth creamy texture from high glucan levels.

The defining character of modern cream ales is "Bland" (Clean, Dry and Sessionable) I wouldn't use honey for fear of adding too much flavour.

Use White Sugar or Dextrose to thin the body without adding flavour (about 10%) Rice Syrup is available I have even seen it in my local Woolworths, for a small batch it might be worth looking for, it is also available from some home brew shops, I think Briess do a 1.5kg tub

Brew with a good clean ale yeast then Lager for a couple of weeks after the beer is conditioned. Some brewers add Lager yeast before chilling to get better attenuation and to clean up any Diacetyl formed as the beer cools (cool slowly to lagering temperatures).
Mark

 

[Chookers]

thanks guys will try your suggestions.

Good to know why they're creamy, I love that creaminess, I just never knew how to get it.