Doctoring an insipid cream ale

Brewing Processes
1

I wanted to experiment with an all-extract cream ale… My process is good, so it’s clean, but it’s insipid. (Pilsner LME + rice solids + Saaz + Safale05)  I recently did a partial-mash cream ale and I can really taste the difference.

It’s been in primary for two weeks. I can keg it this weekend or next, or I could doctor it a bit. That could include adding fruit peel or puree. It’s stone fruit season in California, and we’re into strawberry season as well, so I could puree and pasteurize some tasty fruit pretty easily–I made a strawberry sorbet last week that really popped. I’m open to fruit flavors – I’ve enjoyed Grapefruit Sculpin and (less so) Pineapple Sculpin, and I like Magic Hat Number 9. But I also don’t want something I end up spitting out, as I did when I had Anchor’s Mango Wheat, where the flavor felt forced.

With my next batch I’m going back to all-grain, but I don’t think I want to blend.

Thoughts?

2

How about dry hopping it?

3

slaps forehead That’s so obvious and yet, my brain never went there. Thanks Denny.

4

You were trying hard to make it more difficult, so I went pragmatic…:wink:

5

If it’s insipid, a touch of lactic acid to drop the final pH may be all it needs. To me, insipid just means “needs acid”.

6

I was thinking along the lines of this as well. Say goodbye to flab with a bit of acid!

7

Thanks, I’ll keep this in mind!