I have a cream ale in the fermenter that I’ll be bottling this weekend. It’s a pretty simple recipe that I’ve made before with only minor variations:
6 Pilsner
1 Munich 10
2 Flaked corn
1 Cane sugar (added with 10 minutes in the boil)
An ounce of HMittelfruh at 60/30/10.
Mashed at 149.
OG was 1.052 which was just a point above my 1.051 target.
All according to plan so far.
The only thing I did different this time was the yeast. I’d always used WL Cream Ale but my LHBS no longer carries WL so I went with 1056.
Chilled to 64F and pitched. We keep our house at about 68 so I’ll usually just let ales sit in a cool corner to ferment.
On days 2 & 3, I had to change out the airlock 4 times. Never had to do that with 1056 before.
Now on day 12, I took a reading and this fermented down to 1.004! This means I’m looking at a 6.3% ABV or more than a full percentage point over what I was shooting for and pretty much takes it out of the lawnmower beer range.
Sample tastes fine but I seem to detect a faint sulfur aroma like from a pils.
I would have substituted a clean fermenting lager yeast instead of 1056. I know they call it ‘ale’ but many traditional cream ales are brewed as lagers. They also contain some 6 row barley, I’d probably sub out 2 pounds of pilsner for 6 row – but that’s just me.
well done, you’ve got a nice crisp cream ale to enjoy with the upcoming warm weather!
I’ve seen enough anecdotes about Lutra being used as a lager strain that it would probably work. From what I understand, lutra will ferment at traditional lager temperatures and will produce clean beer - it’ll even produce pretty clean beer into high 50’s to mid 60’s (fahrenheit) – now the best part of Lutra is that the warmer it ferments the more estery it becomes (citrus forward) instead of something like 34/70 that will turn into dog poop.
For homebrewers who want to make lagers but can’t control fermentation temperatures, lutra (and all of the kevik strains) is a game changer.
I see a lot of talk around these “clean kveik” strains and I’ve still not really had many examples that feel clean to me. Oslo, Lutra as two I’ve brewed with still carry a distinct phenol note to them that makes me twitch.
I think Kveik strains can work well when there’s room to either embrace or hide those flavors and aromas but I really don’t see it working in a situation like a bog standard cream ale.
If you’re looking to keep the next batch in “lawnmower” range, I’d bump the OG down a bit and maybe mash a little hotter to reduce the fermentability a bit.
I usually aim for an OG in the 1.030s for session/table beers.
Just to clarify, I do have temp control to ferment at lager temps but I’ve never used it with the Chico strain. I’ve fermented with that strain probably 20 times on my cool tile floor and never had a fermentation like this.
Next time I do a cream ale … well, I’ll probably just make a lager.
