[corkybstewart]

I made this Cream Ale for the non-realbeer beer drinkers for Oktoberfest this year.  Very easy, light body and very tasty.

Strangely for the past 2 years the most popular beer at our Oktoberfest are my rauchbiers.  The BMC crowd loves them for some reason.

[gmac]

How do you think this would taste?
9 lbs Weyermann Pils malt
1 lbs Weyerman Munich 1

1.5 oz Hallertau @ 60
1/2 oz Hallertau @ 15 - Would an American hop be better? 
1/2 oz Hallertau @ 0  - Is this needed?

Wyeast 2035 American Lager - This is ready to go.  I made a 3 L starter, fermented it out, chilled, decanted and added 2 more liters of wort (only 1 gal juice bottle).

Ferment @ 45 to 50 degrees (ambient cold room temp, depends on the weather but it's been 50 for the last 2 weeks).

May brew tonight or Sunday.  Not sure but either way, do you think this would work?  I've been looking into CAPs but I don't have 6 row so I may get some and brew on with the slurry from this batch.

[a10t2]

I think that'll be too hoppy for the BMC crowd.

[gmac]

Too hoppy or too bitter?
Drop the 15 and 0 additions and keep the 1.5 oz or drop that down to 1 oz and keep the late adds?
Thanks

[a10t2]

Maybe both, actually. At 5% AA the bittering addition would be ~30 IBU, so I'd probably drop it to 1 oz at 5% AA. I'd get rid of the flameout addition, and maybe even the 15 min addition, depending on what you're going for.

[gmac]

Thanks.  I think I'll drop down to an ounce at 60 but keep the 15 and drop the flameout.  Not really looking for a bud style as much as a "gateway" beer to get my friends to try something a touch hoppier and more "craft" than usual.  I'm not gonna try to match a bud or miller style, if that's what they want they can bring their own but I can understand why someone who's not used to IPA's would have trouble making that jump right from the start. 

I was targeting about 30 IBUs based on German Pilsner recipe's I saw, I'll tone this down to about 25 and see how it goes.
I will still do the Genesse clone, just don't have any 6 row but I've got a whole bag of pilsner malt. 

Sometimes I think part of the issue with non-craft drinkers is colour.  I brew a lot of ambers and darker and I think they have a preconceived expectation based on the colour that the beer is going to be "strong".  I like the idea of a nice light pilsner with decent hop presence to test their reaction.  Plus, I'll be drinking it too and I sure don't want to be drinking BMC.

[bonjour]

Good answers,

Either Cream Ale or CAP.  I prefer CAP because I'll tell them this is the beer that what they like came from.  This gives them confidence that they may like it.

For the BMC crowd, stay away from American hops.  Start with either German or English hops,  don't worry about the bitterness with these hops, but they will object to American hops at the same bitterness levels.

[gmac]

Just to follow up.  I did the Genesee clone using a cereal mash with cornmeal.  I used a big pitch of WY2035 from another beer.
It's ok.  I thought I kept the fermentation temps at the proposed levels but they not have been perfect.

The beer is ok but it's way too fruity in my opinion.  Seems more like a kolsch than a cream ale that I'm used to.  It will get drank but I'm not sold on this one yet, at least not the way I did it.

So, I am looking for a good CAP recipe.  Any suggestions?  I have 6 row, flaked corn and both WLP830 and WLP833 in the fridge.  I'm gonna take my beer out of my freezer and turn the heat up a bit to make it a 50F fermentation cabinet for the next little while to try to churn out some lagers for summer. 

[tygo]

You could go with 80% 6-row and 20% flaked corn and either of those yeasts.  I like to mix up the grist a bit by throwing some pilsner malt in there and I also throw a little vienna in as well to help punch up the flavor profile.  But you could go with just the 6-row and corn.  That's what I did when I started working on my recipe and it turned out a good beer.

For hops I go with Mt. Hood.

[denny]

So, I am looking for a good CAP recipe.

Did you look at these?

http://wiki.homebrewersassociation.org/2CClassicAmericanPilsner

[gmac]

So, I am looking for a good CAP recipe.

Did you look at these?

http://wiki.homebrewersassociation.org/2CClassicAmericanPilsner

Hey Denny, you know I'm as Pro-wiki as anyone can be so actually yes I did.

I was intrigued (surprised, puzzled) by the two NHC winners.  One didn't appear to use any corn, the other used Steam yeast unless I'm reading this wrong.  I sort of thought that pilsner yeast and corn were implicit in this beer.  I'm not implying that they aren't awesome beer, they were just not quite what I was expecting to read when I opened them up.  I think one of the others also used the steam beer yeast.  I think part of my problem with the cream ale clone was that I didn't use the right temps (I put the thermometer in the water bath and it read 56 so I figured with fermentation temp I'd be pretty close).  That's why I'm thinking of trying a real cold ferment.  I want to do a 10 gal batch and a 10 gal batch of amber lager with 833 at the same time since I'm taking my beer freezer out of commission for 3 weeks.  Goal is to get at least 4 kegs to lager for summer.

Maybe I should start a new CAP thread?

[bluesman]

WLP830 will render the cleanest of flavors, while WLP833 will lend the maltier profile in my experience. They are both fantastic lager yeasts IMO.

[denny]

So, I am looking for a good CAP recipe.

Did you look at these?

http://wiki.homebrewersassociation.org/2CClassicAmericanPilsner

Hey Denny, you know I'm as Pro-wiki as anyone can be so actually yes I did.

Figured you had, but I had to ask!  Try a search for Jeff Renner's posts here.   He may have posted his CAP recipe somewhere. 

[bonjour]

http://brewingtechniques.com/library/backissues/issue3.5/renner.html

http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter19-4.html

Jeff is the person (he will tell you that he had help) that brought back the style

[richardt]

http://www.byo.com/component/resource/article/2503-the-big-chill
Gordon had a good article in Dec BYO with award winning recipes.
Lots of leeway with recipes, even for lagers (e.g., Dave Helt's use of Cali Ale yeast and long lagering period).
Good water, good ingredients, good process (temp control, sanitation, yeast), and time should all help you reach your goal.