Raspberry Cream Ale

Temperatures have dropped a little here in the North East, but not quite enough to lager.  So why not try a cold fermented ale?  The cream ale gets its character from two primary contributors.  The flaked corn gives it the creamy mouth feel, and the lower fermentation temperatures give it a refreshing cleanness normally associated with lagers.  It's time to make another raspberry beer because my wife and her friends loved the Raspberry Wheat we made recently, the only problem with it was that we didn't make enough. 

Batch size: 3 gallons
OG: 1.047
FG: 1.009
ABV: 5.0%
IBU: 15
Style: 20 Fruit Beer / 6A Cream Ale
Recipe type: All Grain

Grist
3lbs 12oz (1700 grams) American 6 Row
4 oz (114 grams) Corn, Flaked
4 oz (102 grams) Cara Pils (Dextrine Malt)
3 oz (76 grams) Special B
5 oz (136 grams) Corn Sugar (added at flame out)

Water Adjustments
1/8 tsp CaSO4 (Gympsom) to bring SO4 level to 24ppm
1/4 tsp CaCl (Calcium Chloride) to bring Cl level to 136ppm

Mash
Dough in at 122 and hold for at least 20 minutes while establishing a pH of 5.3 using lactic acid. 
1.5 hour at 149 degrees.

Hop Schedule
0.2 oz (6 grams) Challenger at 60 minutes (10.5 IBU)
0.15 oz (4 grams) Challenger at 10 minutes (2.9 IBU )
0.15 oz (4 grams) Challenger at 5 minutes (1.6 IBU)

Pitch100 billion cells required.  One half package of Safale S-04.

Fermentation63 degrees for 3 days, then 70 degrees for 4 days.
Rack to secondary.  Add 3 lbs of pasteurized frozen raspberries.

Bottling250 grams of corn syrup dissolved in 1 cup of water
(for corn sugar use 80 grams)

Comments

GristAmerican 6 row is the traditional grain used for this style although many recipes use 2 row.
Flaked Corn adds creaminess.  Flaked corn was chosen over other forms because it does not need to be cooked before the mash.
CaraPils adds body and aids in head retention
Sepcial-B is used in place of Caramel because of it's cake like flavor instead of taffy flavor.
Corn Sugar will lighten the body of the beer.  Using both corn sugar and carapils in the same recipe may seem like a conflict, but the result is the best of both worlds.  The head retention of the carapils and the lightness of the sugar.

MashTypical light body mash schedule

Hop Schedulestandard triple hop profile

FermentationFor an ale, this is the lower range for primary fermentation.  Bringing the temperature up to 70 degrees after most of the fermentation is complete allows the yeast to clean up by products.

BottlingStandard for about 2.5 volumes of CO2