Brewing A Creemore Springs Premium Lager Clone

or...

Some completely self-indulgent pictures of brewing.

Creemore Springs Premium Lager is one of my absolute favourite beers. Unfortunately, it's also hard to find in Calgary, not to mention outrageously expensive. And when you do find one, it's not always fresh. Someone on the newsgroup rec.crafts.brewing posted his brewery tour notes - OG: 1.048, IBU: 22, specialty malts: carastan and some crystal, hops: saaz and hallertauer. Armed with this information I concocted the following recipe:

What's in my clone? Recipe for 13 US gallons:

Grain:

21.5 lbs WestCan Malting 2 Row

1 lb Briess Munich (light)

1 lb Hugh Baird Carastan

2 lb DWC Caravienne

Hops:

3.3 oz Crystal Leaf (4.9%) - FWH

.5 oz Saaz Pellet (3.5%) - 30 min

Mash:

154F for 90 minutes

Heat mash to mashout (168F)

Sparge and collect 14.5 gallons

Boil 75 minutes

Yeast:

pitched with WY #2035 (American Lager) in a 1 litre starter. Primary ferment at 54F.

Specs:

OG: 1.050

FG: 1.010

IBU: 21.9

Colour: 8.7 SRM

Tasting Notes:

Not as close to Creemore as I'd hoped. Crystal hops have a distinct flavour, and WY 2035 is probably too clean and neutral for this beer.

The colour seemed about right, but my sparge stuck like glue (the false bottom phloated), so things were a little hairy for a while. I had to scoop everything out of the mashtun into a pot, heat to mashout, clean the mashtun, and then scoop it all back in. Sparged great after that.

My digital camera wasn't working well, so there's only a few pictures:

Here's Chris and Shane running the grain through Chris' brand new Valley Mill. Almost as easy as falling down, especially using the power drill attachment. Shane's got a 3/8" drill, which was getting pretty hot by the end of 25.5 lbs of grain - a 1/2" with more torque would be better.

Can I play, can I play? The hopper holds about 20 lbs. I wish I could get a better close-up - but we got a perfect textbook crush.

A shot of the brewhouse. Notice the hoses running in and out of the door - I can only chill (and therefore brew) when it's above freezing and I can get water to flow through the hoses. Also note the fence - you can almost make out the remains of last year's hop vine.

Treat your kegs right! My keg washing kit - non-scratch pads and Cameo stainless/copper cleaner. I was getting some rust spots on my HLT, but using the Cameo seems to have solved that problem.

Happily fermenting away. I usually ferment in glass for primary and secondary, especially with a lager that will not be as active. Note the fement thermometres on the carboys. Actually, I under-pitched this batch, and it took 30 hours to get signs of fermentation - not the best! If I was a SmartBrewer(tm), I would have prepared a larger starter. We'll have to see how this turns out.

Well, that's it for this time. I'll get better shots next brew session.

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Here's Chris and Shane running the grain through Chris' brand new Valley Mill. Almost as easy as falling down, especially using the power drill attachment. Shane's got a 3/8" drill, which was getting pretty hot by the end of 25.5 lbs of grain - a 1/2" with more torque would be better.
	Can I play, can I play? The hopper holds about 20 lbs. I wish I could get a better close-up - but we got a perfect textbook crush.
A shot of the brewhouse. Notice the hoses running in and out of the door - I can only chill (and therefore brew) when it's above freezing and I can get water to flow through the hoses. Also note the fence - you can almost make out the remains of last year's hop vine.
	Treat your kegs right! My keg washing kit - non-scratch pads and Cameo stainless/copper cleaner. I was getting some rust spots on my HLT, but using the Cameo seems to have solved that problem.
Happily fermenting away. I usually ferment in glass for primary and secondary, especially with a lager that will not be as active. Note the fement thermometres on the carboys. Actually, I under-pitched this batch, and it took 30 hours to get signs of fermentation - not the best! If I was a SmartBrewer(tm), I would have prepared a larger starter. We'll have to see how this turns out.