Home Brew Forum

Well hello there,
Thanks again to all who have helped me out over the past few months with all sorts of advice. Today i tried my first extract/partial mash(bear with me) on a shoestring set up and i am quite chuffed.

Without further ado the ingrdients were

1.6kg John Bull LME
1 kg DME in light form
0.5 kg DME Wheat spray malt
0.5 kg Caramalt
50g Hallertauer Perle(bittering)
20g Hallertauer Perle(Aromatic)
T58 Safbrew beer yeast
Final fluid volume in car buoy is 26ltr
SG is 1.040

As i said at the start this is a bit of an extract and a bit of a grain brew coz i didn't really know which way i wanted to go. Pretty pics below!

On the left next weeks brew(dark beer) and on the right todays willing victim



1/2kg of caramalt being mashed at 68 degrees for 1 hour, LME loosening up beside it.



Caramalt being strained into a bucket before a mild sparging with about 3 litres of hot water



Wort returned to two shiny things and boiled for 50 minutes. 1st thing added were the DME's. Light malt first and then wheat spray 2nd.



After 10 minute boil the first of the perle hops are added. Never realised how much the hops smell like Grass when opening the pack, took me right back 20 years!These hops were boiled for 30 minutes i then added the final 20g of Perle hops and boiled for a further 10 minutes.


I then turned off the gas and to let things cool down for a while(around 20 minutes. While cooling i drew off the top few litres of wort from both pans and added to the carbouy(which already had the LME in it). The wort drawn off was replaced in the pans with preboiled water to maximise flavour in the final wort transfering to the FV. i found this to be the only real hassle during the whole thing.



The carbouy is currently in the bath waiting to get down to yeast pitching temp.






The starting gravity is 1.040, i overfilled a bit to weaken as i don't want total mad juice and have a volume of 26 litres so since i am waiting i decided to try some of last months batch which is a combination of 2 kits 1 a belgian trappist triple and a standard lager kit. Its turned out well!


I will do an AG on this set up, i just need a bigger pan. No reason why not and i love the smell of the malt during mash. Cheers

Joe
[/img]

Just goes to show you don't need a massive amount of equipment to make a brew . . . hope it continues to go well

Great pictures. Glad you had a good day

Mucho gracias amigos. Its fermenting like a mad thing.

Just worked my way through belgian trappist triple,rembrants night stout, belgian white beer and a micro brewery trade winds and a wild cat to celebrate.... We'll see what rammora brings..........I also made a 1 gallon turbo cider based on honey, Raspberries &......Oh yeah apples but that's another story!

The T58 yeast is amazing. It really took off like a rocket and being glass sided i can see what looks like a boil going on within the FV, what an excellent hobby. Already planning next weeks brew, i've got to get some more swingtop bottles...... So if anyone has a supply let me know how much for how many and make me

As said before this yeast is way impressive, already down to 1.030. I don't have any frame of reference for this as this is the first time i have actively decided to use a hydrometer from start to finish in a fermentation cycle. I am using a small wort filled sports bottle as my tester as it has a pull valve on top and this way there's no chance of me polluting the main batch.

1.016 this morning and a noticeable drop off in activity through the glass.

I had a couple of pints of this last night out my top tap king keg(1 gallon left). Clear as a bell and kept its head all the way to the bottom of the glass, very slight banana flavour going on in it. Wish i'd taken a picture, i will repeat this recipe in full AG mode and tweak the hops to get a bit more hop flavour in it. Real nice golden ale colour to it!

looks like a good one, cant seem to see all of your pics though i need beer pron!