First Extract

[Talheedin]

Hi Everyone,

I'll be brewing my first extract over the next couple of weeks and just want to make sure that I've got everything right. The beer I'm making is from one of Papazian's books and he calls it Righteous American Ale although I've changed it a little.

So the ingredients are:
John Bull Bullgog Amber malt Extract 3.2KG
Goldings hops
Cascade Vacuum packed Hops
Gypsum 1 table spoon (I think)
Brewlab Standard Ale Yeast

I can’t remember off hand the exact measurements for the hops but I’m probably not going to use all of them so storage suggestions would be useful.


1. Make a yeast starter the day before (Is this necessary with this yeast? Should I do it earlier?)
2. Cleaning and Sterilisation (Soda Crystals soak for anything dirty and Betadine spray and drip dry)
3. 5 gallons of tap water into fermenting bin and 5 gallons into a keg and treat each with half a crushed campden tablet (How long should I wait to let this work? How long can treated water be kept?)
4. 3 gallons of water from fermenter into boiler with hop filter fitted, add gypsum and bring to the boil
5. Add malt extract and bring back to the boil
6. Add starting hops and stir well as hot break occurs and keep stirring (that’ll make a real mess when it boils over!). Keep boiling and stirring for half an hour.
7. Put immersion cooler into boil and add finishing hops. Boil for 15 minutes more.
8. Turn off heat and turn on cooler until wort temperature around 18 – 25 C (Keep water for cleaning stuff)
9. Remove cooler and allow some time for any gunk to settle (roughly how long should I leave for this?)
10. Open boiler tap and let wort pour into remaining two gallons of water in fermenter to allow plenty of oxygen in and stir well while it pours. Top up to 5 gallons from keg water as needed.
11. Check temperature is OK and pitch yeast.
12. Close lid and leave for 10 days (I still haven’t got the hang of this hydrometer thing so I’m not confident that I’d ever get two readings the same two days on the trot, I also don’t like the idea of pouring off 100 ml of beer every day, seems like a waste to me).
13. Siphon carefully into keg with primer and then bottle. (When I primed my Sammonden Dark kit I used 80g of spray malt and although the beer is really nice it’s pretty flat with no head so for my next kit I used 120g is this too much?)
14. Wait two weeks and try a bottle. Keep trying until beer good (in which case drink) or all of it’s been used in testing (in which case learn!).

Is that OK?

[Talheedin]

Thanks DaaB,

4. I’ve increased the amount of malt to take account of the extra few litres that I’ll have and I’ll be doing the same with the hops. Out of interest, any idea how long unused malt will last once it’s been opened and some used? Would you boil the full five gallons then?

12. If I leave the hydrometer in the wort that means that I’ve got to keep opening the fermenter every day; isn’t that bad as it might introduce nasties?

13. I’ve got a tap on my fermentor but I attach a tube to the tap that reaches right to the bottom of the keg so that there’s very little splashing which is why I used the siphon word. I’ve tried siphoning stuff before and I never get it quite right (always get some water in the stuff I’m siphoning or loose loads or whatever) so try not to do it.

14. I try to be a good boy but sometimes temptation gets in the way.

Thanks

Talheedin

[monk]

Talheedin,

Just wanted to comment on the recipe; you're technique sounds great. I've made Papazian's RRA twice, and if I did it again, I'd definitely steep some grains. For me, without specialty grains, it doesn't have a great flavor. I think it's because you're relying so much on the malt extract. Definitely drinkable, but I bet it would be much better if you steeped half a pound of crushed crystal in the water as you brought it to a boil. It's not hard, you can do it easily.
Either way, I hope it turns out great for you!

Cheers,
Monk

[guest5234]

4. it keeps for ages, if it's liquid, put in tupperware and keep in the fridge. If it's dry, put it in a zip lock bag or tupperware. Boil before next use.

12. Check to see fermentation has started then leave for 4 or 5 days before opening again. If the head has dissappeared drop in your hydro, take a reading, leave for a couple of days check again, you'll probably find that's all you need to take. Leave it then until the 10 days are up, you can always check the reading again for interest.

13.

Dab, does this look a bit more advanced?

http://www.allaboutbeer.com/homebrew/re ... econd.html

[guest5234]

Looks fine, adding grains freshens up your beer flavour, it's not difficult, give it a try

Thanks, it says boilng the grains, is that OK.

[guest5234]

It says to remove the grains as the water comes to the boil

Remove the grain bag as soon as water begins to boil.

Another method is to simmer the grains at 65 deg c (60-70 degc c) for 30 mins, remove then bring to the boil

Thanks Daab, I only have 2 gallon pot to boil in, will that be ok, with the other 3 gall remaining in the fermenting bucket.

[guest5234]

You should get away with it but when boiling bigger is better

So if I use 2x2 gallon pots, do I need to split the grain and hops between the 2 or just use one pot?

[guest5234]

You should get away with it but when boiling bigger is better

So if I use 2x2 gallon pots, do I need to split the grain and hops between the 2 or just use one pot?

[guest5234]

Splitting into batches would be better, not so much for steeping the grains but for boiling the hops and the extract. You get better utilisation from the hops (which will hopefully match the recipe) and a better hot break from the extract.

Cheers, will post results when I do it.

[Talheedin]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'm now going to boil the full five gallons instead of just three. I was only doing this for a time and electricity saver. I'll also add the crystal malt and simmer at 65 C for 30 minutes.

Just one question that occured to me: I'm using 3.2 kg of liquid malt in a British five gallon brew (is that 23l?) but the recipie says 2.5 kg (I think) of dry malt in an american five gallons (19l) is this enough? Just using ratios of malt to water I'm using 0.139 kg/l and the recipie is using 0.132 kg/l which is close enough but I've since read that when substituting liquid malt for dry you should use 1.5 kg of liquid for every 1 kg of dry so should I be using around 4.5 kg of liquid malt?

Thanks

Talheedin

[tubby_shaw]

Using 3.2kg of liquid extract in 23L should give you a starting gravity of around 1044. Which in turn should give you an alcohol content of 4.5 % a.b.v
23L is just slightly over 5 imperial gallons

[Talheedin]

I just calculated the ratios to show that I was using a similar amount of DME to liquid malt but in a different amount of water (hence the ratios).

4% to 4.5% is fine for the strength so I'll stick with 3.2 kg of liquid malt.

Thanks

[tubby_shaw]

Talheedin,
As an ex Leeds lad myself, is abbey homebrew in Kirkstall still open? I know Leeds is a big place and for all I know you could live in Roundhay or Morley but I thought I would ask

[Talheedin]

Yes Abbey's still there and I visit it for everything that I forget to order off the net. The people behind the counter seem knowledgable and open to questions and they've had everything I've wanted so far.

There's also another shop on Leeds road going down into Bradford. I think it's called Brew King, I've only been in there once but it seemed OK.

I'm pretty lucky having two shops within three or four miles of me.

Talheedin

[Talheedin]

Hi Everyone,

It's been a while since I've been able to get on the net but I've not given up on the brewing! I'd like to thank everyone who helped with this recipe; it's great beer! Well, it was. And for anyone who is just starting down the brewing path and is worrying about getting it right; I totally cocked up the brewing process with this one and it still came out fantastically.

I've got one of the boilers that came special offer from Tchibo a while back and this caused most of my problems. I simmered the crystal malt for a while and then added the extract and the bolier stopped working. It took me about an hour to realise that the liquid was cooling instead of heating and in the end I had to transfer the brew into the fermenting bin and clean the whole boiler out. The extract had stuck to the bottom and the element had cut out. After cleaning I transfered the liquid back in to the boiler, added the first hops and away it went. Everything went as planned until it came to putting it back into the fermentor (the imersion cooler was great, only took about ten minutes to cool the brew). I opened the boiler tap and a drizzel came out which got slower and slower. Of course the hop strainer had come off the rediculously short tap connection and everything had bunged up with hops. I ended up using the kitchen seive and pouring it all into the fermentor through that. Needless to say I only ended up with around three gallons instead of five but after two weeks it was good, after four weeks it was great and after five weeks it was gone. I'm doing the same again on Friday. I'll try to do it properly this time.

Does anyone know which hop strainer I should be using with this boiler and where I can get it?

One experiment I tried with this was when it came to bottling. I've tried bottling from a secondary bin with ther brews and putting disolved DME in first and I've tried the same with granulated sugar but the results were always pretty flat. This time I put 1tsp dry DME in haf the bottles and 1tsp caster sugar in the other half. Both have come out excellently; good head, really clear and really fizzy. This time I'm going to try corn sugar as well and make an effort to record the differences in taste, head and fizz. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks again

Talheedin