First Extract - ESB

[SiHoltye]

Hello.

I have taken a step forward now...

(those who now my posts I believe I can remedy the medicinal twang by not using VWP every clean, rather a thin bleach solution and by using sodium metabisulphate after rinsing - eternal thanks to Daab, I shall pay closer attention to your tutorials in future)

...and splashed the cash on a set-up from H&G!



My intention is to do some extract brews (time constraints rather than anything else) to get up my handling of hops and procedures when moving large quantities of hot wort, before moving at a later date to the dark side as so many call it (All Grain brewing). This weekend is perfect timing as the wife is away on a hen weekend (ha ha, Butlins in Bognor - the Stags went to Portugal!!!). So with her away no risk of an ASBO(Behaviour = Brewing).

ESB
2kg Pale Male Extract
150g Crushed Crystal Malt
1kg soft brown sugar
75g EKG full boil
10g EKG @ flame out
10g dry hop
5g irish moss

It's just the starter today, and with the kind people at Parcelforce smacking my Wyeast pack early on it's travels down from Darlington I'm off to a flyer. I'm gonna brew tomorrow, and have made up a 2L starter this afternoon. It'll give the yeast 24hrs to multiply.

Here's what I did for all those who love piccies, I know I do!

Starter Ingredients - 200g spraymalt, 2L water


Don't forget a pinch of Yeast Vit.


Boil it all up for 10 mins


Cool it down again


It's cooling quick, anybody recognize these bits? Is this cold-break?


Cool enough to go into sanitized 5L bottle, finish cooling under tap


Down to yeast orgy temp


My bag baby, funny that Fullers Yeast sells a lot like like Fullers beer....not really funny.


The inside of my bag baby.....uuurrrggghhh. Swish it round, it's all good stuff


The union


Put the lid on and shake it, vent any gas, shake it again, vent any gas, shake it a bit more.....dee da de daa de daa, etc. Put it somewhere 20°C and wait 'til tomorrow.


WAIT!
You don't get all this without any questions...you know me better than that!

1. I've got 2 1.5kg tins of extract. So I'm thinking of upping everything in the recipe by 1/3 and brewing more - don't want to waste anything, any probs with this?

2. How long shall I make the boil? Have heard 90 or 60 mins, what do you think and what if any changes to hopping would this mean?

3. I've got both Irish Moss and Whirlfloc tabs. Never used either, they do the same right? Which to use?

4. 10g sounds a paltry amount to put in my only monstrous muslin bag for dry hopping after primary (think it's a grain bag really). What do you think about dry hopping, how can I do this better, or will the aroma get through happily do you think.

Thanks anyone.

[SiHoltye]

Right, I did the brewing on Sat and here's the highs and lows.

Cleaned all kit for boiling / sanitized for fermenting



My ingredients


An effing big (fortunately dead) spider lept out at me from the rafters, just look at the size of it! It's dwarfing the 2p piece I placed beside it - honest.


Upped the grain from 175g for 20L to 225g for a 30L batch (remembered to up everything else too!)


Refreshment along the way! Didn't get through it all though


Grain steeping at 65°C for 30 mins


Boiler on to full and in with 3kg of Pale LME

Refilling for a washout from the boiler tap


Here's the EKG hops - 4.1AA.........apparantly. 85g full boil, 15g 20 mins from end of 60 boil



Boiling now


In with the soft brown sugar at 30mins, should've dissolved it a bit in wort from the boiler tap in another bowl first. Would have saved splashed hot wort as the lumps dropped in and also feeling the need to stir it in for a bit.


Immersion chiller in. I bought a Brupaks one. It's too small to reach down to the wort in 10G bucket, so I though sod it, it's all going in 15 mins before boil end to get sanitized.


Shouldn't have done that with the chiller 'cos the hot wort must've loosened the hose on the input and it came off whilst chilling.........NNNNNNNNNooooooooooooooooooooooooo..... Reckon about 1-2 ltres of tap water consequently got in brew...bugger!!! Plan to either flog the chiller (which is perfect for 5G set-ups) and get a counter-flow, or modify this immersion chiller to have longer arms.

More mess


Draining the cooled wort, don't know what volume but the SG was 1053 I think with adjustment


Spent hops


Yeast starter looking active - good


Drill prep in the fermentor before pitching yeast


All finished waiting for the off


And 24hrs on the foam is on.


ANY THOUGHTS QUESTIONS OR ADVICE KINDLY RECEIVED. Thanks

[SiHoltye]

Sorry about the double post.

[ColinKeb]

well done, looks good

[SiHoltye]

The first taste at bottling is luverly. Great recipe, and I think the Fullers Wyeast really makes it taste near the mark.

On bottling I added priming sugars and isinglass to the bottling vessel and then filled the bottles straight away, is this right? Does the isinglass interfere with secondary ferment? Thanks.

[SiHoltye]

Bum

I can see how unstable it is now. It's clear after 24 hours just don't breath near it though or it goes like a peasouper. It wasn't particularly cloudy at bottling either.....I just bought the Isinglass with the ingredients and used it anyway. Hey ho, won't do that again.

Tasted lovely though, well chuffed.

[delboy]

SH i see from the photos you have the new and improved boiler tap from H&G, what do you think of it, i have the normal bog standard one that is a leaks a bit and isn't that easy to clean properly.
Is it worth 8.99??

[SiHoltye]

Done 3 brews in the boiler now with no tap probs. FWIW.

[Orkney_Rob]

I am thinking this idea of getting the H&G set up, then doing a couple of extract brews is a good idea for me too - also for time constraint reasons, and to get used to the process... probably after the New Year, but I may be tempted to go for it a bit earlier

Be interested to hear how your brew comes out!!!!

[Mrobs]

yeah im also thinking about this set up, its taken me a couple of months to try and convince the treasurer in the house thats its a good investment . Just one question, how did you get on with the chiller in the end using it in the bigger boiler they sell? And do they provide all the tubing for it? Actually thats 2 questions

Cheers

[J_P]

yeah im also thinking about this set up, its taken me a couple of months to try and convince the treasurer in the house thats its a good investment . Just one question, how did you get on with the chiller in the end using it in the bigger boiler they sell? And do they provide all the tubing for it? Actually thats 2 questions

Cheers

Hi MRobs - I use the H&G 10 gallon boiler and what I do is cool it in the FV, the only down side is it leaves the cold break in the FV. When I brewed up yesterday I cooled the wort as normal and then put the wort back into the boiler and drained it into the FV through the hop bed thus removing the break materials (and it aerates the wort again).

This said previous brews have turned out just fine with the cold break in the FV.



Re convincing the treasurer, I did a brew on the 11th Aug here are the costings

4.5Kg Grain - £5.40
1 packet of hops - £2.99
1 whirlafloc tablet - £0.25
2 packets of Gervain English Ale Yeast - £1.98

Total Cost - £10.62 for 24l beer in bottles, that's nearly half the price of a brupaks kit and you get more beer

You can get grain cheaper than that and you only need one pack of yeast. If you were to buy bottled beer from morrisons at 2l for £5 it would cost you neck end of £60! that means you're saving yourself £50 a brew, two brews in and you're in profit!

[Mrobs]

Hi
Thanks for your reply, just so that i understand your method you boil in the 10g bin but to cool the wort you do that in the smaller 5g fv after transferring from boiler?

Cheers

[delboy]

I've got the same set up as SH and JP the 10G boiler and the IC designed to hang on a 5 gallon bucket, i started out letting it hang on the side with maybe only half the coils in the wort, but that was very slooooooow to cool it.

I simply bent the inlet and outlets to point sort of upwards rather than downwards and i just drop the whole thing into the bucket (make sure its not sitting on the elements).

Also had the same problem as SH in that it leaked tap water a few times into the boiler, got myself a couple of cheapy jubilee clips from B&Q and solved that problem (im able to up the flow rate safe in the knowledge it isn't going to blow off).

[J_P]

I boil up a five gallon batch in a ten gallon boiler and transfer to the FV where I have my immersion chiller waiting.

Once the FV is full I begin aerating the wort by scooping up a jugful and pouring it back in from a height which also has the added bonus of keeping the wort moving over the chiller which means I can cool down a batch in around ten minutes.

[Mrobs]

Cheers for the explanation, much clearer now , will have to get my act together and join you guys.