I think I missed something with my 1st Brew

[JontyR]

Hi Folks,

I made my 1st ME brew (TTL) a while back and I think I got the wrong end of the stick when taking the recipe from GW's book. I just used pale ME in place of the malts listed on the AG recipe. Now re-reading, the book, I think I understand it that the ME only replaces the Pale Malt and that anything else listed there is still a viable ingredient, is this correct? Also, if it is, how would I go about adding the other ingredients, in the TTL case it was black malt but other recipes have sugar etc ...

many thanks

Jonty

[danbrew]

What stage are you at?

The recipe I'm looking at has only Pale and Black malts then the various hop additions...

You can forget about the Black Malt (it only adds colour, not flavour) unless your desperate to get it in? Depends what stage your at though?

[JontyR]

It's too late with that one mate as I'm at the drinking stage!! The penny just dropped that I'd misunderstood the instructions in teh book so I wanted to make sure I got the next brew right.

[danbrew]

It's too late with that one mate as I'm at the drinking stage!!

Ahh! Then for the next one just follow the instructions in the book... I wrap these grains in a muslin bag and put them in the boiler after switching it on, then fishing the bag out before the liquor reaches the boil. You can leave them in for the boil, I prefer not to.

You need to do this for all grains other than the Pale Malt in the ME recipes in this book.

Enjoy the beer.

[JontyR]

Thanks for the information - I thought I'd got the wrong end of the stick.

[Befuddler]

You can leave them in for the boil, I prefer not to.

You should steep speciality grains in water at 60-75c for about 30 mins, any higher than 80c will extract tannins. Boiling them will extract LOTS of tannins and probably ruin your beer!

[danbrew]

Boiling them will extract LOTS of tannins

I share this view but Jonty says he's got GW's book and GW doesn't seem to think it's an issue... at least he says so in his book anyway!

[HighHops]

I'm at the drinking stage!!. . . . I wanted to make sure I got the next brew right.

You got this one right my friend, coz you're drinkin' it! Be gentle with the tannins though unless your brewing a dark beer that can take it. There's a time and a place for everything. I'm sure Graham would agree. There's a tendency when you're extract brewing to try and squeeze every last drop of goodness out of the crystal malt. When your AG brewing the adjuncts are something you might add in the mash or late on in sparging to add a bit of colour and sweetness. They sould be treated just the same when extract brewing.

I was taught to soak dark & crystal malts for 1/2 Hr at 60C before pulling the bag and boiling the juice for an hour with hops. Then add LME or DME and late hops for flavour. Thats the way I used to make extract brews and still do occasionally. Or you could just boil the arse off everything like it says in the book.