Critique my planned extract brewing process

[potatoes]

Hey Beer and Garden,

I just saw you are from living in Nelson. How is Aoteroa? Can you buy any of your hops straight from the producers?

Fuggle Mind,

What is your best extract brew so far? I found this one very simple but worked well. http://www.brewuk.co.uk/store/recipes-summer-ale

Potatoes,

[Fuggled Mind]

Fuggled Mind,

What is your best extract brew so far? I found this one very simple but worked well. http://www.brewuk.co.uk/store/recipes-summer-ale

Potatoes,

Hi Potatoes

My best extract recipes to date are Graham Wheeler's Dobs Best Bitter and I'm very happy with the Salem Porter too.
I think the Dob's Best Bitter works best because it uses a combination of Fuggles and Goldings - a truly classic combination.

The summer ale looks good but is the kaffir lime leaf overpowering?

Cheers

Jason

[beerandgarden]

Hey Beer and Garden,

I just saw you are from living in Nelson. How is Aoteroa? Can you buy any of your hops straight from the producers?

Aoteroa's a great spot, been living here 4 years and it's my home for good now.

Dunno about buying hops straight from the producers, I'd imagine they wouldn't be bothered with small scale sales. What I'd like to do is get some rhizomes so that I can grow my own.

[beerandgarden]

One thing I screwed up on, and only realised it yesterday, is that I forgot to crush the crystal grains before steeping. Probably won't gave got much from them as a result.

[potatoes]

My best extract recipes to date are Graham Wheeler's Dobs Best Bitter and I'm very happy with the Salem Porter too.
I think the Dob's Best Bitter works best because it uses a combination of Fuggles and Goldings - a truly classic combination.

The summer ale looks good but is the kaffir lime leaf overpowering?

Cheers

Jason

Hi Jason
You like fuggles, thus your avatar name. Fuggles and goldings are good together, I tried them in a stout and they worked well. I will give Dobs best bitter a go although I dont have a recipe book.

I tried the summer ale without the Kaffir lime leaf. The one difference I have tried was to add one jar of Honey to the wort. It worked well but I couldn't actually taste honey in the beer. hmmmm.

Spuds,

[potatoes]

Dunno about buying hops straight from the producers, I'd imagine they wouldn't be bothered with small scale sales. What I'd like to do is get some rhizomes so that I can grow my own.

The reason I ask about the hops is that I went to a beer festival over here and was surprised to see Motueka hops being used. Growing your own hops should be no problem in Nelson with all the sun you get.

I dont know about the crystal being crushed or whole. I buy my crushed and they worked fine. Might be a good question to ask an experienced brewer?

Dont worry about it too much, it will still be your own beer and for that reason it will taste good.

[beerandgarden]

With 2 extract batches under my belt plus a few kit batches, and a lot learned from this and other forums, I've refined and simplified my process. My 2nd batch went very smoothly and brew day was much more relaxed and enjoyable. I've posted my new updated process on my blog: http://beerandgarden.com/updated-extrac ... g-process/

[potatoes]

With 2 extract batches under my belt plus a few kit batches, and a lot learned from this and other forums, I've refined and simplified my process. My 2nd batch went very smoothly and brew day was much more relaxed and enjoyable. I've posted my new updated process on my blog: http://beerandgarden.com/updated-extrac ... g-process/

Your process seems well refined now. Keep it going. Have you tried DME instead of LME? Apparently DME will last longer.

[beerandgarden]

I've used DME in combo with a kit brew (Coopers Stout), I'll probably try an extract batch with it to see if it's any better than the LME but it's a little more expensive which is why I've used LME up till now.