New to Extract Brewing... Can someone help?

[RyanMcco]

Hi Guys

I've had some success brewing from kits and adding flavouring hops or altering recipes a little... so I've decided to go a step further and try extract brewing...

I'm not 100% on the steps I need to follow, so if someone could give me some tips that'd be fantastic, I am relatively new to all this so please use the most basic terms possible..

I'm going to try doing an extract copy of a Clotworthy Dobbin, one of my favourite beers.

Using the following pages as a reference:
http://www.beoir.org/community/viewtopi ... =30&t=2294
and
http://jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopi ... lit=Dobbin

I've got the following ingredients:
3kg LME
Crystal Malt
Black Malt
Chocolate Malt
Northdown Hops
Cascade Hops

My Understanding of the procedure is as follows (this is where i'm a bit concerned):
1: Sterilise...
2: Get a few litres of water up to 65'c, steep the Malts in a muslin bag for 30mins keeping the water at 65'c
3: Remove Malt Bag
4: Add the LME, stir until it is disolved.. add some more water if needed
5: Bring to Rolling Boil, boil for 60mins
6: add 11g of Nortdow in a muslin bag, keep it boil for 75mins
7: add 20g of Cascade to the muslin bag, keep it boiling for 8 more minutes
8: add 20g of Cascade to the muslin bag and boil for another 8mins
9: Add another 20g of cascade to the muslin bag
10: transfer everything to my FV, Including the hops in the Muslin bag, top up to 23L, let it cool to 21'c
11: Add Yeast...
12: wait
13:... bottle, enjoy etc etc

Its steps 5-10 that i'm most confused around (I think)

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Ryan

[crafty john]

I would boil for 90 mins not 60 to get better hop utilisation, plus I wouldn't bother with a muslin bag for the grain, some people say to steep and remove but I would just chuck them in as it's coming to the boil and leave them in there. Also I wouldn't use a bag for the hops just chuck em in and strain through a sanitsed sieve into the FV, you don't want loads of hops in your FV as they soak up loads of wort. I am sure other people will be along to tell you different but this has worked for me countless times. Oh and another thing, after you have stained out the hops and grain give it a rinse with a kettle of boiling water that's cooled slightly.

Hope this helps and good luck.

[RyanMcco]

okay, can do.. thanks for the tip..

but essentially my extract is being boiled for 180 minutes? (90+90 for hops)

Thanks

[crafty john]

okay, can do.. thanks for the tip..

but essentially my extract is being boiled for 180 minutes? (90+90 for hops)

Thanks

Sorry I didn't read your method properly, a 90 minute boil in total will do the trick, you don't want to lose too much wort to evaporation.

[RyanMcco]

thanks for the confirmation, i'll let you all know how it goes.

[potatoes]

Hi Guys

10: transfer everything to my FV, Including the hops in the Muslin bag, top up to 23L, let it cool to 21'c
Ryan

I take my hops out when I transfer to the FV. Actually I pour the wort through them so that they act as a strainer. Also I dont pour every bit of the wort because I dont want the hot/cold break stuff in the FV.

[RyanMcco]

Thanks Potatoes and Crafty John...

To summarise everything:

My Understanding of the procedure is as follows (this is where i'm a bit concerned):
1: Sterilise...
2: Get a few litres of water up to 65'c, steep the Malts in a muslin bag for 30mins keeping the water at 65'c (or just skip this step and put the grain in at step 5)
3: Remove Malt Bag
4: Add the LME, stir until it is disolved.. add some more water if needed
5: Bring to Rolling Boil add 11g of Nortdow in a muslin bag, keep it boiling for 75mins
7: add 20g of Cascade to the muslin bag, keep it boiling for 8 more minutes
8: add 20g of Cascade to the muslin bag and boil for another 8mins
9: Add another 20g of cascade to the muslin bag, let it cool to room temp
10: Pour the entire mixture through a sieve into my FV, only liquid goes into the FV, top up to 23l
11: Add Yeast...
12: wait
13:... bottle, enjoy etc etc

[potatoes]

Thanks Potatoes and Crafty John...

10: Pour the entire mixture through a sieve into my FV, only liquid goes into the FV, top up to 23l

Sounds good. Only thing to add is take a gravity reading (OG). I would be inclined to fill it up to 20 litres, take a gravity reading then add more water if its too high. Sometimes the gravity can lower than anitcipated and you end up with weak beer or small beer.