partial brew with a beer kit?

[Krispy Krouton]

Hi all

I wondered if the extract brewers here could help with this. I've been brewing kits now for a good few months with average success, the beers aren't tasting how I envisaged but are drinkable non the less, maybe if I could leave them to condition a while they might be absolutely spot on. But even the few kits I have done it all seems a bit microwave meal-ish (ping and go) and I've been reading about all grain brewing which I want to be doing eventually. Then I read about extract brewing which seems the next natural step. Now I have most of the equipment to do partial extract brewing apart from a wort chiller which I will either make or buy, but I'm wondering if I could make use of a 2 can woodfordes wherry real ale kit (or just one of the 2 cans) along with some grain and hops to make a nice not-too-hoppy partial extract brew? If anyone has any simple recipes which could include this beer kit or any advice in general it would be greatly appreciated if it's a better idea to brew the kit out as per instructions then I suppose under advice I would do that, but I'm already bored of just pouring and pitching!

Thanks in advance

[sbond10]

Yep what your referring to is a mini mash or partial extract. Using crystal, chocolate and other desired speciality malts steeping say 300g of crystal malt at 66 c for 30 minutes then strain and chuck into Fv can add a whole of freshness

If you can get a 15 litre pan I rreccomend a brew uk extract kit that should give you something to play with.

Wort chiller I don't own one I just chucked it in a Fv left it over night let it fall to 20 degrees chuck in yeast temp should drop to 18 by then the yeast will kick in and raise it back to 20 or so I was told it seemed to work for me

[Krispy Krouton]

Thanks for the reply, sbond10. Yeah was thinking of mini mash/partial. . Whatever it's called seems to be many terms for the same thing(?) is sparging not necessary for mini mash then and can I use this wherry kit like this? I was thinking of following a partial recipe that calls for an amber/medium extract and use as a substitute. I know it's prehopped but each can is 1.5kg which seems a popular weight in extract brewing. I know it's hard to tell how it'll work out as I don't know what's in the beer kit extract, but it'll save me from making up a boring beer kit which I want to avoid and move on from.

[jimp2003]

Yep what your referring to is a mini mash or partial extract. Using crystal, chocolate and other desired speciality malts steeping say 300g of crystal malt at 66 c for 30 minutes then strain and chuck into Fv can add a whole of freshness

What you are referring to here is just steeping malts that do not need to be mashed.

A partial mash is where you carry out a proper mash of base malt (eg pale malt), possibly with specialty malts and then add the resulting wort to the malt extract.

Using the Wherry kit instead of the usual extract is possible but it might be more difficult to predict the outcome. It will make beer and more than likely very tasty beer so it is an experiment worth trying.

[Krispy Krouton]

Oh, I understand a bit better now, Jimp2003. I won't be using base malts, I haven't a mash tun for a start but looking into it as an eventuality. For now though I'm thinking about just using the big cooking pot and steeping some speciality grains in a nylon/muslin bag, then after so long(?) removing the bag, adding the extract (in my case a tin of wherry beer kit) and some hops maybe, then bring to the boil, cool, pour into fv, top up with water, pitch, job done. What would this method be called? Partial extract brewing, or something between kit brewing and all grain? Hehee. I'm pretty keen to get this going in the next couple of weeks. Might need to study a bit more though.

[Clibit]

Why not put some base malt in the bag as well, or instead? To mash it you simply have to keep the temp between about 62 and 70C. Which is easy. Then boil and add the wort to the kit. Bung some hops in towards the end of the boil.

[Krispy Krouton]

I might do that, clibit could probably use some Maris otter instead as I'd imagine the malt extract kit is medium or dark maybe. Wouldn't know how much Maris to use though?

[Clibit]

If you use one can of Wherry which means 1.5kg of extract, you would need about 2kg of Maris Otter to get to around 1040 OG. If you want higher, you could use more Maris Otter OR you could add 500g of spray malt, which would get you to about 1046/47.

You would be short of bitterness though as the two can kits are both hopped, so you would want some hops in the boil. Which is a good thing.Some early for bitterness, some late for flavour/aroma. Maybe get an all purpose hop that would do both jobs. Let us know if you want some help working it out, what sort of hops you like etc.

[Krispy Krouton]

Thanks for that clibit I don't like very floral hops like citra. I think the most hoppy I'd want to go is close to pedigree. That has fuggles I think so maybe I could use them. I did try adding some of these hops to a kit, just steeped for a while before adding, but it ended up far too hoppy and I'm chewing my way through the bottles. I'm going to wait until we warm up weather wise first I think.

[Clibit]

It sounds like you like British hops. Go for Fuggles, Goldings, Challenger, First Gold, Northdown and other British hops.

[timbo41]

As has been said, the results if using pre hopped kits are unpredictable...but fun
If you search username monkeybrew or geezah, these guys have had great success with kit modding, using special malts and hop adds....with geezah you can have a bit of drum and base while you're at it
Also,there's a section in kit brewing called adapted kits which has loads of recipes. You can also buy unhopped dry and liquid extract,and jazz up any way you want...that's extract brewing. The choice is yours, and boundless. Certain kits seem to lend well to this...coopers apa, and geordie range are popular and fairly cheap( which is why I guess, in case your brew tastes like horses pee!) But if you stay with good old English hops,you won't go far wrong...just use in moderation