Apa Of Sorts - Recipe Request

[drsmurto]

Partners sister lives in Perth. She knows i brew. She knows i love LCPA. So for xmas she gave me what the LHBS told her was a good recipe for LCPA from a kit. I now have a tin of Thomas Coopers Draught, a tin of Coopers wheat extract and 2 cascade tea bags.

Only one problem with this. Am an AG man now and 15 brews in i dont plan on stopping any time soon. Besides, my AG version is kicking goals for me.

So - mate of mine recently took up the hobby and is at the pre-hop stage of brewing. You know the one, tin of goop and whatever mystery bag of goodies brewcraft decide to give him (conveniently not labelled so i cant tell him whats in it!). Anyway, i decided to give this to him and show him how to take the small jump forwards in this hobby. Problem is i havent ever used tea bags before.

My plan was to boil one with some of the wheat malt for 15 mins ( i would calc quantiites to get an SG of approx 1.044) and then use the 2nd one for dry hopping.

I would normally say add some spec grain but i think thats too advanced at this early stage, baby steps for now.

Thought also i could give him some chinook for the 15 min boil......

Whats the yeast like under this tin - Linky

I have some US56 i could sling him but seem to recall someone saying the premium tins have better yeasts, possibly even safs?

Comments ?
Cheers
DrSMurto

 

[sponge]

Just a quickie... what does dry hopping mean? I've heard it a few times but still am unsure of what it means...

And I am going to do a PA sometime soon, and hopefully add hops to this one (first time for me). I've been informed that cascade is a good addition for PA's so I think I was going to use some of them also

 

[discoloop]

IMHO, boil the Chinook @15, use one bag @0min and dry hop the second. And I'd advise your friend to just boil the wheat extract, not the kit.

No idea what the kit yeast is like but I'd go for the US56. Even if the yeast is okay you only get half as much under the kit lids.

Sponge, dry hopping in a nutshell is when you add hops ("dry") direct to the secondary fermenter or into the primary once fermentation has slowed. Dry hopping imparts a strong hop aroma into the beer with a little hoppy flavour.

 

[sponge]

Thanks for that discoloop. So would you normally use the same hops that you used in the boil for dry hopping, or go for a different hops? And just so I understand what's happening (because I don't use a secondary fermenter yet, because I'm poor), I just add the hops to the primary about 2 days prior to bottling?

Also, do you just buy pre-weighed hops in bags from your LHBS or do you weigh them yourself?

 

[Fatgodzilla]

Thanks for that discoloop. So would you normally use the same hops that you used in the boil for dry hopping, or go for a different hops? And just so I understand what's happening (because I don't use a secondary fermenter yet, because I'm poor), I just add the hops to the primary about 2 days prior to bottling?

Also, do you just buy pre-weighed hops in bags from your LHBS or do you weigh them yourself?

Sponge, a great investment is a scale that measures in grams. I've got a K Mart special (around $35 from memory) - electronic (battery) scales and I was shocked how few pellets can make up a set weight. I was given a bag of unknown pellets and possible mouse poo and chucked a handful in a kit beer I was makong for a mate. It was next to undrinkable. Got the scales and found the handful was around 130grams. No wonder it was bitter.

many recipes calls for small amounts of hop additions. No HBS will supply you with 20g bags (I assume) unless of course he can see a nice markup profit from someone gullible. Buy in bulk - I like the 90g satchets from a site sponsor as they are cheaper and suit my level of brewing. Others buy 200gram bags. I'm sure some buy per kilo.

 

[sponge]

Hahaha, good story FG. Yea, I didnt realise how light ~10g was until I was still at school doing chemistry a couple of years ago.

I'm just having a look at some of the sponsors sites with the hop sachets, and just wondering which hops are good all-round hops? Well, I will probably brew more ales then anything else, so if I was to invest in some, which would you recommend?

Cheers, Sponge

 

[Fatgodzilla]

Hahaha, good story FG. Yea, I didnt realise how light ~10g was until I was still at school doing chemistry a couple of years ago.

I'm just having a look at some of the sponsors sites with the hop sachets, and just wondering which hops are good all-round hops? Well, I will probably brew more ales then anything else, so if I was to invest in some, which would you recommend?

Cheers, Sponge

Too many to choose from. Probably best to determine what style of ale you want - Australian (not much aroma - Pride of Ringwood) English (Goldings & Fuggles) American (Cascade and Amarillo) or European (Saaz and Hallentau) and plenty more beside. Find a recipe you like the sound of and you'll find there plenty to choose from. Its pretty much how long is a piece of string argument. So read recipes, find one you reckon you can do with the equipment you have and the money in your pocket. If you are not ready for AG, and it sounds like you are at partial mash stage, there are plenty of good recipes to choose and hints and adjustments aplenty will be offered.


edit : spelling

 

[sponge]

Cheers again FG.

Just (hopefully) one more question. I have just had a browse at a few recipes I've found on the forum, and a fair few of the recipes I have found involved 'steeping' different malts (it seems like caramalt and pale crystal at around 250g are pretty popular with ales) for 60min, and just wondering as to what 'steeping' means. I'm assuming that it means gently boiling for 60min but this is just a guesstimation. If it does mean gently boiling, do I then boil it up with whichever fermentables I choose to use with the malt, or do i add the 'steeped' malt solution to the wort separately from the boil?

Yes, I know, I'm still a newbie but I'm pretty keen to get to AG at some stage and I know that I really should be doing things in small steps then jumping straight into the deep end.

Cheers, sponge

 

[Canumbler]

sponge: http://www.google.com.au/search?&q=sit...m+steep+crystal

Also the palmer how to brew book has a chapter on steeping grains.

Most importantly, DO NOT BOIL ANY GRAIN

 

[sponge]

Ok, I've just read up on that, and I have read a couple of people do not squeeze the stocking bag thing but on HowToBrew they suggest to squeeze the bag to extract as much of the liquid as possible. Which method is advised?

A couple more things. With hopping, do you let the hops cool in the boil or do you remove them once they have had their hopping time finished? (I'm assuming you strain the hopped boil into the fermenter? Ie. no hops in fermenter) And just one more, with dry hopping, doesn't this increase the risk of infection as there is no boiling of the hops?


Sorry about all the questions, I still have a lot to learn. Sponge