First Extract Brew...

[Nickb167]

ok so imtrying to move beyond the kit beers and gradually make my way to AG. So the next step is a extract brew. The ingredients ive gotten are:

Strisselspalt Hops (AA 2.0%) - 90 grams
Dried Light Malt Extract - 1kg
Light Liquid Malt - 2kg
Wyeast 2007 Pilsen Lgr - Smack Pack

The beer i had in mind was a basic attempt at a Kronenberg clone, although i doubt it will even be close. The hops are the type that they use in this beer so its a start. Now what i think/was planning on doing is boiling a volume of water say 10L and add the malt at 70*C. Hold temp at 68*C for 60 mins. At 20 mins into boil add 50 grams of hops. And then with 5 mins remaining add remaining 40 grams of hops. Then drop boilpot into sink full of ice and water to crash temp as close to fermenting temp as possible. Add to fermentor and add water to 22.5L...

Im not entirely sure this is the right procedure. Should i even be boiling the malt? And im not too sure how i am supposed to work out how much hops and when to add them.

Any advise on the subject would be greatly appreciated.

nick

 

[MVZOOM]

Nick.

No doubt the more experianced guys will guide you, however it seems that you're trying to mash the malt extract powder? If so, mashing grain produces liquor, which is effectively the same as adding water to DME (dry malt extract) which I believe you have. There's absolutely no point in mashing DME - or, even boiling it, unless you're boiling with hops to obtain bitterness and/or aroma.

Have a good read / search around here on 'extract brew' and you'll see more. Good luck!

Cheers - Mike

 

[Stuster]

If you are using malt extract you don't need to keep it at 68C. You are not mashing, just boiling. If you can only boil 10L, get the water up to boiling, take it up the heat and then just add 1/4 of the malt extract to the water. Put it back on the heat and after the foam that forms has broken up, add some hops (say 50g). Those are your 60 minute addition (all times from end of boil). You'll be better off getting a program like Promash, Beersmith or the free Brewsta to work out your additions. Add more hops (maybe 20g) at 20 minutes, the rest of the malt extract at 15, 20g hops at 5 minutes and the rest as you say.

 

[Wardhog]

I recently did my first extract brew, with pretty much the same equipment it sounds like you have.

I had 3kg of liquid light malt extract, and planned 3 hop additions.

I boiled 1/4 of the liquid malt extract for 60 minutes in 8 litres of water.
At the 60 minute mark (start of the boil), I threw in my bittering hops.
With 30 minutes of the boil to go, I threw in the flavour hops
With 5 minutes to go, I threw in the aroma hops.

After the boil has gone 60 minutes, cool the wort as quickly as possible. I did this by putting the pot in a sink full of cold water with some ice thrown in (the water, not the pot), and stirring - takes about 25-30 minutes to get down to around 40C.
When at 40C, I strained the wort through a mesh nylon bag into the fermenter, then added the rest of the liquid malt extract into the fermenter so it could dissolve in the warm wort.
Then fill with water to 23 litres which leaves the temperature of the wort around 25C.

Pitch yeast, and yer off.

Turned out an excellent beer, my best yet.

 

[bconnery]

If you've got the equipment to boil 10L then what you could do is look at introducing some base grain, which requires mashing, and do a very small mash, following the temp procedures you had there.

Then you strain this into a pot for boiling, and start your 60 minutes schedule from there.

You only really need to boil extract for 10 minutes, especially if you want light colour like a pilsner, but you need something in there with the hops for the whole time to get better extraction.

Wardhogs procedure is pretty much spot on.

These days I pretty much constantly have 1 - 2kgs of grain, some portion of extracts, and use a very similar procedure with a mini-mini mash followed by a boil schedule dependent on the recipe etc.

Have a read around on partial mashes or feel free to PM me if you want a better description...

 

[RobboMC]

I've been crash cooling my small worts with a few kg of 'clean' ice. I make the ice in a sanitised and thoroughly rinsed and sealed container of about 4 litres using Sydney tap water. So far I haven't had any contamination disasters.

Comments anyone.

 

[Wardhog]

I've been crash cooling my small worts with a few kg of 'clean' ice. I make the ice in a sanitised and thoroughly rinsed and sealed container of about 4 litres using Sydney tap water. So far I haven't had any contamination disasters.

As in throwing a large block of ice into the hot wort? Makes sense, I suppose. You likely would've used the same water to make the wort in the first place.
Is it quicker than sitting the pot in a sink of iced water?

 

[Bazza]

I do this too. With about 2L of clean ice the temp drops from boiled to 20*C in around 10 mins or less. I also have 15L or so of chilled water in the fridge to cool the wort even more if neccessary.

 

[Charlie]

RobboMC,

Unless you have also boiled the water you are freezing, you aren't really making very sterile ice ...

Nickb167,

Given this is your first extract brew, I'd keep it simple. Follow Stuster recommendations of boiling up some of the extract with the three hop additions and see how your beer turns out - add a post in a couple of weeks when you have had a chance to taste it. There will be plenty of advice from AHB on how to improve it (probably too much infact) ... it will be a matter of working your way through it all

cheers

 

[Lindsay Dive]

ok so imtrying to move beyond the kit beers and gradually make my way to AG. So the next step is a extract brew. The ingredients ive gotten are:

Strisselspalt Hops (AA 2.0%) - 90 grams
Dried Light Malt Extract - 1kg
Light Liquid Malt - 2kg
Wyeast 2007 Pilsen Lgr - Smack Pack

The beer i had in mind was a basic attempt at a Kronenberg clone, although i doubt it will even be close. The hops are the type that they use in this beer so its a start. Now what i think/was planning on doing is boiling a volume of water say 10L and add the malt at 70*C. Hold temp at 68*C for 60 mins. At 20 mins into boil add 50 grams of hops. And then with 5 mins remaining add remaining 40 grams of hops. Then drop boilpot into sink full of ice and water to crash temp as close to fermenting temp as possible. Add to fermentor and add water to 22.5L...

Im not entirely sure this is the right procedure. Should i even be boiling the malt? And im not too sure how i am supposed to work out how much hops and when to add them.

Any advise on the subject would be greatly appreciated.

nick

I have just run your hops through ProMash which gives me an indication that you will need some additional hops with a higher Alph Acid than what you already have.
If you put the whole 90 grams into your brew for 60 minutes you are only going to get your finished beer up to an IBU of about 21. You may be happy with that. But this does not give you the ability to add flavour and aroma hops.
Ask you LHBS if they have some Northern Brewer hops. This is an excellent bittering hop and usually carries a higher A.A.
If you get some other hops I am only too happy to assit you working out your additions.
The malt bill you have will give you a wort with a SG of 1.043.

Regards,
Lindsay.

 

[Nickb167]

thanks for all the info guys...

i ended up boiling about 300 grams of liquid malt for 60 mins. i Added 60 grams of hops at 50min and then added the other 30 at 5 mins. Then cooled it a bit, and strained through bit of fabric. Not sure how that will turn out but its in the fermentor and ill know in a month and a bit.

 

[Steve]

thanks for all the info guys...

i ended up boiling about 300 grams of liquid malt for 60 mins. i Added 60 grams of hops at 50min and then added the other 30 at 5 mins. Then cooled it a bit, and strained through bit of fabric. Not sure how that will turn out but its in the fermentor and ill know in a month and a bit.

nick - did you boil/sterilise the fabric before straining? :blink:

 

[Beejay]

thanks for all the info guys...

i ended up boiling about 300 grams of liquid malt for 60 mins. i Added 60 grams of hops at 50min and then added the other 30 at 5 mins. Then cooled it a bit, and strained through bit of fabric. Not sure how that will turn out but its in the fermentor and ill know in a month and a bit.

Hi Nick,

I just ran your recipe through Beersmith:-

Recipe: Beer
TYPE: Extract

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 23 L
Boil Size: 10 L
Estimated OG: 1.042 SG
Estimated Color: 13.0 EBC
Estimated IBU: 17.7 IBU
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
1.00 kg Light Dry Extract (15.8 EBC) Dry Extract 33.3 %
1.70 kg Pale Liquid Extract (15.8 EBC) Extract 56.7 %
0.30 kg Pale Liquid Extract (15.8 EBC) Extract 10.0 %
60.00 gm Strisslespalt [2.00%] (60 min) Hops 15.6 IBU
30.00 gm Strisslespalt [2.00%] (15 min) Hops 2.1 IBU
TotAL IBU 17.7


Your method from Beersmith
Boil for 60 min

Start to Boil
Amount Item Type
0.30 kg Pale Liquid Extract (15.8 EBC) Extract
60.00 gm Strisslespalt [2.00%] (60 min) Hops

45 min into boil - Add 30.00 gm Strisslespalt [2.00%] (15 min)
-- Cool wort to fermentation temperature
-- Add water (as needed) to achieve volume of 23 L
-- Siphon wort to primary fermenter and aerate wort.
--
Add Ingredients to Fermenter
Amount Item Type
1.00 kg Light Dry Extract (15.8 EBC) Dry Extract
1.70 kg Pale Liquid Extract (15.8 EBC) Extract


You may (probably) find that 17.7 IBU is not bitter enough. Best download the Promash demo versions of Beersmith to run through the scenarios before brewing. It will save you by allolwing you to have an idea oif where you will end up. As an example of 17 IBU's, most Kits are bittered starting at around 22IBU and up to say 25.

As suggested by Lindsay, go and get some high Alpha hops for bittering as you get more bang for your buck, and according to John Palmer How to Brew you get almost no flavour from 60 min boils of hops. Save your Aroma and flavour hops for exactly that.

Cheers,

Beejay

 

[Charlie]

With it being around 18 IBUs, that'll make it more like a Munich Helles than a Pilsner ...

Anyway, let the sucker ferment and see how she tastes ... maybe get some more hops for your second batch

 

[Nickb167]

nick - did you boil/sterilise the fabric before straining? :blink:

ah.. no. probally should have done that.

but any way that again for all the info guys.. Next time ill try and get it more bitter as everyone suggested. I also have had a look at promash but up until now ive only been doing kits so it didnt seem as a helpfull program. ill start using it though.