First Time Brew

[lukemason81]

Hello

I am about to do my first brew this week. I am using a mangrove jack hefe can. Am planning on steeping 200g specialty wheat grain. Seems opinion is divided whether or not to boil pre hopped extract, but most who are of the opinion not to boil are quite certain not to.

So I figured I would just stir the can into the pre boiled water that the grains were steeped in, then stir in my wheat DME.

My only issue is I'd like to add some flavouring hops. How would I go about this If I'm not doing a boil? I have read that hop pellets must be boiled???

Any help would be great.

Cheers

 

[yum beer]

You will need to boil your steep liquid anyway, so add some hops to that.
Hallertau goes nice in a wheat, about 15gm boiled for 10 minutes, then carry on as you were going to with cans.

 

[burrster]

As above.Once you've steeped your grain, you need to remove the spent grain and boil the liquid for sanitation reasons, so why not make a hops addition while your doing it?

 

[lukemason81]

Thanks Yum Beer and Burrster

So boil the water, take it off the flame, steep the grains for 20 mins or so, then bring back to boil and add the hops for 10 mins? And hop pellets don't need to go in a bag right? I have read they will just dissolve and maybe leave a touch of sediment?

Thanks again

 

[burrster]

I'd steep the grain in 70 degree water,no higher, so as not to extract too many tannins from the grain. then once steeped, remove the grain, bring to the boil and add the hops for 10 minutes. for a basic steep I'd use 2L of water.

If you want to go all out then there is a better, slightly more involved method which i can describe if your interested.

Yes the grain will add 'sediment' but you can strain it out a bit after your boil, and it will also settle in the fermenter, especially if you can cold crash.

 

[panzerd18]

Do not boil pre-hopped can.

You will ruin the hop profile that mangroves jacks have made.

 

[lukemason81]

Thanks panzerd. That's what I'd mostly read, although a few people seem to talk about boiling their pre hopped extract which seems odd.

And again burrster. Yeah fill me in your more involved method. I mean being a first time brewer I guess I should probably keep it simple, but the way I have planned seems pretty simple so a touch more involved could be a good thing? So yeah let us know when you get a sec.

Cheers

 

[Drop It Like It's Hop]

As another newbie getting started with hopping, I'd love to learn this as well Burrster

 

[panzerd18]

To experiment with adding hops you can dry hop by adding the pellets directly to the fermenter 5 to 3 days before bottling. Or you can put the desired amount of hops into a mug and pour hot water over them to make a hop tea. Strain the liquid and pour into fermenter.

 

[burrster]

OK steep the grains as mentioned above, while your doing this pre heat to 70 degrees as many litres for your total boil minus what your using to steep. ie another 2 - 3L for a 5L boil later. For this you will need a second pot. This will save you time, rather than heating water after you 1/2 hour steep. This is a great time saver tip.

When the steep is complete, remove the grain and rinse it with about 1L of hot water to 'sparge' the grain, extracting some more of the goodness basically. Make sure you keep this extra liquid, ie rinse the grain over your original pot. Discard the grain ( good garden food)

Once you've done this, bring the total volume of liquid up to at least 5L using your pre heated water ( I do 8 - 10L). doing this allows the hops to be better utilized over lesser volumes. what ever volume you use ensure your pot is at least 2L bigger, preferably more , so you can better avoid boil overs. ( I do mine in a 12L pot)

Add approximately 100g /L of dry malt extract to the liquid ( if using 5L then add 500g) and stir until fully dissolved. ensure you add the malt without the heat turned on, so it doesn't stick to the bottom and burn before it can dissolve. This will bring the gravity of your liquid to approximately 1.040. This is done to get the best utilization from you hops also, as apposed to boiling hops in plain water.

Once fully dissolved turn the heat back on and bring to a rolling boil. once you have reached that point, keep it there but watch it carefully as it could boil over, especially when adding the hops. adjust the heat down as necessary to avoid boil overs, while keeping a good boil.

At this time is when you start your hops additions. Measure carefully ( I have a spoon scale that measures to 0.1g) and record what you do, so you can repeat the process is you end up with a good recipe! a 10 minute addition means add the hops 10 minute before the end of the boil, a 5 minute addition means 5 minutes before the end of the boil, etc.

Once complete the best idea is to rapidly cool the resulting wort in an ice bath to get it below 70 degrees at least to stop alpha acid isomerization(creating bitterness) You can add to a clean sanitized fermenter and add cold too(clean, preferably boiled the day before).

I think I've covered everything for the boil part. Any questions, feel free to ask! Pardon my grammar and spelling I'm not awake just yet!

 

[Droopy Brew]

Mate to be honest, if this is your first brew I would not worry about adding any hops for flavour additions. The reason why I say this is a) for simplicity but also b) you are doing a wheat beer. The bitterness is there in the can for you (which should be relatively low), the flavour you want to impart on wheat beers is yeast. You wont see many Wheat beers with any late hop additions (flavour/aroma additions).

So make sure you have a proper Wheat yeast - not an Ale yeast or a lager yeast that usually comes with the cans but a proper wheat yeast. Probably the best dry yeasts for this is either WB-06 or Danstar Munich.

To make it easy- boil the kettle, add 2L of boiled water and 1l of cold tap water (this will get you in the 60-70C range) into a pot and steep your grains for 30min. Pull the grains out , get it to the boil and let it boil for about 15 minutes. Pour into the fermenter, add your malt and tin, fill with water to your volume.

Once the wort is between 22 and 16C pitch your yeast. With a wheat yeast I personally dont bother to rehydrate but there is plenty of reading here if you want to do that.
Ferment at around 20-22C if you want banana flavours or 16-17 for clove flavours or 18-19 if you want a bit of both.

 

[TheWiggman]

I agree with above. As an example my recent wheat used a total of 15g hops for the entire recipe.
I'd also question the need for the steeped grains. Being a wheat beer, adding extra malted wheat would do next to nothing in my opinion.
By all means do it as a learning curve but I'd keep it simple for brew #1. Yeast, as mentioned, is what the Euro wheat beers are all about. You could even direct pitch a liquid wheat yeast like Wyeast 3068 which is suited for it.
Good luck.

 

[panzerd18]

For first brew I would just do a simple kit and kilo. Then when you feel confident, start experimenting with different things.

 

[lukemason81]

Yeah I suppose should keep it reasonably simple.

Thanks for all the advice. Rekon I've got enough info now for my first brew, time to stop procrastinating and get stuck in, think thursday night will have a few hours spare.

Will post what I end up doing and how it all goes.

Thanks again

 

[stux]

The mangrove jacks brewery pouch kits come with pretty good yeasts. They just take a while to fire up after you pitch them. Not sure about their "cans"

Does the yeast come under the lid? Does it have any IDs on it?

This is their bavarian wheat yeast
http://mangrovejacks.com/collections/craft-series-yeasts/products/bavarian-wheat-10g-coming-soon

As everyone else has said, a Bavarian Wheat has very little bittering and virtually no late hop aroma. The flavour is from the wheat and the yeast, and the yeast has cloves and banana esters in different ratios depending on the temperature, the yeast treatment, and the strain.

best drunk fresh

Superb idea for a first brew actually, as long as you use a proper bavarian wheat yeast... and I think the MJ yeast does count, but for my money Wyeast 3068 can't be beat

https://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_yeaststrain_detail.cfm?ID=135

If your yeast is a rubbish one, you should consider getting a smack pack of the wyeast for it... it'll be fun... I promise

 

[TheWiggman]

3068 = krausen experience you will never forget. Goes BEZERK. Blowoff tube a must or place the fermenter somewhere that you don't mind a bit of yeast covering the walls and ceiling.

 

[lukemason81]

I've got a safbrew WB06, have read it should do the trick.
The yeast that came with the can is only 5 grams worth, is labelled Y 23314.

Think I'll go the safbrew

 

[lukemason81]

Hey guys quick question

I don't have a fridge to ferment in. Have a dark linen cupboard, stays low to mid twenties, which is where I will put the fermenter.

If we get a few warm days our whole place heats up and retains heat right through the night.

What can I do to keep the temp down?

Cheers

 

[panzerd18]

Hey maybe a swamp cooler?

Place the fermenter in a large bucket/esky/bathtub and fill with water. Then float frozen 2 litre bottles of water in the bucket/esky/bathtub to lower the temp.

\

 

[lukemason81]

Oh yeah I see.

So if the temp is a constant 25-26, I'd get the swamp cooler, sweet name, and maybe just rotate the bottles with fresh ones once or twice a day or something?