Going Ag To Extract - Is It This Simple?

[Uncle Fester]

All,

Want to try a lazy option and brew my first extract brew. Found this very informative post from jayse [post="0"]http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=2221[/post] which shows me that 3kg of LME (Coopers or Morgans) into a post boil volume of 22 litres gives me an OG of 1042.

Do I just boil the extract and water for 90 minutes (Beersmith calculates the preboil volume) and add my hops at the required times as I would foran AG?

Any tips? I vaguely recall reading about caramelising the extract against an electric element....


Also, are there any beers styles that are more suiteed to extracts? was going to do an ale.


As always, thanks in advance,

Fester

 

[wambesi]

For my only extract I did I boiled only as long as the longest hop addition (so it was 60mins) and if I recall it was only one can, the other was added at flameout so it didn't darken it too much.

This was in a 15L pot on the stove with about 4L of water, then topped up later with more water. Maybe not how it should have been done but it came out alright!

 

[Georgedgerton]

Try to disolve as much as possible you malt prior to turning your kettle on. This will help prevent gooeee sticky stuff from burning onto the electric element.

With your hops just use the normal calculations as you would for an AG.

I have been brewing AG for around eight years and possibly one of my best beers ever was an extract IPA I brewed just prior to going AG

 

[matt white]

Just boil your water and hops for the allotted bittering time, then add extract with 5-10 minutes to go. You can tick a checkbox in beersmith and it will adjust AAU, color etc accordingly.

I find boiling extract for an hour gives you a much darker colour through caramelisation etc. and you use heaps more hops than necessary due to saturation of water with sugars etc.

Cheers

Gil

 

[sponge]

Hey bruce,

I was looking at doing an IPA at some stage in the next month, and just wondering if you would be able to share your recipe?


Cheers, Sponge

 

[Georgedgerton]

Sponge
No problems, But keep in mind this was some time ago (The date on my brew sheet shows 12 / 7 / 98 ) and I wouldn't do it this way now. However if your game enough and want to give it a shot :

Batch size 19 litres
3.5 kg light extract
500 gms crystal
250 gms Toasted pale schooner
60 gms cluster flowers - @start Sixty minute boil
15 gms cascade pellets - 1 minute from end
5 gms cascade pellets - after flame out

Wyeast 1098 --375 ml starter

Starting gravity 1060
Finishing gravity 1014

Now you wont get Pale schooner today (some say thank god) so any pale base malt will do. I just cracked it with a rolling pin and shoved it under the stove grill untill it got nice and tosted with rather nice aroma wafting from it.

I placed that and the crystal (cracked) in about 4 litres of water at 68 oC and let soak for about 30 minutes and then drained into 15 litre pot. Topped up to 8 litres disolved the extract into it and started the boil

Seeing the boil was only 8 litres and would have a huge SG is why you need the the rather large quantity of hops (I think the AA was pretty High) at the start as the utilisation would have been rather poor. Unfortunately in those days I didnt record the total IBU's

After the boil I added 11 litres of cold water to the fermenter, Cooled the sweet liquor placed a strainer (sterilised) over the top of the fermenter and poured it in.

Chech temp is suitable for pitching yeast and Hey Walla.

Now as I say I dont know that I would do that again but I can geuinely say that particular batch for what ever reason turned out the absolute nectar of the Gods.

Be realy interested if you do give it a go to hear what happens

Bruce

 

[sponge]

would it be worth replacing some more of the malt extract with some more of the pale base malt to give it a fresher taste or was it fine with just using the 250g?

 

[Georgedgerton]

I think I would leave as is. The character that came from the grain was a very mild toasty flavour. I doubt there would have been much in the way of sugars coming from it as as any enzymes would have been killed under the grill. If you decide to add any quantity of base grain make sure you treat it as a "partial" and mash the grain at the appropriate temp.