Have I Ruined My Dsga?

[moodgett]

Hi All,

have a quick question about the brew i did last weekend

did dr smurtos golden ale

did grain steeping and hop additions correctly, although i put both the Malt Extract and grain liquid and tin of goop in a brought to boil/hot break and then did hop additions. Will this ruin it?

 

[Bribie G]

No, should be fine. It isn't strictly necessary to boil liquid or dried malt extract because it has been boiled already at the factory and does not contain any hot break. However many people do boil the extract and it doesn't seem to do any harm. There shouldn't be any sort of 'hot break' from steeped grains such as Crystal Malt or Carared or Choc malt etc AFAIK. That's an interesting point because they have been mashed in the husk but not yet boiled.

When I was doing partials or kits/extracts with some steeped grains I would boil the 'runnings' and hops separately with a small amount of either sugar or malt extract to help hop utilisation and after boiling, strained the liquid through a sanitised kitchen wire strainer into the fermenter. At that time I seemed to pick up a bit of scummy material which got caught up with the hops in the strainer, especially if using hop flowers. I'm not sure if that was a form of break material or not.

Anyway I doubt if it's an issue. Provided your temperature control and sanitisation during fermenting are good, then you should be just fine

 

[moodgett]

No, should be fine. It isn't strictly necessary to boil liquid or dried malt extract because it has been boiled already at the factory and does not contain any hot break. However many people do boil the extract and it doesn't seem to do any harm. There shouldn't be any sort of 'hot break' from steeped grains such as Crystal Malt or Carared or Choc malt etc AFAIK. That's an interesting point because they have been mashed in the husk but not yet boiled.

When I was doing partials or kits/extracts with some steeped grains I would boil the 'runnings' and hops separately with a small amount of either sugar or malt extract to help hop utilisation and after boiling, strained the liquid through a sanitised kitchen wire strainer into the fermenter. At that time I seemed to pick up a bit of scummy material which got caught up with the hops in the strainer, especially if using hop flowers. I'm not sure if that was a form of break material or not.

Anyway I doubt if it's an issue. Provided your temperature control and sanitisation during fermenting are good, then you should be just fine

cheers Bribie,

yeah after cooling the wort i poured into fermenter through mesh strainer and got some material/hop sludge too

 

[buttersd70]

There is a minor 'it depends'.....
did you do the version that used unhopped extract, with a 60 minute hop addition, or did you do the version that uses a hopped kit as the base, and only has the late hop additions?

If it's the former, and you added all the extract at the begining of the boil, you won't have extracted enough bitterness, due to the high boil gravity. If it's the latter, it won't make much difference at all because most of the bitterness is already in the tin, so don't worry....

did grain steeping and hop additions correctly, although i put both the Malt Extract and grain liquid and tin of goop in a brought to boil/hot break and then did hop additions. Will this ruin it?

By tin of goop, I presume you mean hopped extract, ie a kit. just thought I'd check though...if it is, it's fine.

 

[moodgett]

There is a minor 'it depends'.....
did you do the version that used unhopped extract, with a 60 minute hop addition, or did you do the version that uses a hopped kit as the base, and only has the late hop additions?

If it's the former, and you added all the extract at the begining of the boil, you won't have extracted enough bitterness, due to the high boil gravity. If it's the latter, it won't make much difference at all because most of the bitterness is already in the tin, so don't worry....




By tin of goop, I presume you mean hopped extract, ie a kit. just thought I'd check though...if it is, it's fine.

hey butters, yes it was the coopers sparkling ale kit with the late hop additions, AWESOME :lol:

 

[buttersd70]

hey butters, yes it was the coopers sparkling ale kit with the late hop additions, AWESOME :lol:

Shouldn't be a problem then.

 

[moodgett]

Well thinking about this now,

when im doing these Kits and Bits (which i will be using until my skills develop as a brewer) should i just keep on boiling it all?

 

[buttersd70]

Well thinking about this now,

when im doing these Kits and Bits (which i will be using until my skills develop as a brewer) should i just keep on boiling it all?

I'd suggest not, for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, liquid extract doesn't need to be boiled, because it's in a can, and therefore sterile. Not sanitary, but sterile. Dry extracts on the other hand are not, and should be boiled.

Secondly, the high gravity in the boil, if all extracts are added at the start, will effect the isomorisation of the hops. Even the late hop additions are meant to contribute some bitterness...the lower bitterness extracted from the late addition hops may effect the outcome, depending on what the recipe is. (for the dsga, there is enough base bitterness that I don't think it will effect it that much.)

Thirdly, if moving into extract brewing or partials, then the boil gravity does become more important, as you will be doing the bittering addition with hops, instead of relying on the bitterness of the tin. So, imo, it's probably best to start as you mean to continue.

So, with the boil, add any water from the steeping of grain (as this needs to be boiled). Add any dry malt to the boil at a rate of ~100g per Litre. This will give you a boil gravity of around 1040 (which is relevent to point 3, above). Then, just before the end of your boil, add any remaining dry ingredients, and at the end of the boil, add any of the liquid extracts, to disolve it. (if the recipe has no dry ingredients, you could just add some of a tin to your boil at the start, then the rest at the end; unless recipe states otherwise).

the specifics of your boil gravity aren't hugely relevent to you at this point, and close enough is certainly good enough; but if you start getting in the mindset of paying a little bit more attention to it now, it's not going to hurt, and it will help set you up in the habits you will need if you expand into full extract or partial brewing. Oh, and even at this stage, it will help with consistency if you do the same recipe multiple times, cos you'll be doing it the same way each time. And consistancy is a good thing.

 

[moodgett]

well three weeks in primary and 1.5 weeks in bottle and i dont know if im just biased, but it seems fully carbed up, and smells and tastes so good

 

[raven19]

Nice work!

There was nothing to be concerned over it seems. Looks like a cracker! :icon_cheers:

 

[BitterBulldog]

well three weeks in primary and 1.5 weeks in bottle and i dont know if im just biased, but it seems fully carbed up, and smells and tastes so good

I'm going to try mine tonight - Extract version 6 days in Bottle

It's been pretty warm lately, so should be carbed up.

I tried my last Brew after 1 week & it tasted great - it was an APA.
but now after 1 month it doesn't seem as good? like it needs to mellow out a bit.