Irish Ale Brew Night

[Aus_Rider_22]

Hi everyone!

Had a brew night tonight and thought I would take photos as I go just for something fun. I had been meaning to do this for a while but always remembered mid-brew. I hope this gives those new to extract or thinking about it an idea of how you can go about it. You can read all about steeping and boiling hops but its not until you give it a crack that you get a better idea of preparation and time spent. These sorta threads were always VERY helpful to me. Hopefully the pictures are of help. They are a rough guide of the things you can use.

The brew is an extract version of fatgodzillas Better Red Than Dead. It has a few minor changes but I am aiming to be as close as I can with extract as its had rave reviews and its my first attempt at an Irish Ale.

Killing Kenny

Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.00 kg Pale Liquid Extract (14.0 EBC)
0.20 kg Caramunich I (Weyermann) (100.5 EBC)
0.20 kg Carared (39.4 EBC)
0.10 kg Carafa II (811.6 EBC)
60.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [4.80 %] (60 min) Hops 18.7 IBU
40.00 gm Fuggles [4.20 %] (30 min) Hops 8.4 IBU
0.30 kg Dextrose (0.0 EBC) Sugar
1 Pkgs Irish Ale (Wyeast Labs #1084) Yeast-Ale

27.1 IBU
33ish EBC (Beersmith has LME as 15EBC whereas the Coopers LME is said to be about 5. Will wait and see. The lighter colouring wont worry me at all.
4.7 ABV%

Here is everything on the bench.

First thing I did was measure the 3 spec grains and added them to a pot and got the temp up to 65 degrees to steep for half an hour. I know there are better thermometers out there but this little one is great for brewing. Recommend them to anyone for a cheap way of monitoring temps!

While they were steeping away I took this time to prepare my pot where I will be boiling the hops. To save time I boiled up 5x2Litre lots in the kettle to minimize time spent on waiting it to come on the boil later. I measured up hop amounts in my scales also.

Steeping is now done after about 35mins. I brought my bigger pot of hot water over to the stove top and fired the element back up. I have a bit of random setup and I am sure there are better/more prepared out there. I just strained the liquid from the smaller pot into the larger. Gave the remaining grain a rinse with water and tipped that water through the strainer.
I then added about 1kg of LME into the larger pot and gave it a really good mix. Now I dont usually go any further in terms of making sure the SG is 1.040. I have always gone with the 100g per 1L guide and its worked favourably so far. I got a cup and collected a bit of wort and put it into my hydrometer and jar. It was 1.020. I then stuck the thermometer into the same sample and got a temp of 64.7 degrees. Using Beersmiths hydro converter that works out to be 1.039 which is close enough for me.

First lot of hops are in and I am off an boiling! First time I brewed with my own hop additions I thought the smell was very weird but now its great! Other people in the house dont agree even after many brews!

Time for a beer!

Its now in the laundry tub surrounded by cold water. I havent cooled it to pitching temp before like this but after reading here and researching over time I am doing it this way.
Pretty basic from then on. Strain the wort into the fermenter and top up with water to the desired level for the batch.

Please dont take this as a do it this way thread. Its not and I am very open to any tips from what you see. Hope it gives some brewers an idea on whats involved with steeping some grains and boiling some hops! Hopefully its a tasty drop!
Happy Brewing!

 

[Lodan]

Nice post, I look forward to reading and seeing more. Coincidently i have also started to play around with fatgodzilla's recipe for an extract version although it's far from complete and far from brewing stage at the moment!

 

[Aus_Rider_22]

Nice post, I look forward to reading and seeing more. Coincidently i have also started to play around with fatgodzilla's recipe for an extract version although it's far from complete and far from brewing stage at the moment!

That's cool to hear. :icon_cheers:

When you get it finalised post it up.

Pretty excited. Tonight was my first brew with a liquid yeast.

 

[goomboogo]

That's cool to hear. :icon_cheers:

When you get it finalised post it up.

Pretty excited. Tonight was my first brew with a liquid yeast.

Congratulations on the brew. It's a good idea to maintain those temperatures even when steeping specialties as it may help with confidence if you ever decide to mash base malt. What process did you use with the yeast? Also, how confident are you with the accuracy of the scales? It may be worth keeping in mind especially if you ever use high AA hops.

 

[Aus_Rider_22]

Congratulations on the brew. It's a good idea to maintain those temperatures even when steeping specialties as it may help with confidence if you ever decide to mash base malt. What process did you use with the yeast? Also, how confident are you with the accuracy of the scales? It may be worth keeping in mind especially if you ever use high AA hops.

When I was done the steeped grain pot was a hair under 60 so it wasn't too bad. But I know what you mean. :icon_cheers: Something I could have done but never thought of until I read it on here today was to preheat the oven to a hundred degrees, turn it off and leave the pot in there which would keep the temp right at 65-70. With the smack pack I just gave it a wack at the start of the night and by the time I had the fermenter at 24 it had started swelling. I then simply poured the liquid into the fermenter. Checked it before work this morning and it was at 19 with signs of fermentation (start of krausen and condensation on the cling wrap)

With the scales, I have to admit I haven't got the checked or measured with a known weight. Come to think of it isn't a certain coin a certain weight? I will have to look it up. But yes, I am not 100% positive the cheap plastic scales are perfectly correct. They don't always work smoothly. I usually pull the holder off and sit it down smoothly and I assume this is the correct weight. Might look at picking up a cheap set of digi scales if these aren't acurate.

Cheers! :icon_chickcheers:

 

[felten]

a 1 dollar coin is 9.0 grams

 

[Aus_Rider_22]

To coincide with my first night of AG brewing I decided to pick up a 4 pack of Kilkenny to compare directly with this beer in this thread as it's on tap and running nicely!

Tasting in the fermenter was great. Was really excited to taste it from the keg. Got a minor scare when I accidentally froze a portion of the fermenter when CC'ing.

Anyway onto taste. Was very happy with it on the first night of tasting from the keg. It wasn't fully carbed but I wanted to try it! Very nice and the only thing I thought was negative was that it was a bit bland. A feint aroma of the hops greets you when you bring it up to sip. Even without a Kilkenny on hand I could tell this is where Kilkenny lacked, as with most commercial offerings. When I say bland, I meant it wasn't overly hoppy nor overly malty. I guess it would be classes as evenly balanced. It is a great base in my opinion. Nothing strikes as over the top.

Now tonight I got the Kilkenny cans and poured them and took photos (below).

The real thing is clearly smoother and creamier. Without using adding Nitrogen I can't replicate that. Something interesting I noted. I read on here that to emphasize the smoothness/creaminess of a beer the carbonation must be kept low. This is obvious as the mouthfeel of my beer has ventured further from the Kilkenny now that is it fully carbed (2.1 volumes for this one). I can agree with others who used the Who Killed Kenny recipe who said it's better than Kilkenny. Other than mouthfeel/smoothness this extract version beats Kilkenny for taste! As seen in the photos below the head on the Kilkenny is far superior. The bubbles are tighter and more compact and longer lasting on the Kilkenny. I would bet that if I had of matured my beer longer and left it longer at serving pressure it would pour smoother but I was happy with how it turned out in the time given.
This version is a touch "roastier" and the hops shine through more, which is a good thing IMO. It's actually suprisingly close other than those two things. Also Kilkenny had a sweeter finish than mine. The colour between the two is slightly noticeable. Where Kilkenny is clearer and has a more "ruby" like colour, mine is hazy and darker. I didn't use finings or polyclar for it which would explain the lack of brightness/clarity. I would still say mine is slightly darker. From this, perhaps droppping the amount of Carafa2 used by a small amount would improve the colour and take the raostiness away if you are wanting exact Kilkenny taste/colour. If you wanted to go even closer I would say get a co2/nitro mix cylinder and maybe add something for sweetness. Lactose or candi sugar??? Hope this makes sense and my VERY amateur tasting can give extract guys an idea of what this recipe gives you.

 

[MattC8]

Hi,
Sorry to waste your time with such an obvious question, but I'm new to brewing. Could you please explain what's the difference between the Can of Coopers LME your using, and any of the other Coopers products (eg: larger, real ale etc...)

 

[Aus_Rider_22]

Hi,
Sorry to waste your time with such an obvious question, but I'm new to brewing. Could you please explain what's the difference between the Can of Coopers LME your using, and any of the other Coopers products (eg: larger, real ale etc...)

The 1.7kg cans from Coopers are bittered with hops, well "iso-hops" I believe. They are a mixture of malt extract and the hops that is pre-blended to a specific taste ie "Bitter" or "Euro Lager" etc. The can and tubs in that picture is of the Liquid malt extract. They are just malt extract with no hops or anything for bitterness/flavour/aroma.

Boiling up hops and using plain LME is called extract brewing and allows you to add in different types and amounts of hops for different ranges of bitterness, flavour and aroma. Have a few searches around for extract-specific threads and recipes. Have a read up here and this will give you a good guide to what is involved. http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/index.html

I recommend kit brewer to look into making the step to extract. My first was the AHB famour "Dr Smurto's Golden Ale". It's a cracker and I never looked back. The amount of customization and free range of ingredients in extract leave Coopers/Morgans etc cans for dead. :icon_cheers:

 

[MattC8]

Thank you very much.

Regards,

Matt