Looking For My Next Brew.. A Brown Beer

[PhilipB]

Ok Guys,

I have bottled my Australian Lager that came with the Kit, brewed with the ingredients 'as is'.

I have my Ginger Beer in its fermenter in the esky around 20 - 22 degrees, the Morgans Ginger Beer with 1 kg dextrose, 1 kg Raw sugar.

Still keeping with the kit style of brewing at the moment, I want to 'experiment' and make a brown beer. I want to work on something that is not just pour the tin into the water, add dextrose, stir and add yeast. I want to work on something that is a little unique so to speak.

I don't have my STC1000 or my fridge set up yet. I am working with a Techni-ice Esky that I can comfortably see a temperature range of 20 - 22 degrees.

I don't have any BIAB gear - need to keep things simple at this stage.

any thoughts and suggestions? I am also looking to learn how different ingredients affect a brew as well.

Cheers,

PhilipB

 

[pyrosx]

How's about working on an extract recipe - something where you use a portion of raw malt extract to make a wort, then boil it in a pot on the stove, add hops at various times according to the recipe.... then water it down with the rest of the extract and water and ferment it.

At this point, the "boil phase" of the brewing technique sounds like about all you are ready to upgrade to - you've got some kind of temperature control going, and aren't ready to start boiling actual grain. So you take pre-mashed grain and add hops? Even if this doesnt actually produce a beer that is all that much better than a kit+kilo, you're at least getting your head around hops schedules and recipes?

You can't really look at lagers - 20-22 means ale. So maybe something like a Newcastle Brown style clone recipe?

 

[PhilipB]

How's about working on an extract recipe - something where you use a portion of raw malt extract to make a wort, then boil it in a pot on the stove, add hops at various times according to the recipe.... then water it down with the rest of the extract and water and ferment it.

At this point, the "boil phase" of the brewing technique sounds like about all you are ready to upgrade to - you've got some kind of temperature control going, and aren't ready to start boiling actual grain. So you take pre-mashed grain and add hops? Even if this doesnt actually produce a beer that is all that much better than a kit+kilo, you're at least getting your head around hops schedules and recipes?

You can't really look at lagers - 20-22 means ale. So maybe something like a Newcastle Brown style clone recipe?

I am open to suggestions. This will be my third brew. An extract recipie sounds good (need to understand what that is really... more googling ).

I am happy to learn. I had been looking at the Toucan recipies as I was thinking about a Kit n Kilo tin with extra's.

I suppose my head is in experimenting with flavour however I can see that learining brewing technique is also important.

An extract recipie will help me do both?

 

[Tanga]

Extract is great for experimenting with hops. Kit tins are liquid extract with bittering hops already added. You can get liquid or dry extract. I prefer dry, as liquid is messy, but you may prefer liquid as it will be more like working with tins. What's your fave dark beer? Then we can suggest hops and maybe some grain.

Steeping is fun and a great way to make things more interesting.

 

[PhilipB]

Extract is great for experimenting with hops. Kit tins are liquid extract with bittering hops already added. You can get liquid or dry extract. I prefer dry, as liquid is messy, but you may prefer liquid as it will be more like working with tins. What's your fave dark beer? Then we can suggest hops and maybe some grain.

Steeping is fun and a great way to make things more interesting.

Hi Tanga,

What is my Fav dark beer? Well I don't have one. I don't want a black beer or something that can be cut with a knife. Sorry that might not help I am used to drinking commercial beers like Hahn Premium, Toohey's Extra dry etc. Just wanted to take a step towards the darker side (darth vader ish) without being hit with a full black Guiness if you know what I mean. My thinking of a brown beer was something different without having a meal in a glass.

Its new ground for me. Sorry to be vauge.

Thoughts?

Phil

 

[enuun]

I made a dark ale from a coopers tin for my second brew. Not too bad considering I was still learning but the ingredients were stellar and can produce a good beer if you have your sanitation and temperature control down.

1 Coopers Dark Ale
500g DDME
500g Dex +100g Maltodextrin
100g Crystal steeped
10g Willamette hops 10mins addition
Nottingham yeast

 

[PhilipB]

I made a dark ale from a coopers tin for my second brew. Not too bad considering I was still learning but the ingredients were stellar and can produce a good beer if you have your sanitation and temperature control down.

1 Coopers Dark Ale
500g DDME
500g Dex +100g Maltodextrin
100g Crystal steeped
10g Willamette hops 10mins addition
Nottingham yeast

Enuun. what sort of temperature am I looking at for this? At the moment I am getting a stable 20 - 22 degrees in my esky set up.

 

[Mayor of Mildura]

Enuun. what sort of temperature am I looking at for this? At the moment I am getting a stable 20 - 22 degrees in my esky set up.

20 - 22 for nottingham would be fine.

 

[PhilipB]

20 - 22 for nottingham would be fine.

Thanks Mayor

I suppose I better find out how to do it .. on that note I am looking through the forum site and finding it difficult to get a step by step explanation of what I should be doing so I am going to ask some questions based on what I have read and my assumptions:

1. Pour the Coopers Dark Ale in a pot in the stove and heat?

2. place the 100g Crystal in a bag and allow to soak in the hot mix? (steeped?? is that what it means?)

3. Place 10g Willamette hops in the mix for 10mins? Is this 10 minutes before taking off heat? Do they get strained out?

4. Take everything off the heat and place in fermenter stir in 500g DDME, 500g Dex +100g Maltodextrin

5. Make up to 21 litres, stir in and add yeast. Put on the lid and wait patiently.

Having never brewed before, I really want to get a handle on method

 

[Samuel Adams]

Hey Philip,

1. No need to heat or boil the dark ale kit in a pan, just put it in a sink of hot/warm water to loosen it up before opening and pouring into fermentor
Also it's not a good idea to boil the kit, not exactly sure what it does I think it effects the hops (isohops) in the can.

2. Yep that what a steep is, I usually leave the grain in for 30min then strain into another pot, then fill again with water and repeat to get the most out of your grain. You also need to bring to the boil and boil for a few mins to kill any bugs etc, this is where you can add hops and boil for a certain amout of time depending if you want bitterness (early) flavour (middle-late) or aroma (late-dry hopping) from your hops.

3. Yeah 10 mins means 10 from the end, this will add a small amout of bitterness, some flavour & aroma. Being a dark ale which is pretty bitter & roasty already you probably wont notice much from 10g of hops.

4. After your boil is done a good method of cooling it before mixing everything together is puting it in a sink with cold water and letting it sit for a while, you can also add ice or change the water to speed it up (or not). Once it's cooled down a fair bit tip it in with your dark ale kit and extra malt, dex etc add water and stir. I actually mix all the extras into the pot after your boil is done, then cool and then tip it in and add water.

5. Yes or 23L

Hope that helps,
Cheers

 

[PhilipB]

2. Yep that what a steep is, I usually leave the grain in for 30min then strain into another pot, then fill again with water and repeat to get the most out of your grain. You also need to bring to the boil and boil for a few mins to kill any bugs etc, this is where you can add hops and boil for a certain amout of time depending if you want bitterness (early) flavour (middle-late) or aroma (late-dry hopping) from your hops.

Ok just want to clarify.

To steep the grain is to place it in the water, in this instance, for 30 minutes. Strain off the water to another pot, and soak the grain in new water for another 30 minutes. Keeping both lots of water to pool together and boil.

Is this water cold / warm / hot?

How much water do you use for 100g of Crystal ?

 

[Samuel Adams]

Sorry, if you are using a grain bag you won't need another pot you can just lift the bag, squeeze out a much of the water (liqour) out as you can, and if you can pour some more water through the bag to get more out of it.

The second lot of water is like a sparge (an all grain term) where you just want to get that little bit extra out of the grain.

I heat the water up to 65-70 deg to do the steep, it can also be done in cold water but I think it takes longer.

If you use 1L for the steep and then another 1L to sparge (rinse) that will give you 2L to boil your hops in.
Also with hop boils you want a gravity of about 1040, simple way to get close to this is 100g of LDME per L, so use 200g in your 2L.

 

[Liam_snorkel]

Mate, head to the top of the page, click Articles > kits & extracts. There is heaps of info there that will answer a lot of your questions from doing an extract brew to steeping specialty grain.

 

[J Grimmer]

for your first port-ish style beer try a fresh wort kit bit pricy but good beer will be produced. On the other hand if you want to try an amber ale then try the morgans royal oak amber and a kilo of be2 or malt extract depending how sweet you like it. Also the Cascade Porter is nice kit and not as dark as you would expect a porter to be, but a good amber ale.

 

[PhilipB]

Mate, head to the top of the page, click Articles > kits & extracts. There is heaps of info there that will answer a lot of your questions from doing an extract brew to steeping specialty grain.

Thank you learning to navigate around this site as well. I will read through these.

 

[szopen]

My third brew turned out fantastic (in my not so humble opinion) and if you want to try to do something more thank straight kit this might be a good idea.




Go to Craftbrewer in Capalaba and buy:
1 (1.5kg) container of Briess Munich malt extract (50:50 base malt and munich), 13.6$
1 (1.5kg) container of Briess Wheat malt extract (65:35 base malt and wheat) 13.6$ (not visible in online store but present on the shelf)
1 bag of dextrose (you will use half for this brew) 3$
1 90g pack of Amarillo hops ~9$ (you will use half for this brew)
200g of Caramunich I and 300g of Carared cracked grain (total 500g) ~3$
1 packet of Nottingham yeast 4.5$
1 bag 12"X12" ~7$ (a bit big for this time but you will use it again, better than too small).

(Malt extracts as above will give you base similar to Dr Smurto Golden Ale)

On brew day prepare:
-sanitized fermenter (including cleaning and sanitizing taps) and mixing spoon.
- one 2-3l pot (small pot)
- one 9l pot (big pot)
- one large bowl
- 3 soft drink bottles filled with water (to 80%) and frozen.

First step: steeping grains.
Boil a kettle of water.
Put your cracked grains in the bag (over a large bowl as some fines will go through the mesh).
Pour 1.5 litre of boiling water into small pot, add 1 litre of cold tap water, mix,
Put you bag with cracked grain in, mix a bit, cover and let it sit for 30 minutes.
Lift the bag out, gently squeeze, place in the bowl.
Pour your steepings into big pot.
Again
Pour 1.5 litre of boiling water into small pot, add 1 litre of cold tap water, mix,
Put you bag with cracked grain in, mix a bit, cover and let it sit for 30 minutes.
Lift the bag out, squeeze well, place in the bowl.
Pour your steepings into big pot.

Put the big pot on the stove, add 500g of dextrose (half a bag), fill up to approx 5 litres and start heating.

Empty your grain bag, chuck away spent grain, give it a rinse.

Open your packet of hops, take out half of contents onto a plate, divide into 3 parts (each ~15g).
Close well the packet with remaining hops and put it in the freezer.

Once the wort starts boiling it's time to start adding hops.
You may just chuck them in (easy way) but there is a small risk of hop floaters in the bottles (as happened in my brew, no problem for me) or use your grain bag as hop bag.

Add 1/3 of hops, start the clock, this is your 60m addition,
After 40 minutes add second 1/3, this is your 20m addition,
After 20 minutes, add remaining 1/3 and turn off the fire, this is your flameout 0m addition.

Add both containers of malt extract in, mix well with sanitized spoon, cover and put into laundry tub filled with cold water to cool down. Change water until wort is cold.

Add 10 litres of cold tap water into the fermenter splashing well.
Take the big pot from laundry tub, take out the hop bag if you used it, gently pour wort into the fermenter leaving the very last 200-300 ml of trub in the pot.

Fill the fermenter up to 25 litres.

Place your fermenter in your esky, put the 3 ice bottles beside, close the door.



When temperature of the wort in fermenter drops below 26C sprinkle your yeast on top and start fermenting.



You will need to rotate your ice bottles every morning and evening, 2 or 3 each time to keep temperature around 18-20C.



(If you dont have a 9 litre pot, use 5-6 litre one for boiling and cooling wort and than again to dissolve the extract.)

 

[PhilipB]

My third brew turned out fantastic (in my not so humble opinion) and if you want to try to do something more thank straight kit this might be a good idea.




Go to Craftbrewer in Capalaba and buy:
1 (1.5kg) container of Briess Munich malt extract (50:50 base malt and munich), 13.6$
1 (1.5kg) container of Briess Wheat malt extract (65:35 base malt and wheat) 13.6$ (not visible in online store but present on the shelf)
1 bag of dextrose (you will use half for this brew) 3$
1 90g pack of Amarillo hops ~9$ (you will use half for this brew)
200g of Caramunich I and 300g of Carared cracked grain (total 500g) ~3$
1 packet of Nottingham yeast 4.5$
1 bag 12"X12" ~7$ (a bit big for this time but you will use it again, better than too small).

(Malt extracts as above will give you base similar to Dr Smurto Golden Ale)

On brew day prepare:
-sanitized fermenter (including cleaning and sanitizing taps) and mixing spoon.
- one 2-3l pot (small pot)
- one 9l pot (big pot)
- one large bowl
- 3 soft drink bottles filled with water (to 80%) and frozen.

First step: steeping grains.
Boil a kettle of water.
Put your cracked grains in the bag (over a large bowl as some fines will go through the mesh).
Pour 1.5 litre of boiling water into small pot, add 1 litre of cold tap water, mix,
Put you bag with cracked grain in, mix a bit, cover and let it sit for 30 minutes.
Lift the bag out, gently squeeze, place in the bowl.
Pour your steepings into big pot.
Again
Pour 1.5 litre of boiling water into small pot, add 1 litre of cold tap water, mix,
Put you bag with cracked grain in, mix a bit, cover and let it sit for 30 minutes.
Lift the bag out, squeeze well, place in the bowl.
Pour your steepings into big pot.

Put the big pot on the stove, add 500g of dextrose (half a bag), fill up to approx 5 litres and start heating.

Empty your grain bag, chuck away spent grain, give it a rinse.

Open your packet of hops, take out half of contents onto a plate, divide into 3 parts (each ~15g).
Close well the packet with remaining hops and put it in the freezer.

Once the wort starts boiling it's time to start adding hops.
You may just chuck them in (easy way) but there is a small risk of hop floaters in the bottles (as happened in my brew, no problem for me) or use your grain bag as hop bag.

Add 1/3 of hops, start the clock, this is your 60m addition,
After 40 minutes add second 1/3, this is your 20m addition,
After 20 minutes, add remaining 1/3 and turn off the fire, this is your flameout 0m addition.

Add both containers of malt extract in, mix well with sanitized spoon, cover and put into laundry tub filled with cold water to cool down. Change water until wort is cold.

Add 10 litres of cold tap water into the fermenter splashing well.
Take the big pot from laundry tub, take out the hop bag if you used it, gently pour wort into the fermenter leaving the very last 200-300 ml of trub in the pot.

Fill the fermenter up to 25 litres.

Place your fermenter in your esky, put the 3 ice bottles beside, close the door.



When temperature of the wort in fermenter drops below 26C sprinkle your yeast on top and start fermenting.



You will need to rotate your ice bottles every morning and evening, 2 or 3 each time to keep temperature around 18-20C.



(If you don't have a 9 litre pot, use 5-6 litre one for boiling and cooling wort and than again to dissolve the extract.)

WOW thank you this is really helpful. I will definately do this

Capalaba is a bit away.. I might see if my local http://www.qualityhomebrew.com.au/ has these things. If not I will definately take the trip. I have just registered online so I can order and get it delivered

What sort of starting SG and finish SG would I be looking at?

Thank you heaps.

Phil

 

[szopen]

WOW thank you this is really helpful. I will definately do this

Capalaba is a bit away.. I might see if my local http://www.qualityhomebrew.com.au/ has these things. If not I will definately take the trip. I have just registered online so I can order and get it delivered

What sort of starting SG and finish SG would I be looking at?

Thank you heaps.

Phil

According to the Kits & Extracts spreadsheet available somewhere on this forum SG at the beginning (OG) should be 1.050 and at the end (FG) 1.013, IBU ~25,

Above recipe is quite simple and is focused on "easy to do, no stress" method.
It can be tweaked of course:
- fill to 23 litres only (SG 1.054 and 1.014, more body and more alc),
- change hopping schedule (25g at 60m, 10g at 20m and 10g at 0m) will give ~30IBU
- use more hops (but if only 45g (half packet) used as above there will be enough for second batch, same with dextrose)
- use Coopers Amber (or Pale) and Coopers Wheat instead of Briess malt extract
- probably many more.


To put things in a bit of perspective this was my third brew.
I am on brew number 5 at the moment

 

[PhilipB]

According to the Kits & Extracts spreadsheet available somewhere on this forum SG at the beginning (OG) should be 1.050 and at the end (FG) 1.013, IBU ~25,

Above recipe is quite simple and is focused on "easy to do, no stress" method.
It can be tweaked of course:
- fill to 23 litres only (SG 1.054 and 1.014, more body and more alc),
- change hopping schedule (25g at 60m, 10g at 20m and 10g at 0m) will give ~30IBU
- use more hops (but if only 45g (half packet) used as above there will be enough for second batch, same with dextrose)
- use Coopers Amber (or Pale) and Coopers Wheat instead of Briess malt extract
- probably many more.


To put things in a bit of perspective this was my third brew.
I am on brew number 5 at the moment

Thanks heaps. I found the spread sheet. Giving me a look at specs before making them. Its a fantastic idea.

Went down to Craftbrewer today and collected all the relevant items.

Looking forward to kicking this one off on sunday. I will prepare it before getting ready to bottle my ginger beer. Tag team the use of the esky

 

[szopen]

Thanks heaps. I found the spread sheet. Giving me a look at specs before making them. Its a fantastic idea.

Went down to Craftbrewer today and collected all the relevant items.

Looking forward to kicking this one off on sunday. I will prepare it before getting ready to bottle my ginger beer. Tag team the use of the esky

Good move visiting craftbrewer.
Hope you will have fun this weekend.

A couple more tips or options (you still have time to prepare).

Make sure you aerate well (by splashing and sloshing) water first and than cooled wort in your fermenter.

Add a packet of baking yeast to the boil (at least a 5 minutes before the end), this will provide extra yeast nutritient, heat will kill these yeast.

Your esky is providing a very good insulation so using frozen water bottles will work well enough to control temperature.
Once you have wort cooled to pitching temperature and yeast sprinkled on top put it into your esky with extra bottles of ice to cool it down to around 18C.
As a very rough guide 1kg of ice (1.25l pet bottle) will cool 23-25 litres of wort by 2.5C while melting.
So if your wort is 27C placing ~4kg of ice in the esky will result in wort temperature dropping to desired 18C after about 12 hours.

For the first 3-4 days when fermentation is going strong there is a fair bit of heat generated in fermenter so you will have to put 2-3kg of ice inside the esky to keep it at 18C, later when fermentation slows down 1-2kg will be enough to keep it at correct temperature.
You do not need the wet towel inside the esky, just place the fermenter and ice bottles together inside and keep the lid closed. It will work better (I know I repeat what have said already in your other thread but I sort of earn my crust dealing with cooling things down).

Have fun.