(wrote this out a few weeks back but forgot to post)
OK, so I have been brewing now since Oct 2014. With a few kits under my belt, I decided to do my first extract.
As I have learned so much from this site I thought I would share what my brew morning looked like, and the lessons I learned from my first extract brew.
Equipment: Like I said, I already had a few kit brews completed. I bought the Coopers Home Brew kit last year, so had everything to do a kit. The only things I needed ontop were a large saucepan & a sieve.
I bought a 20L stockpot from Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00BIYHI1G/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
Bigger than I needed for this, but figured it might be useful if I go BIAB. I got the largest sieve I could find in Tesco (could do with bigger to be honest). I also bought a second FV to use as a bottling bucket, instead of bottle priming, and used this to store my water.
In the past I had never treated my tap water in any way, so decided to use the second FV to store all water used and to treat with half a campden tablet to remove any chlorine.
I opted for the "Way to Amarillo" extract pack from BrewUK:
http://www.brewuk.co.uk/amarillo-recipe-pack.html
recipe:
http://www.brewuk.co.uk/american-ipa
I mostly followed these instructions, with a couple of minor tweaks that seemed to make sense to me.
ingredients:
50grm Amarillo hops
3 x 1kg light dried malt extract
Safale US-05 Yeast
I drew out a rough schedule for the morning, and I am happy to say my actual timings were fairly close to what I predicted. I started to brew at 9am on Sat:
9:00 prepare! make up fresh starsan solution in 5L water container
wash and sterilize first and second FVs, & 3L jug
fill second FV with 24L of water.
add half a crushed campden tablet to remove chlorine. Use this water from now on.
9:30 bring 6L water to the boil in pan, Leave lid on
Weigh out hops and get everything else ready.
9:50 nearly boiling, add 1KG of DME. Lid off from now on
10:05 Full boil. Add 30g of Amarillo hops
10:45 40 mins into boil add rest of DME and then add 10g hops. Had to turn down heat when adding hops as it started to foam up a bit so watch out for that
11:00 55 mins into boil turn off heat, add 10g hops and allow to steep for 20 mins
11:20 start to cool down, move to sink, keep lid on from now on.
Change water and add ice around pan every 10 mins
Fill primary FV with 8L of de-chorinated water from secondary FV. Add 2L of de-chlorinated water to kettle to boil for temp adjustment later.
11:50 get temp in pot down to around 40c (I think mine was way lower)
Add wort to 8L already in FV. Top up to 21L, straining cold water through hops in sieve. Adjust temperature with hot water from kettle if needed to get final temp around 20c. Aeriate wort well.
12:05 pitch yeast, by sprinking ontop of foam. Stir in (with sanitized spoon!) 30 mins later.
OG was spot on at 1050
Lessons learned:
I cooled hot wort too well! I needed to use the kettle to bring temp up, and even then I pitched at 19c where I was aiming for 20 or 21c.
The rising boil when I added second lot of hops nearly took me by surprise. be ready for that!
My initial estimated timings were pretty good, in fact I finished slightly ahead of schedule.
I bottled this after 2 weeks, batch primed with 90g of sugar, and then last night, after 8 days in the bottle, I had to have a sneaky taste. Beer had cleared well. but not quite enough carbonation. I think it needs more time, plus the room i was using is a little cold. But even so, bloody lovely. really impressed! :
OK, so I have been brewing now since Oct 2014. With a few kits under my belt, I decided to do my first extract.
As I have learned so much from this site I thought I would share what my brew morning looked like, and the lessons I learned from my first extract brew.
Equipment: Like I said, I already had a few kit brews completed. I bought the Coopers Home Brew kit last year, so had everything to do a kit. The only things I needed ontop were a large saucepan & a sieve.
I bought a 20L stockpot from Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00BIYHI1G/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
Bigger than I needed for this, but figured it might be useful if I go BIAB. I got the largest sieve I could find in Tesco (could do with bigger to be honest). I also bought a second FV to use as a bottling bucket, instead of bottle priming, and used this to store my water.
In the past I had never treated my tap water in any way, so decided to use the second FV to store all water used and to treat with half a campden tablet to remove any chlorine.
I opted for the "Way to Amarillo" extract pack from BrewUK:
http://www.brewuk.co.uk/amarillo-recipe-pack.html
recipe:
http://www.brewuk.co.uk/american-ipa
I mostly followed these instructions, with a couple of minor tweaks that seemed to make sense to me.
ingredients:
50grm Amarillo hops
3 x 1kg light dried malt extract
Safale US-05 Yeast
I drew out a rough schedule for the morning, and I am happy to say my actual timings were fairly close to what I predicted. I started to brew at 9am on Sat:
9:00 prepare! make up fresh starsan solution in 5L water container
wash and sterilize first and second FVs, & 3L jug
fill second FV with 24L of water.
add half a crushed campden tablet to remove chlorine. Use this water from now on.
9:30 bring 6L water to the boil in pan, Leave lid on
Weigh out hops and get everything else ready.
9:50 nearly boiling, add 1KG of DME. Lid off from now on
10:05 Full boil. Add 30g of Amarillo hops
10:45 40 mins into boil add rest of DME and then add 10g hops. Had to turn down heat when adding hops as it started to foam up a bit so watch out for that
11:00 55 mins into boil turn off heat, add 10g hops and allow to steep for 20 mins
11:20 start to cool down, move to sink, keep lid on from now on.
Change water and add ice around pan every 10 mins
Fill primary FV with 8L of de-chorinated water from secondary FV. Add 2L of de-chlorinated water to kettle to boil for temp adjustment later.
11:50 get temp in pot down to around 40c (I think mine was way lower)
Add wort to 8L already in FV. Top up to 21L, straining cold water through hops in sieve. Adjust temperature with hot water from kettle if needed to get final temp around 20c. Aeriate wort well.
12:05 pitch yeast, by sprinking ontop of foam. Stir in (with sanitized spoon!) 30 mins later.
OG was spot on at 1050
Lessons learned:
I cooled hot wort too well! I needed to use the kettle to bring temp up, and even then I pitched at 19c where I was aiming for 20 or 21c.
The rising boil when I added second lot of hops nearly took me by surprise. be ready for that!
My initial estimated timings were pretty good, in fact I finished slightly ahead of schedule.
I bottled this after 2 weeks, batch primed with 90g of sugar, and then last night, after 8 days in the bottle, I had to have a sneaky taste. Beer had cleared well. but not quite enough carbonation. I think it needs more time, plus the room i was using is a little cold. But even so, bloody lovely. really impressed! :
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