Leedsmedic
New Member
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2012
- Messages
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So, my first extract brew has been a comedy of errors, but I think I may have a drinkable brew at the end of it!
So, as I'm mostly interested in getting some experience under my belt I have decided to go for ~10l batches to get my technique down. So, with this in mind I decided to brew this IPA at half quantities
It all started well, my stove kicked off enough heat to get the 12.5l to the boil which was something I was worried about. My cats wanted to lend a hand but this offer was graciously declined.
I added 500g (33%) of the DME at the start with the aim to add the last 1kg at about 15 mins. After the DME went in the first batch of hops. The smell was amazing. 15 minutes later I added my next batch of hops. I then realised I had added them 30 mins too early! I quickly fired up brew target to see what this would do to my IBU, which is when I realised a further mistake, I had forgotten to half the hop amounts
.
So, putting the new hop amounts and times into brew target I found myself looking at a brew with IBU of 170! I quickly grabbed a sieve and to as many of the hops I could out. A quick recalculation brought this down to 'only' 87. Luckily I had another 1 kg of DME lying around, so at 15mins I added 2kg of DME, no further hops and completed the boil.
To use my new cooler I had to jerry rig the pipes to my tap, which actually worked OK surprisingly.
Work cooled over about 20 minutes. I made the volume up to 17l in my FV and pitched with a yeast starter. Brew target estimated my IBU will be 58. OG was 0.054 and it tasted bitter but not too bitter to taste. I will probably dry hop later to make up for the lack of aroma hops. To further add to the disaster I came down this morning to find it fermenting at around 26c.
In addition to my beer woes, the steam from the boiling wort seems to have stained the lower portion of out conservatory wall paper an off brown colour. We were going to replace the wallpaper soon anyway so its not the end of the world, but the other half wasn't overjoyed. That may be the excuse I need to get an electric boiler and brew outside or in the garage from now on.
Anyway, I thought this would be a good account for anyone attempting their first extract brew to read as hopefully fewer people will fall into the pitfalls I did!
So, as I'm mostly interested in getting some experience under my belt I have decided to go for ~10l batches to get my technique down. So, with this in mind I decided to brew this IPA at half quantities
As I posted previously I only had dark crystal malt, so decided not to steep any grains and keep it nice and simple. To accompany my brew I had a bottle of my "Yorkshire IPA"
It all started well, my stove kicked off enough heat to get the 12.5l to the boil which was something I was worried about. My cats wanted to lend a hand but this offer was graciously declined.
I added 500g (33%) of the DME at the start with the aim to add the last 1kg at about 15 mins. After the DME went in the first batch of hops. The smell was amazing. 15 minutes later I added my next batch of hops. I then realised I had added them 30 mins too early! I quickly fired up brew target to see what this would do to my IBU, which is when I realised a further mistake, I had forgotten to half the hop amounts
.
So, putting the new hop amounts and times into brew target I found myself looking at a brew with IBU of 170! I quickly grabbed a sieve and to as many of the hops I could out. A quick recalculation brought this down to 'only' 87. Luckily I had another 1 kg of DME lying around, so at 15mins I added 2kg of DME, no further hops and completed the boil.
To use my new cooler I had to jerry rig the pipes to my tap, which actually worked OK surprisingly.
Work cooled over about 20 minutes. I made the volume up to 17l in my FV and pitched with a yeast starter. Brew target estimated my IBU will be 58. OG was 0.054 and it tasted bitter but not too bitter to taste. I will probably dry hop later to make up for the lack of aroma hops. To further add to the disaster I came down this morning to find it fermenting at around 26c.
In addition to my beer woes, the steam from the boiling wort seems to have stained the lower portion of out conservatory wall paper an off brown colour. We were going to replace the wallpaper soon anyway so its not the end of the world, but the other half wasn't overjoyed. That may be the excuse I need to get an electric boiler and brew outside or in the garage from now on.
Anyway, I thought this would be a good account for anyone attempting their first extract brew to read as hopefully fewer people will fall into the pitfalls I did!
