Brewing Geordie bitter with a BKE

[marengo]

Planning for Saturday making up a Geordie kit and have some questions for you chaps.

I have a book by Graham Wheeler (Home Brewing) which suggests emptying the tin of extract into a saucepan and gently bringing to the boil with 2 to 3 times the amount of water and stirring continuously until the contents are dissolved.

So first question, is this (still) a recommended practice, to either ensure sterility and / or enhance flavour, or do other kits users just pour into the FV and add boiling water (then stir) as per other instructions.

Secondly, as mentioned I intend to use a BKE instead of sugar. Now taking note of previous discussions one, if using sugar, would dissolve into boiling water then cool and add to the FV. For BKE would one do the same, or simply add packet contents to FV and stir?

Much appreciated
John

 

[bobsbeer]

I don't usually do that with kits, but I do boil up a few litres of water to disolve the extract and rinse the tin. Also the hot water helps to disolve the beer enhancer. That usually disolves quite quickly as it's a fine powder. I can see the logic in heating it in a pan but you still need hot water to rinse the tin. Not sure it needs to boil, but I have heard of some people that boil. But can't see the reason for that. Others may be able to shed some light on that aspect.

 

[eggman]

I wouldn't boil it. If you were doing an extract brew then you would boil the malt, however the kit cans are a mix of malt and hops and if you boil it you would drive off any hop flavour in the brew.
I find spray malt and BKE dissolve easier in cold water, so i do that first in the fv then add the cans and rinse out with boiling water as Bob suggested
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