extract brewing first try questions ??

[Mr BR]

xtract brewing trying to find a simple recipe for extract brewing of a lager as this will be my first one, saw one on the recipes tag a think 188 was the number by aleman could do with some pointers as am not sure when to add stuff and how much water to start out with etc when looking at the recipes all i managed to do was add it at the bottom of the same page except it was under my name so if a kind moderator could delete that for me thanks :wha:

 

[pittsy]

morning ,extract brewing is very simple to do and doesn't take too long (90 mins ish ) all you need is a large pot or a descent stock pot. you heat up your water (2.5L per 1kg which would be around 9 to 10 Litres) to warm to hot and slowly add your extract (spray dried light malt extract and your spray dried lager malt)stirring well until it has all dissolved into your water then bring to a boil (be careful not to have a boil over , just keep stirring) Then set a timer to 60 mins add your bittering hops (northern brewer) (you may use a muslin bag if you aren't using a hop strainer etc ) boil away then add your aroma hops (saaz)at 15 mins of the remaining boil time .
remove from heat , remove hops leave to cool a little , pour into your FV then add cold water to make up 20 to 23litres , check temp if around 20oC or lower take a hydrometer reading then pitch yeast . job done ferment for about a week then when reading by your hydrometer constant transfer to a 2nd FV for about 3 to 5 days (this helps clear your brew) batch prime then bottle. hope this is what you wanted :thumb:

 

[Mr BR]

cheers pittsy what quantities of spray dried malt and lager malt should i use aswell as amounts for bittering hops and aroma hops really need to be walked through the first one looking for about a 23litre/40pint brew at the end of it also looking for a good site to order the ingredients off of and a good lager yeast to use dont want to muck the first one up thanks for the info so far :

 

[pittsy]

had another look at that recipe , i made a mistake , this is not an extract only recipe it also involves using grain but don;t be alarmed its still very easy to do. btw here is a shop that can supply all the ingredients (at the bottom of this page )i've used these myself ). so to use the grains before you follow the extract guide you need to soak the grains in a muslin bag in water (about 2 Litre) at about 66oc for about 30 mins (put a lid on pot cover with a towel ect to maintain temp) then pour liquid out ready to use in extract guide then add another 2 litres of water at 66oC again to your grain and leave to soak for 20 ish minutes , remove grain from pot giving it a good squeeze to get all the water out discard grain . now with your 2 lots of water(now wort) use it in your extract recipe guide same as i mentioned before so to cap you ,
soak grains twice at 66oc
use grain water and add fresh water and heat up
add dried malt stirring well
boil water
boil for 60 mins adding bittering hops now
add aroma hops to boil at 15 mins remain time

hope i didn't confuse you too much .
also to get the correct amount of hops needed when you buy hops on the packet (use fresh vacum packed) there will be alpha acids (aa) marked on it such as 4.2 etc now with the calculator on the top left hand of this forum page add in it your amounts of grain , extract etc and boil time and aa of hops and your ibu which is in recipe (this is how bitter you want it etc) it will work out for you how many grams you need to use .

yeast that was used for this recipe is Saflager West European Lager yeast

http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/aca ... tract.html

http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/aca ... illed.html

http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/aca ... Yeast.html

http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/aca ... _100g.html

http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/aca ... _100g.html

 

[Mr BR]

thanks again pittsy, if i have this right the run threw of this brew day should go as follows take the lager grain 1.2kg and soak in a muslin bag for 30 mins in 2 ltr of water at 66oc then remove add to another 2ltr of water at 66oc for 20 mins squeeze bag save grain water ie wort ,now i add my wort and fresh water to make 9ltr bring up to warm /hot add the light malt extract 2.4kg and dissolve bring to boil,set timer for 60mins add northern brewer 36g it says in the recipe to add 60g saaz then it has 15 mins ??? dont understand that bit and then it says aroma hops saaz again 36g 15 mins i assume this part means 15 mins from end of boil , remove from heat once the 60mins is up put in fv add fresh water to make up to desired amount once at 20oc take og reading then pitch yeast saflager west european lager-s-23 ferment for a week after constant hydrometer reading transfer to secondary fv to settle and clear 3-5 days batch prime then bottle leave to condition and enjoy :hmm: Could you tell me if this is right and help me with the bittering hops section: :why it says saaz 60g 15 mins :wha: thanks all your info is much appreciated. :thumb:

 

[pittsy]

you got it all correct you should have no probs and yeah i think there may of been an error in the recipe you would add bittering hops at 60 mins and in the last 15 mins you add the aroma hops i think it would of been northern brewer and saaz at 60 then saaz at 15 mins , i have copied the recipe down here it is giving the amounts

67% 2.400 Light Dry Malt Extract 97% 10
33% 1.200 Weyermann Pilsner 80% 3

Batch size: 23.0 liters edit
Original Gravity
1.050 / 12.4° Plato
(1.045 to 1.052)
Final Gravity
1.014 / 3.6° Plato
(1.012 to 1.014)
Color
10° EBC / 5° SRM
(Yellow to Gold)
Mash Efficiency ?
70% edit
Late Boil Additions
Show | Hide
hops

boil 60 mins 50 Northern Brewer leaf 9.0

boil 60 mins 50 Saaz leaf 2.9

boil 15 mins 40 Saaz leaf 2.9

Boil: 10.0 avg liters for 60 minutes
Bitterness
41.6 IBU / 21 HBU
BU:GU
0.83

Saflager S-23 Dry Yeast
lager yeast in dry form with medium flocculation and 73% attenuation edit

Alcohol
5.7% ABV / 4% ABW
(4.8% est. ABV / 4% est. ABW)
Calories
156 per 1/3 Liter
here a useful link http://beercalculus.hopville.com/recipe

 

[Mr BR]

thanks for all the help pittsy your the man much appreciated will post up once i have got all the ingredients and brewed the lager thanks again :thumb:

 

[pittsy]

no probs , any time : do a few extract brews and you'll soon be moving onto all grain although having large enough pots can be pain etc until you upgrade you equipment . at the mo i've got a 22L stock pot and a cooler box both fitted (by me) with a copper pipe inside with some holes in em (hop strainers) and a simple valve on the outside cost was about £8 for parts plus cheap cooler box and £25 for pot , in time i will upgrade but need more cash for that

 

[Mr BR]

thats all the ingredients ordered so should have them here as soon as cant wait :party:

 

[pittsy]

great 1 let me know how you get on , i'm brewing a 50%wheat 50%vienne malt all grain tomorrow , got every thing ready i can't wait too , just kegged a isar wheat and i'm fermenting an old bavarin wheat too (also drinking a hefe weissbier )

 

[Mr BR]

well eventually got this brew done today been a slight gap between post with the dreaded shift work taking up all my time well that and playing rugby ,the brew went off without incident apart from a small boil over the only time i took my eye off of it when trying to get it to a boil sods law ,all in all it wasnt that hard easy to say once you have done it so cant wait to try the results fingers crossed it will turn out ok :pray:

 

[Mr BR]

just racked to secondary FV OG was 1066 took another reading today 1012 making a ABV of 7.7% approx :hmm: quite a have lager think me will leave it for another week or two in a cold place to well lager then bottle and leave to condition a few months, just had my first taste from test jar and the difference between kit and extract is already noticable cant wait for it to be ready to drink as per ABV% i did brew it at 20-21litres :

 

[pittsy]

after you've lager it you may add water to dilute it if its too strong .but beware you dont add too much and ruin it :

 

[Mr BR]

cheers pittsy never thought of that might keep it strong and bottle a few then water it down and bottle the rest for a comparison when i brew the next time :

 

[Mr BR]

re-tried my first extract after about 9 days in 2nd FV, hydrometer reading is still at 1012 so has fermented out nicely, it tastes good, so my question is it has fallen 5.4 points so thats nearly 6 weeks conditioning but do i start that countdown from when i bottle it or do i add a 7-10 days on for priming and then start my conditioning countdown . Will be bottling it on sunday or monday as i will be flying out to Malta for a week so cant leave it unattended incase of another heat wave LOL . thanks in advance for the replies :

 

[pittsy]

id say give it around 4 weeks after conditioning and try 1 then another week try another prob be a little better but around 7 weeks should be great from bottling :thumb:

 

[Mr BR]

cheer for the reply pittsy just picked up a sample bottle of Fruli Belgian strawberry white beer cost a pound five for 250ml so if i like it i might aim for one of those. :