Extract Brewing, Stout brew walk through.

[chassyp]

Nice one! Its great to see a pictoral of the process. This makes it easy for us beginners.
A question if I may?
Is it needed to boil the dark malt wort? I am thinking that they add colour and little else? The main body of the brew is powder malt which surely doesnt need boiling? Am I missing something? Excuse my ignorance if I am miles off the mark. :

 

[anthonyUK]

The main body of the brew is powder malt which surely doesnt need boiling?

I agree. Tubby's process is almost BIAB so the step up to AG should be fairly easy for him.

 

[tubby_shaw]

The boil needs to be carried out for a few reasons, to extract the bitterness from the hops, to sterilise the wort and to reduce the possibility of haze (not a real problem in a stout) as well as helping with shelf life, promoting good head retention etc :thumb:

Tubby's process is almost BIAB so the step up to AG should be fairly easy for him.

:lol: I have been all grain brewing for over 25 years, I did an extract brew so that people could see the process

 

[anthonyUK]

Cheers Tubby.
I'm trying to think of ways to make extract brewing more accessible so I'm wondering whether there are alternatives for people without a boiler for example.
Could you make a smaller batch to boil the hops then add this to the FV with the DME? Does the wort really need to be sterilsed etc?
I don't really have the equipment but would like to try it some time so will probably try a 1 gallon experimental batch at some point.

 

[tazuk]

how good is this against the russian imp stout ????????? :
ps yes i have had a taste of imp stout about 1 year old :thumb: :drink:

 

[tubby_shaw]

how good is this against the russian imp stout ????????? :
ps yes i have had a taste of imp stout about 1 year old :thumb: :drink:

This is a premium stout recipe at around 4.5% abv and nothing like a RIS at 9 to 12 % It is though a bloody nice drop :drink:

 

[tazuk]

hi mr shaw can this brew be uprated to say 6.5-7.0 % if so could you work out grain bill etc thanks : :thumb:

 

[sandles.321]

Cheers for this. very informative hopefully soon i will be able to tackle something like this got my first beer kit brewing now. This walk through is very easy to understand for the beginner home brewer. awesome cheers. :

 

[RobWalker]

Hahah, tubby - you might be interested to know that DeeJay's is my local store, I work in the McDonalds opposite and my dad and uncle maintain his garden. I was in there only today! Bloody small world.

 

[tubby_shaw]

Isn't it :thumb:

 

[wrennas]

This is a great walk through and as soon as I get all of my kit together this is going to be my next step up before attempting a AG brew.....one quick newbie question though....did you prime the bottles\keg (if so what with and how much?)

 

[tubby_shaw]

Keg was primed with 50g of white sugar and each pint bottle had 1/2 tsp of white sugar :thumb:

 

[wrennas]

Cheers :thumb:

 

[Waterboy]

just a thought, would it be possible to do this, or any other extract brew, without add ing the spray malt/ DME at the begginning, but instead adding it just before ferment?
or is the boiling of the DME an important part?

i only ask because i know you can use DME asa adirect substitute for sugar in kit brewing so surely it doesnt need boiling?

if this is possible, could you then boil only the hops in a smaller volume of water, in a sausepan on a hob for instance? (for us lot without big boilers) and just fill it all up in an FV and go straight to ferment?

 

[tubby_shaw]

Theoretically yes, but calculating the required hops might be a little tricky :hmm:
Also there is the issue of sanitising the wort which boiling does.
How do you fancy 'taking one for the team' and brewing a small batch using the method you describe and reporting back ?

 

[RobWalker]

yeah you will get very bad utilization in a small amount of water...I regularly just boil this sort of thing up in 10 litres though, then top up after - gets a good run out of the hops and keeps it kitchen friendly.

 

[Waterboy]

very sorry to dissapoint, but if theres any chance of it not turning out right or not starting off sterile then id prefer not to risk it.

i think ill stick to tweaking kits and just wait untill my budget/wife allows me to cross over to the dark(er) side properly with all the kit.

thanks for the knowledge update though :thumb:

 

[Duxuk]

I've just read thru most of this and I have done the experiment of boiling the hops in a smaller volume of water. I have no complaints about the results but don't know if it will taste the same as a full boil since I've neverf done that!
I use a big sauce pan to steep my crushed crystal malt at 65-70C for an hour. At the same time I boil the hops in a pressure cooker (not under pressure, it's just the biggest pan I have). I am currently fermenting a bitter using a 90g mix of Goldings and fuggles. Half goes in to start then a quater for the last 20 minutes and the last quater for the last 5. I wash the crystal and hops through a sieve with plenty of boiling water from the kettle. The 2.5Kg of light extract was dissolved in boiling water from the kettle so most of the brew has been made with boiling water. I used 300g of crystal in my current brew. I am confident having done similarf brew before that it will be spanking

I tend to pitch the yeast when it's cooled to blood temp. It gets the fermentation going quickly and it is currently at less than 20C cos it's cold in our house!
I would welcome criticism of my methods. The beer will taste great anyway.
I'm down to my last bottle of a stout I made with the same methodology. 1073 OG and it tastes grand. :

 

[wrennas]

I finally got around to having a go at this on Sunday afternoon, and the post was great for answering all of my questions as they came along....but I'm not sure if I have a problem now....

For the first 36hrs the FV was going mental and the stout kept blowing out of the bubble valve but this morning all activity seems to have stopped....I have just put one of those belt heaters onto the FV to see if that perks things up but should it not still be bubbling along?

(Sorry if this is normal, only made Turdo Cider other than this so just learning! :thumb: )

 

[RobWalker]

Happy to add to this as my brewing experience increases...

Basically, aroma hops are possible with small volume boiling, but not much else because of low utilization. As for using DME, you get a hot break and a cold break, so it's worth boiling. the resulting beer have a lot less off flavours and more clarity than one that just has raw DME added to it. DME you buy has been mashed, but not boiled. :