First extract brew - Tribute Clone

[seeale]

Hi,
I will be attempting my first extract brew on the weekend (family permitting!) and I have a couple of questions I was wondering if someone could answer?

I have been brewing kits with relative success for a while now and am ultimately planning to go all grain when I get more time, however I spotted the St Austell Tribute clone (with full instructions) on the BrewUK web shop and was inspired to step towards extract brewing. Having received the kit I read the instructions and am confused regarding the boiling and having read a few threads I am even more confused...

The kit comes with 2.5kg of DME, 1.5kg Light & 1kg Medium, the instructions state to boil 1kg of the DME for 60 minutes with the hop additions at several stages (I understand the hop bit).

My question is: Does it matter whether I boil the light or medium DME and why only boil 1kg not the whole 2.5kg? I am still not sure about the 'break point' and necessity of it when using DME.

(I did ask the guys at BrewUK but I think they were pushed for time when they answered and didn't read the question...)

Many thanks in advance.

 

[JimJiminy]

Hi seaeale,

I'm not an expert (planning my 2nd extract brew this weekend!), but I think the main reasons are:

• Hop utilisation (the fraction of the bitterness the boil extracts from your hops) depends on gravity. The higher the gravity, the more slowly the bittering acids dissolve, and therefore the longer the required boil. So if you put all the sugar in at the beginning, you would require a longer boil to get the same bitterness.
• During the boil, there is some darkening of the wort, due to maillard reactions (similar to certain processes that happen during food cooking). These happen more quickly at higher gravities. Many people prefer to avoid this, especially if they are brewing paler beers.

I don't know of a reason why it would make any difference whether the light or dark goes in first (but that doesn't mean there isn't one :) )

I'm also slightly confused about the hot break. When I searched for this previously, I saw forum answers saying that it's already happened when the DME was manufactured. But... when I boil DME I definitely see something that looks quite like the pictures and descriptions I've read. But I haven't seen a hot break from a grain brew, so it's hard to be sure. Maybe DME does have a weak hot break, but it's insignificant enough not to worry about.

Good luck with your brew!

 

[Dutch_Food_Geek]

With all malt extracts the hot break has already occured. So there is no worrying about that.
For most malt extracts the cold break has also already occured, so no worrying about that either.

Hop utilisation gives a lot of debate around the world. There are even people who say that you don't need any gravity for hop utilisation (see podcasts from basic brewing radio).

You want to boil you're malt extract as short as possible because of caramelisation and maillard reactions, this gives flavours you don't want and a darker colour. Remember... To concentrate it to DME or LME it has already been boiled for a long time! You don't need to do it again to get the essential flavours you need.

Bottomline... Boil as much of your malt extract as short as possible. But give it at least 15 minutes for sanitazion sake

 

[seeale]

Thanks guys :thumb::thumb:
Understanding the detail and 'why' I have to do it in a certain way makes it a lot easier for me to follow the process and have confidence with what I'm doing.

I always understood the necessity of getting the timing right of adding the hops to the wart to achieve the right bitterness/flavour/aromas but wasn't aware that the gravity would have affected it (this is where I would have made a mistake and never of known how or why), I appreciate that there may be some difference of opinion over this but for now I will be playing it safe...

Hot break - still confused but not as much, Cold break... never thought of that
just read up on it as I thought it was just for sanitisation... off to buy some ice or may nip to the local home brew shop and treat myself to a wort chiller (wife's working today so she won't see a new toy:whistle:)

I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[Sandimas]

I regularly do the BrewUK Extract kits and boil as little DME as possible, usually the smallest bag that comes in the kit, then add the rest after the hop boil. If you add it at the end it doesn't clump up as much. Seems to work for me, and it's produced some great beers.

I don't think you need to sanitise it, if you think about adding Beer Enhancer (sugar + DME) to 1-can kits, that doesn't get boiled at all and no one reports problems.

I've never needed a wort chiller with these kits, You boil 6-8 litres of water (I usually dunk the boil pan in several sinkfulls of cold water to bring the temp down a bit) then add another 15 litres of cold, so that's usually enough to bring the temp down around 22C, except in mid-summer when the tap water is a bit warm.

I've not done Tribute but I have done Proper Job: it initially comes out a bit sweet, and really benefits from 6-8 weeks maturing, to let the sweetness die down and the hops come through, so bottling worked best for me. :thumb:

 

[seeale]

Well the brew went well, I didn't treat myself to the wort chiller in the end as the home brew store didn't have one which I think was a blessing. I was surprised by how much water was lost during the boil, this meant that cooling by putting the pot in a sink full of cold water didn't take to long also by adding some of the remaining cold water helped to speed up the process. (thanks Darrellm)

Had a little taste from the trial jar and tasted OK, just got to wait a few weeks now!

 

[bowman159]

Sounds good let us all know when your doing your tasting after bottling.

 

[seeale]

Hi All

Thought that I would give a quick update on the kit.

I had an extremely violent fermentation in the first 24 to 36 hours, so firece it pushed the lid off of the FV, I know i clipped the lid down tightly because 20 minutes later I had to clip it down again!! I ended up putting another FV on top to keep it closed and this just caused a volcanic flow out of the air lock (see picture below). I hope this hasn't effected the brew, on the basis it was pushing stuff out of the FV not sucking anything in I am trying to remain positive:pray:

After settling down the activity from the airlock has been minimal (a watched airlock never bubbles...) but I will leave it until the weekend to check the gravity.

A note to anyone about to do this kit: use a bigger FV, I have 21 litres in a standard 23 litre bucket.

 

[Covrich]

Hi All

Thought that I would give a quick update on the kit.

I had an extremely violent fermentation in the first 24 to 36 hours, so firece it pushed the lid off of the FV, I know i clipped the lid down tightly because 20 minutes later I had to clip it down again!! I ended up putting another FV on top to keep it closed and this just caused a volcanic flow out of the air lock (see picture below). I hope this hasn't effected the brew, on the basis it was pushing stuff out of the FV not sucking anything in I am trying to remain positive:pray:

After settling down the activity from the airlock has been minimal (a watched airlock never bubbles...) but I will leave it until the weekend to check the gravity.

A note to anyone about to do this kit: use a bigger FV, I have 21 litres in a standard 23 litre bucket.

I am sure you thought of this already but just incase you haven't, If I was you I would clear air up the airlock and refill it.

 

[Dutch_Food_Geek]

2 liters of headspace is a bit on the small side... Then if you use a foamy yeast it can even make a krausen of double the size of your brew... Lesson learned: always use a big enough fermenter! And clean your airlock! and refill it with water

 

[seeale]

Thanks, yes cleaned the airlock after the eruption had finished, well binned and replaced it due to the sticky stuff inside being to difficult to clean...

Dutch_Food_Geek: sorry for my ignorance but how do I know if it is a foamy yeast? this one was the Danstar Nottingham ale yeast and I don't remember seeing a warning (however I also didn't look for one) but I will definitely be using 32 litre FV's from now on...!