First grain kit - please tell me I'm doing this right!

[naturals]

Hi all,
So on the basis of many positive reviews on the site I bought a Full Extract Discover America Pale Ale kit from site sponsors The Homebrew Company. It's all arrived today and whilst the kit looks great, the instructions are a little sparse. I've done a Coopers IPA kit before so I know the basics but there are quite a few new things on here.

On their site it states "Although it is preferable to boil the whole brew amount, a boiling pan of at least 10 litres will suffice".

My plan is to split the ingredients in two and do two smaller batches, each in a 5L pan (as that's all I have in my microscopic London student flat until I can afford a Bergland pot). On this basis I'm suggesting the following process. Is this correct? There are a lot of sections (in blue) that the instructions do not cover so I'm having to guess on.

1. Split ingredients in 2.
2. Steep the grains in 67c water (Hold the temperature or allow to cool?) for 30min.
3. Rinse the grains in a colander, still in the muslin bag (Will little bits not get into the wort? Do I need to filter these out at any point?).
4. Add water to make a wort and allow to boil for 60min (Based on the fact I'm using a smaller pan, how do I do this? Boil up say 4L total and add the remainder in the form of cool water at the end?). Add campden at some point for chlorine in water.
5. 15min from end add a Whirlfloc tablet for clarity.
6. At the 60min mark add the hops (How do I add? Just throw it in? Again, how do I filter the bits out?).
7. Immediately transfer to cooling (I'm going to use a sink with cold water and ice) until at 20c.
8. Take a hydrometer reading.
9. Aerate, add yeast, transfer to fermentation, sit back.

Now I'm thinking there must be a point where the hops and grain bits have to be removed. Do these go into the fermenter? If so is there not a risk of aeration if filtering before going into bottles?

I'm a bit lost on this point so any guidance would be really, really appreciated! :thumb:

 

[pittsy]

good morning ,
Some answers to your questions .
2, steeping grains is all about temp and you need to keep it at 66c for 30 mins . This will extract colour and flavour to your beer , you then take the grain out of the water letting it drip back in the pan for a while ( the grain should be in a muslin bag or grain bag ) no bits should get in pan but if it does don't worry about small amounts .
The boiling water for 60 mins is all about getting the hops boiled in water so you need 2 muslin bags for each pan and add hops into pans at start of boil (60 mins to go ) what ever the amount of water you boil just add cold water as you do in a kit beer to make up total afterwards .
I hope you have a good brew . :thumb:

 

[naturals]

add hops into pans at start of boil (60 mins to go )

Thanks Pittsy! That makes a lot more sense now. I didn't realise the hop additions were timed from the end rather than the start!

I'm going to brew tonight - I'll try and write a better set of instructions for people wanting to brew this kit in future.

 

[jonnymorris]

...steeping grains is all about temp and you need to keep it at 66c for 30 mins .

I've taken to cold stepping my dark grains for 24hours and adding the resulting extract to the kettle towards the end of the boil.

Naturals, Ref: Point 9... rehydrate your yeast before adding to the wort.

 

[pittsy]

...steeping grains is all about temp and you need to keep it at 66c for 30 mins .

I've taken to cold stepping my dark grains for 24hours and adding the resulting extract to the kettle towards the end of the boil.

Naturals, Ref: Point 9... rehydrate your yeast before adding to the wort.

Behave yourself Johnny , don't confuse the bloke . Softly softly catchy monkey

 

[jonnymorris]

Wasn't trying to, honest. Just clarifying that steeping isn't the same as mashing. I do however take your point.

 

[andyakameatloaf]

a good intermediate pot that will make this a LOT easier and means you won't have to split into two pots is the £15 16Litre pot from Wilkinsons.
I do all my extract brews in there and it works a treat.