First Malt Extract Boil - Questions

[oldpathwhiteclouds]

First time boil, first time post. I'd be interested in your views.

I moved from kits by purchasing a Burco Cygnet 30lt boiler, drilled a hole for a new tap and fitted a tap.

I followed a recipe from Graham Wheeler's British Real Ale (3rd Ed). I did depart from the recipe by sticking more late hops in for personal taste.

The issues I came accross were:

1. The boiler cut off with the lid on so I ended up leaving it off but I lost much more than I anticipated so I only have about 18 ltr rather than the 23 ltr I started with. Question: what should I do about that? Should I bypass the thermostat so I can leave the lid on? Should I top up with water and if so when and how and what if that brings my og right down? Should I start with more water but if so should I follow the same ingredient quantities in the recipes or will I have to increase them pro rata?

2. The brew is much darker than the recipe beer (Landlord) but I only put in the 30g Chocolate Malt suggested. Is it just the chocolate malt that would have done that or is my malt extract dark? I know, I may be the only one that can answer that but I don't have anything to compare. Looked the same as my Festival IPA's

3. Yeast. I just used a pack of Muntons dried Ale yeast which doesn't tell me anything about it, it was just all they had in my local shop. It was 6 grams, seems to be working OK but I wasn't sure about quality or quantity.

4. Skimming it. I was unsure about this. Wheeler says skim off the floccules and trub which I did but there wasn't much head beneath the dark brown stuff. I hope I didn't take it to far? Should I have left it or was it right to skim it?

Any views would be appreciated. It seems to be going fine but I am full of newbie uncertainty.

 

[Grumpydev]

1. You should never boil with the lid on - you need to let the steam escape or you'll get nasty flavours in the beer. You can top up with boiled and cooled water if you need to get the volume back up at the end, or increase the starting volume when you know what your rough loss %age is - mine's significantly higher than Wheeler suggests with my Buffalo boiler too. If your boiler can't maintain a rolling boil with the lid off you could try insulating the sides a bit. If it keeps cutting out then you'll likely have to modify it. There's a video of the rolling boil from my Buffalo in here if you are interested for comparison: [ame]https://vimeo.com/117170448[/ame]
2. Could be your extract is darker, or your chocolate malt - they do vary - but it will also be partly down to the extra boil off. Colour matching in Wheeler's book is only an approximation anyway.
3. Should be fine - did you rehydrate first?
4. I'm on the fence on this one myself, not sure whether to bother - there doesn't seem to be a great deal of **** on top of the krausen in my current batch.

 

[clibit]

1. If the gravity was higher than planned, I would add water.

2. The extract will be the cause.

3. 6g not really enough, two packs would be better.

4. I don't bother skimming. Best left alone I reckon. Let nothing in, leave alone.

 

[oldpathwhiteclouds]

Thanks for the replies guys. With the lid off it boils well so that's that. Gravity was 1055 and recipe said 1047 so I topped up with filtered water till it was 1047 but still left me short. If I had filled up to 23ltr what sort of difference would there be? Weaker beer I guess.

Is it too late to put another 6g yeast pack in? It's been in the fv blubbing away for 24hrs. I did rehydrate.

Don't think I'll skim again

Think I need a wort cooler

Thanks again

 

[clibit]

It's not too late to add yeast but I probably wouldn't bother if it looks like a healthy fermentation.

 

[Grumpydev]

If you rehydrated you should be ok, but you could introduce more if you want to. If you got plenty of air in the wort they'll reproduce to the levels you need, but its a race against time between them and the nasty things in the air - if you already have a solid Krausen formed you are probably alright, just might take a while.