This is the kit that I won in the recent raffle (thanks).
So this is the content of the kit
2 cans of Liquid Extract
1 bag of mixed grains (type not specified)
1 bag of hops marked 60 min (variety not specified but HBC website suggests Mt Hood)
1 packet of Safale US-05 yeast
1 whirlfloc tablet
1 muslin bag
Instruction Sheet
So, initial thoughts...
First thing was to add the muslin bag to my collection of dry hopping bags as I've got a grain bag and sweep up the spillled grain caused by unpacking the kit
So kettle on, grain in bag and about 2-3 litres of water in the pot at 70C. Dump the grain bag in the water and lid on.
This is going to sit for 30 min with the occasional "teabag dunk" motion. I'm also occasionally checking the temperature and adding a bit of heat to keep the temp around the 67C mark.
Not much to do for 30 min so have a beer (home brew American Wheat in this case)
And at the same time, the fermentation bin, paddle, glass thermometer, paint straining bag and turkey baster are soaking in VWP. I use Star San for bottling and general sterilising but like VWP for this job (note the Dr Nefario gloves for working with this stuff)
Also while I'm waiting, I'm sitting the first can of extract in some hot water to soften it. This is my first time using liquid extract as I generally use dried as you can use an exact quantity and it's a bit cheaper.
OK. Timer has gone for the 30 mins. Sparge time with a second pot, a colander and 2 kettles (about 3 litres) of water at about 80C. And give the bag a squeeze. I'd like to do this over the big pan to save washing another pan but the colander falls into the big pot :x. I need to get a wider colander.
The runnings go back in the big pot along with the first can of extract which is rinsed out with a can full of hot water. This is where I burned myself on the hot can :rofl:.
Hob on full power and wait ages for this liquid to get to a rolling boil.
Hooray! We are boiling, so add the hops and start the 60 min timer
This is where this kit gets a bit boring. There is only the 1 hop addition at 60 min. I'm used to watching the timer and throwing various amounts of different hops in at different times but this one just needs to boil. So I'm having another beer at this point. It would be a great first extract kit though as there is very little to go wrong here.
But this is the partial boil method so there is a couple of things to do. When the boil started, I was also sitting the second can of extract in hot water.
With 20 min to go in the boil, I bung in the second can of extract, again rinsed out with a can of hot water (but I didn't burn myself this time)
With 15 min to go, the whirlfloc tablet gets added. I've never used finings before so I'm interested to see what this does.
Timer goes for the 60 min. Flame out. The pot gets stuck in the sink with a running cold tap to chill it (I've not got round to building my immersion chiller yet).
BUT there are 2 more advantages to the partial boil method here..
So we have cooled the wort, so dump it into the bin though the paint straining bag
Now we top up to 23 litres (ish) with cold Edinburgh tap water. The best buy I ever made was blue food grade hose (available by the metre from Amazon). It fits hozelock connectors and I use it for topping up, filling buckets etc.
Check temperature is correct for pitching, aerate the wort like mad with the paddle and pitch the yeast. Then give the yeast a good stir.
Job done!
Hopefully you weren't too bored with that but I thought this kit was a good chance to cover the partial boil extract plus grains method.
In conclusion, I'm looking forward to trying the finished product in a few weeks as it's a different style for me. As I said, I thought it was a bit boring to make but that's probably as I'm used to this style of brewing and used to working a bit harder.
So this is the content of the kit
2 cans of Liquid Extract
1 bag of mixed grains (type not specified)
1 bag of hops marked 60 min (variety not specified but HBC website suggests Mt Hood)
1 packet of Safale US-05 yeast
1 whirlfloc tablet
1 muslin bag
Instruction Sheet
So, initial thoughts...
- As others have said, putting the other bags inside the grain bag saves packaging but it does make a bit of a mess when getting the bits out.
- All these HBC Extract Kits seem to come with US-05 yeast. Maybe the yeast supplied should be a bit more tailored to the beer style or maybe give the buyer a choice of yeast like some other extract kit suppliers (e.g. Brew UK).
- I would like more information on hop varieties, gain types, AA etc. as I like to note everything down (but maybe that's just me).
- The instructions are a bit basic but no problem for me as extract + grains is my preferred brewing style at the moment (but I know I'll have to go AG soon
). - I'm looking forward to trying this beer as it's different to my usual mega hopped American IPAs that I normally brew. This one only has about 38g of bittering hops and no other additions so it will be different.
First thing was to add the muslin bag to my collection of dry hopping bags as I've got a grain bag and sweep up the spillled grain caused by unpacking the kit
So kettle on, grain in bag and about 2-3 litres of water in the pot at 70C. Dump the grain bag in the water and lid on.
This is going to sit for 30 min with the occasional "teabag dunk" motion. I'm also occasionally checking the temperature and adding a bit of heat to keep the temp around the 67C mark.
Not much to do for 30 min so have a beer (home brew American Wheat in this case)
And at the same time, the fermentation bin, paddle, glass thermometer, paint straining bag and turkey baster are soaking in VWP. I use Star San for bottling and general sterilising but like VWP for this job (note the Dr Nefario gloves for working with this stuff)
Also while I'm waiting, I'm sitting the first can of extract in some hot water to soften it. This is my first time using liquid extract as I generally use dried as you can use an exact quantity and it's a bit cheaper.
OK. Timer has gone for the 30 mins. Sparge time with a second pot, a colander and 2 kettles (about 3 litres) of water at about 80C. And give the bag a squeeze. I'd like to do this over the big pan to save washing another pan but the colander falls into the big pot :x. I need to get a wider colander.
The runnings go back in the big pot along with the first can of extract which is rinsed out with a can full of hot water. This is where I burned myself on the hot can :rofl:.
Hob on full power and wait ages for this liquid to get to a rolling boil.
Hooray! We are boiling, so add the hops and start the 60 min timer
This is where this kit gets a bit boring. There is only the 1 hop addition at 60 min. I'm used to watching the timer and throwing various amounts of different hops in at different times but this one just needs to boil. So I'm having another beer at this point. It would be a great first extract kit though as there is very little to go wrong here.
But this is the partial boil method so there is a couple of things to do. When the boil started, I was also sitting the second can of extract in hot water.
With 20 min to go in the boil, I bung in the second can of extract, again rinsed out with a can of hot water (but I didn't burn myself this time
)With 15 min to go, the whirlfloc tablet gets added. I've never used finings before so I'm interested to see what this does.
Timer goes for the 60 min. Flame out. The pot gets stuck in the sink with a running cold tap to chill it (I've not got round to building my immersion chiller yet).
BUT there are 2 more advantages to the partial boil method here..
- We are only chilling 6-8 litres of liquid rather than 23.
- We are going to add cold water before we pitch the yeast so we only need to get the wort down to 30 odd degrees.
So we have cooled the wort, so dump it into the bin though the paint straining bag
Now we top up to 23 litres (ish) with cold Edinburgh tap water. The best buy I ever made was blue food grade hose (available by the metre from Amazon). It fits hozelock connectors and I use it for topping up, filling buckets etc.
Check temperature is correct for pitching, aerate the wort like mad with the paddle and pitch the yeast. Then give the yeast a good stir.
Job done!
Hopefully you weren't too bored with that but I thought this kit was a good chance to cover the partial boil extract plus grains method.
In conclusion, I'm looking forward to trying the finished product in a few weeks as it's a different style for me. As I said, I thought it was a bit boring to make but that's probably as I'm used to this style of brewing and used to working a bit harder.
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