So with a whole 3 two can kits under my belt since getting bitten by the bug at Christmas I took the opportunity of having the house to myself to get my first extract attempt going yesterday.
It was a packaged up Theakston OP recipe and rather than going through it blow by blow here are some observations of a newbie brewbie:
1. I was heating stuff up in a Klarsteiner thing that I saw relatively cheap in New Year and prematurely purchased hoping that it would come in useful. Whilst probably a bit OTT for the job in hand I would observe that it got up to temperature v quickly and once the first batch of hops went in it kept a rolling boil no bother at all.
2. I was surprised how viscous/sticky the liquor was that came off steeping the speciality grains - also think this was half an hour where at 67 degrees you could leave it to itself whilst you got on with other prep.
3. Surprised at how hot and heavy even a whole 300g of wet cereal was.
4. Having put in first round of hops, a kg of malt extract can't believe how volatile the whole 7 litres or so of boiling liquid looked - would be very nervous with 3 times the volume.
5. After an hour it is very aromatic/ stinks. My missus used to work for an arm of Bass up at the Maltings in Burton and when she got back in it definitely bought back bad memories.
6. Using the supplied chiller coil I struggled to get the temperature down - perhaps because post evaporation there was not enough depth to immerse it in.
7. Given cooling issues bunged a few jugs of cold in.
8. Wort drained out of tap into FV on the floor very easily creating plenty of aeration ( I think from what I've read that' desirable at this stage.
9. The one real slip up of the day - forgetting the water I'd added to cool down I ended up making it a bit long. Maybe 14.5 litres instead of the intended 13. OG came out at 1050 so I guess if the yeast performs I'll be a few points shy of the ABV of the intended brew.
10. Pitched at 22 degrees, temperature stable and 24 hours in healthy looking Kreusen.
In summary it was actually quite a full on afternoon and great hobby, only a shame that in all that time I watched Liverpool lose, England rugby and Palace also lose.
Notwithstanding the slight cock up on the measurements, got high hopes. Even the wort from the sample tasted a cut above the kits.
Cheers
Horners
It was a packaged up Theakston OP recipe and rather than going through it blow by blow here are some observations of a newbie brewbie:
1. I was heating stuff up in a Klarsteiner thing that I saw relatively cheap in New Year and prematurely purchased hoping that it would come in useful. Whilst probably a bit OTT for the job in hand I would observe that it got up to temperature v quickly and once the first batch of hops went in it kept a rolling boil no bother at all.
2. I was surprised how viscous/sticky the liquor was that came off steeping the speciality grains - also think this was half an hour where at 67 degrees you could leave it to itself whilst you got on with other prep.
3. Surprised at how hot and heavy even a whole 300g of wet cereal was.
4. Having put in first round of hops, a kg of malt extract can't believe how volatile the whole 7 litres or so of boiling liquid looked - would be very nervous with 3 times the volume.
5. After an hour it is very aromatic/ stinks. My missus used to work for an arm of Bass up at the Maltings in Burton and when she got back in it definitely bought back bad memories.
6. Using the supplied chiller coil I struggled to get the temperature down - perhaps because post evaporation there was not enough depth to immerse it in.
7. Given cooling issues bunged a few jugs of cold in.
8. Wort drained out of tap into FV on the floor very easily creating plenty of aeration ( I think from what I've read that' desirable at this stage.
9. The one real slip up of the day - forgetting the water I'd added to cool down I ended up making it a bit long. Maybe 14.5 litres instead of the intended 13. OG came out at 1050 so I guess if the yeast performs I'll be a few points shy of the ABV of the intended brew.
10. Pitched at 22 degrees, temperature stable and 24 hours in healthy looking Kreusen.
In summary it was actually quite a full on afternoon and great hobby, only a shame that in all that time I watched Liverpool lose, England rugby and Palace also lose.
Notwithstanding the slight cock up on the measurements, got high hopes. Even the wort from the sample tasted a cut above the kits.
Cheers
Horners
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