How low can i go

[Neil1987]

Looking into extract brewing after my next kit I've got a few recipes from a book that are ag and extract but for the extract it says to boil 27 litres of water I've read that for extract you can boil much smaller amounts question is how small could I boil for a 23l batch how would it a
Affect overall beer and would I need to Increase hop amount or anything to compensate?

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Hi Neil,

Your question is quite broad because we don’t know much about what you want to do other than end up with 23 litres.

The extract is either concentrated liquid form or dried depending on how you buy it. In both cases you will add water and how much you add will affect the strength of the beer, you will also have to factor in that some of the water will evaporate through the boiling phase so 27 litres might well be the right pre-boil volume to end up with 23 litres in your fermentation vessel (FV).

If your challenge is only having a small pot to boil your wort, you can make it strong and add cold water into the FV to make it up to 23 litres. I don’t do this myself but I know there are quite a few on the forum that do and can give you better advice through their experience.

 

[Neil1987]

Hi Neil,

Your question is quite broad because we don’t know much about what you want to do other than end up with 23 litres.

The extract is either concentrated liquid form or dried depending on how you buy it. In both cases you will add water and how much you add will affect the strength of the beer, you will also have to factor in that some of the water will evaporate through the boiling phase so 27 litres might well be the right pre-boil volume to end up with 23 litres in your fermentation vessel (FV).

If your challenge is only having a small pot to boil your wort, you can make it strong and add cold water into the FV to make it up to 23 litres. I don’t do this myself but I know there are quite a few on the forum that do and can give you better advice through their experience.

Yeah only issue is having a small pot at the moment as time goes on I will get bigger pots but it was just a way to trial extract brewing useing what i can get hold of until

 

[terrym]

@Neil1987
First you don't need to brew 23 litres like you did for a kit. You can brew whatever ever volume you want, perhaps geared to whole bags or containers of ME and tuned back to the recipe. You have now got the flexibility you didn't have with kit brewing
Next you don't have to boil all the wort with the hops. The boil volume can be reduced to fit in with the stock pan you have. My stock pan is 11 litres, working capacity 9 litres and I brew beers in the 20 litre range to suit the recipe.
However if you have a reduced volume boil you have to adjust hops and malt in the boil since the hop utilisation needs to be tuned to get the IBUs right. This usually means that some of the ME and other sugars go straight into the FV as a 'late addition' (just like a kit)
I use the BF calculator here to do this
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator

 

[Neil1987]

@Neil1987
First you don't need to brew 23 litres like you did for a kit. You can brew whatever ever volume you want, perhaps geared to whole bags or containers of ME and tuned back to the recipe. You have now got the flexibility you didn't have with kit brewing
Next you don't have to boil all the wort with the hops. The boil volume can be reduced to fit in with the stock pan you have. My stock pan is 11 litres, working capacity 9 litres and I brew beers in the 20 litre range to suit the recipe.
However if you have a reduced volume boil you have to adjust hops and malt in the boil since the hop utilisation needs to be tuned to get the IBUs right. This usually means that some of the ME and other sugars go straight into the FV as a 'late addition' (just like a kit)
I use the BF calculator here to do this
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator

So adjusting hops, do you add more the smaller the boil (as it's getting diluted)

 

[terrym]

So adjusting hops, do you add more the smaller the boil (as it's getting diluted)

In principle yes, but it is more complicated than that.
Tell us working capacity of pot, target brew volume, what ingredients you have got inc hop %AA and type and your basic recipe including OG, target IBU and hop timings.

 

[Neil1987]

I will have a 15l pot was thinking around 20 or 23l (thinking 20l that way I could boil around 50% would be easyer) for some reason its blurry when I screenshot it but but says 3kg if light malt extract instead of using grain

 

[terrym]

View attachment 25857 I will have a 15l pot was thinking around 20 or 23l (thinking 20l that way I could boil around 50% would be easyer) for some reason its blurry when I screenshot it but but says 3kg if light malt extract instead of using grain

Are your Saaz hops whole cones or pellet? What is the %AA? And its DME you have not LME?

 

[Neil1987]

I've not got any yet I was looking to order it once I knew what I was needing what's better pellets or whole?

 

[PhilBrew]

View attachment 25857 I will have a 15l pot was thinking around 20 or 23l (thinking 20l that way I could boil around 50% would be easyer) for some reason its blurry when I screenshot it but but says 3kg if light malt extract instead of using grain

... that looks very much like a recipe from the Greg Hughes book Home Brew Beer ... where on p56 under "Using Malt Extract" it says ...

How Much Wort to Boil?
It is best to boil the total volume of wort (27 litres/47 1/2 pints) if you can. However, if you prefer to boil a smaller volume, use 10 litres (17 1/2 pints) of water and just 1kg (2 1/4 lb) of dried malt extract. This will keep the gravity of the wort low - as it would have been if you had boiled the total volume - and so allow the hops to impart the correct level of bitterness. Ten minutes before the end of the boil, add the balance of the malt extract and top up the fermenter with cold water when ready.

Cheers, PhilB

 

[Neil1987]

... that looks very much like a recipe from the Greg Hughes book Home Brew Beer ... where on p56 under "Using Malt Extract" it says ...

Cheers, PhilB

Its is a Greg Hughes book....... but page 54 so mabe a different book I must have overlooked that page as I had originally wanted to go from kits to ag

 

[PhilBrew]

Fair enough @Neil1987 there are a couple of editions of that book I think ... but you've found the instructions now, and you should be able to manage a 10 ltr boil in your 15 ltr pot

Of course 1kg DME in 10 lts, for however much DME is needed in the recipe, is only a rough rule of thumb and if you find it starts making beer a bit more or less bitter than you would expect then Terry's advice from above will still be here for you to come back to, to correct that

Cheers, PhilB

 

[Neil1987]

Fair enough @Neil1987 there are a couple of editions of that book I think ... but you've found the instructions now, and you should be able to manage a 10 ltr boil in your 15 ltr pot

Of course 1kg DME in 10 lts, for however much DME is needed in the recipe, is only a rough rule of thumb and if you find it starts making beer a bit more or less bitter than you would expect then Terry's advice from above will still be here for you to come back to, to correct that

Cheers, PhilB

What's you opinion on hops pellets or whole?

 

[PhilBrew]

What's you opinion on hops pellets or whole?

... my personal preference would be whole flowers for in the boil, pellets for late/dry hop additions ... that's because pellets tend to retain the fresh hop flavours better, but can be a bit of a pain when it comes to separating them from the wort/beer ... for that pilsner recipe I'd probably go for whole and would recommend you go that way to make things easier for your first extract brew ... just be prepared with a big sieve at the end of boil ... but you should try pellets sometime, so much of this is down to personal preference

Cheers, PhilB