Malt Extract Boiler

[The Cat]

I've made a few kit beers now which have gone well and want to move on to Malt Extract brewing - am not considering All Grain quite yet. Will start with DME.

I want to boil away from the kitchen in the garage where I have 240v sockets. I was considering using a stock pot on the hob in the kitchen but it is going to be a nuisance to do it that way there - do any of you have recommedations for a 30l boiler I can just plug in to a 240 socket in the garage please?

I've got things like strainers and fermenters, syphons all the rest of it. To start I will be cooling using a bucket and ice until I get a cooler as well so I am just looking for a tried and tested boiler to get me to the fermentation stage.

Thanks again for any help.

 

[Gerryjo]

The burco cygnet 30l is a great boiler as its sturdy stainless steel and reasonably priced.
Burco

 

[The Cat]

The burco cygnet 30l is a great boiler as its sturdy stainless steel and reasonably priced.
Burco

Will look at that thanks - what do you use to cool the wort? Any preferences there?

 

[Gerryjo]

Will look at that thanks - what do you use to cool the wort? Any preferences there?

Home made copper coil, 10mtrs 10mm microbore from screwfix, 2 10mm to 15mm reducers and 2 15mm stop valves. About £25 all in or you can buy them online for around £40.Connect a hose from the tap and a hose to drain and takes roughly 15 to 20 mins depending on the time of year for ground water temperature.

 

[The Cat]

Home made copper coil, 10mtrs 10mm microbore from screwfix, 2 10mm to 15mm reducers and 2 15mm stop valves. About £25 all in or you can buy them online for around £40.Connect a hose from the tap and a hose to drain and takes roughly 15 to 20 mins depending on the time of year for ground water temperature.

Thanks again - that was what I was thinking about too - can easily run a hose from the kitchen tap and have a drain right outside the garage. Won't be long until I am shopping for hops at this rate

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I used to extract brew before I moved to AG but never understood why there was a need to boil. You don't boil a kit and you can make a hop tea. As for boilers I've got two Burco's.

 

[The Cat]

I ended up getting one of these for the extra capacity to hopefully make boilovers harder to occur - same kind of boiler though Buffalo Manual Fill Water Boiler 40Ltr - gl349 - Buy Online at Nisbets

Found a chap on ebay who makes immersion chillers I only had to give him the model and he said he knew all the measurements of that one so it should be ideal. Got a sieve a paddle some muslin bags and some bits and bobs coming next week so might have to decide what my first attempt will be and order some extract and hops tomorrow. Too late to turn back now looks like I am hooked.

 

[PhilBrew]

Hi @The Cat

Yep, definitely hooked now, and it looks like you're making purchases already thinking about stepping into AG ... even so, like Cheshire Cat suggests, there's little benefit to boiling your extract when making extract brews ... and many extract brewers take advantage of that and do a reduced size boil, saves time in bringing it up to a boil, energy keeping it boiling and time spent cooling it all down to pitching temp

Basically, if your recipe involves steeping grains you'd do your steep first and get the wort off those, then you'd add water to just a little over 1/3 (or half) the volume you're looking to make, and dissolve 1/3 (or half) of your extract into that and bring it up to boil ... the idea is that the boil ends up at around the gravity it would be if you were boiling all the extract in the full volume (plus a bit to allow for boil-off), the utilisation of the hops is dependent on the gravity of the boil so by boiling in wort of the same gravity there's no need to adjust the recipe ... then you'd boil your hops, adding them for the timings in the recipe, and once the boil is finished cool the wort, transfer to FV, add the rest of the extract and top up the FV to your chosen volume (if you top up with cold water, you can stress less about chilling the boiled portion right down).

No need to boil the full volume, unless you're already "practicing" for AG

Cheers, PhilB

 

[Graz]

The burco cygnet 30l is a great boiler as its sturdy stainless steel and reasonably priced.
Burco

I'm assuming you have to hack these somehow (i.e. bypass the thermostat) to get a rolling boil? The spec says a maximum temperature of 98°C.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I'm assuming you have to hack these somehow (i.e. bypass the thermostat) to get a rolling boil? The spec says a maximum temperature of 98°C.

I've got two Burco's and they both boil no trouble without removing the thermostat.

 

[The Cat]

I've got two Burco's and they both boil no trouble without removing the thermostat.

I read a lot about Burcos and Buffalos before buying and it seems most people don't get a problem these days - seems a good idea to keep the element clean regularly with descaling etc though.

 

[Cwrw666]

If you have a boiler and have the time I'd jump straight into all grain. It's what I did and no regrets. All you need extra is a BIAB bag and away you go.

 

[The Cat]

If you have a boiler and have the time I'd jump straight into all grain. It's what I did and no regrets. All you need extra is a BIAB bag and away you go.

I've got some extract on the way so am going to at least start with it - the all grain is getting more tempting by the day I admit.

 

[The Cat]

Hi @The Cat

Yep, definitely hooked now, and it looks like you're making purchases already thinking about stepping into AG ... even so, like Cheshire Cat suggests, there's little benefit to boiling your extract when making extract brews ... and many extract brewers take advantage of that and do a reduced size boil, saves time in bringing it up to a boil, energy keeping it boiling and time spent cooling it all down to pitching temp

Basically, if your recipe involves steeping grains you'd do your steep first and get the wort off those, then you'd add water to just a little over 1/3 (or half) the volume you're looking to make, and dissolve 1/3 (or half) of your extract into that and bring it up to boil ... the idea is that the boil ends up at around the gravity it would be if you were boiling all the extract in the full volume (plus a bit to allow for boil-off), the utilisation of the hops is dependent on the gravity of the boil so by boiling in wort of the same gravity there's no need to adjust the recipe ... then you'd boil your hops, adding them for the timings in the recipe, and once the boil is finished cool the wort, transfer to FV, add the rest of the extract and top up the FV to your chosen volume (if you top up with cold water, you can stress less about chilling the boiled portion right down).

No need to boil the full volume, unless you're already "practicing" for AG

Cheers, PhilB

Thanks Phil - this is what I am considering now - starting with say a half sized version of the recipe - quicker and more practical I think while I am learning.

 

[The Cat]

Hi @The Cat

Yep, definitely hooked now, and it looks like you're making purchases already thinking about stepping into AG ... even so, like Cheshire Cat suggests, there's little benefit to boiling your extract when making extract brews ... and many extract brewers take advantage of that and do a reduced size boil, saves time in bringing it up to a boil, energy keeping it boiling and time spent cooling it all down to pitching temp

Basically, if your recipe involves steeping grains you'd do your steep first and get the wort off those, then you'd add water to just a little over 1/3 (or half) the volume you're looking to make, and dissolve 1/3 (or half) of your extract into that and bring it up to boil ... the idea is that the boil ends up at around the gravity it would be if you were boiling all the extract in the full volume (plus a bit to allow for boil-off), the utilisation of the hops is dependent on the gravity of the boil so by boiling in wort of the same gravity there's no need to adjust the recipe ... then you'd boil your hops, adding them for the timings in the recipe, and once the boil is finished cool the wort, transfer to FV, add the rest of the extract and top up the FV to your chosen volume (if you top up with cold water, you can stress less about chilling the boiled portion right down).

No need to boil the full volume, unless you're already "practicing" for AG

Cheers, PhilB

Sorry just to clarify would you alter the amount of hops listed in the recipe here ?

 

[PhilBrew]

Hi

Sorry just to clarify would you alter the amount of hops listed in the recipe here ?

... no, the key to not needing to do that is this bit of my previous message (sorry if I overloaded you with info ) ...

... the utilisation of the hops is dependent on the gravity of the boil so by boiling in wort of the same gravity there's no need to adjust the recipe ...

... because you're boiling the same proportion of your extract to the proportion of the volume of water you're boiling it in it'll end up the same (or similar) gravity as if you'd boiled all your extract in the full volume of water ... so the "hop utilisation", the amount of bitterness (and flavours/aromas) you'll extract from the hops, will be similar

You might see some brewers (they seem to recommend doing this on American forums a lot) brewing all their extract in a lower volume (higher gravity) and they'll suggest you need to add more hops to compensate; or other brewers might recommend boiling in water only (Cheshire Cat's "hop tea" method) and they might suggest you need to reduce the hops in the recipe by some amount (figures of 10-20% more or less hops are often suggested) ... but those suggestion can all be a bit "trial and error", whereas keeping the water and extract proportions consistent means you don't need to change hop additions in the recipe.

Good Luck with your brewday
Cheers, PhilB

 

[The Cat]

Hi
... no, the key to not needing to do that is this bit of my previous message (sorry if I overloaded you with info ) ...
... because you're boiling the same proportion of your extract to the proportion of the volume of water you're boiling it in it'll end up the same (or similar) gravity as if you'd boiled all your extract in the full volume of water ... so the "hop utilisation", the amount of bitterness (and flavours/aromas) you'll extract from the hops, will be similar

You might see some brewers (they seem to recommend doing this on American forums a lot) brewing all their extract in a lower volume (higher gravity) and they'll suggest you need to add more hops to compensate; or other brewers might recommend boiling in water only (Cheshire Cat's "hop tea" method) and they might suggest you need to reduce the hops in the recipe by some amount (figures of 10-20% more or less hops are often suggested) ... but those suggestion can all be a bit "trial and error", whereas keeping the water and extract proportions consistent means you don't need to change hop additions in the recipe.

Good Luck with your brewday
Cheers, PhilB

That's ideal just what I was looking for thanks

 

[Cwrw666]

I've got some extract on the way so am going to at least start with it - the all grain is getting more tempting by the day I admit.

Yeah, I was doing kits for many years but when we moved to our current place we had to boil all our water before we could use it for brewing (it's spring water) so I got me a 30L Ace boiler. After a couple of kits it finally dawned on me I had everything I needed for AG.

 

[The Cat]

Hi @The Cat

Yep, definitely hooked now, and it looks like you're making purchases already thinking about stepping into AG ... even so, like Cheshire Cat suggests, there's little benefit to boiling your extract when making extract brews ... and many extract brewers take advantage of that and do a reduced size boil, saves time in bringing it up to a boil, energy keeping it boiling and time spent cooling it all down to pitching temp

Basically, if your recipe involves steeping grains you'd do your steep first and get the wort off those, then you'd add water to just a little over 1/3 (or half) the volume you're looking to make, and dissolve 1/3 (or half) of your extract into that and bring it up to boil ... the idea is that the boil ends up at around the gravity it would be if you were boiling all the extract in the full volume (plus a bit to allow for boil-off), the utilisation of the hops is dependent on the gravity of the boil so by boiling in wort of the same gravity there's no need to adjust the recipe ... then you'd boil your hops, adding them for the timings in the recipe, and once the boil is finished cool the wort, transfer to FV, add the rest of the extract and top up the FV to your chosen volume (if you top up with cold water, you can stress less about chilling the boiled portion right down).

No need to boil the full volume, unless you're already "practicing" for AG

Cheers, PhilB

Hi again @PhilBrew

Sorry to bother you once more but I think I've got all I need ready now.

So if I use any of the Greg hughes DME recipes and halve everything apart from the hops including water and extract but use the same procedures and timings it'll be acceptable yes? Also for the steeping stage at the start do I use the same amount of grain specified in the recipe or does that need to get halved as well?

Thanks again!

 

[PhilBrew]

Hi @The Cat

Yes, that's the idea ... boil ALL of the hops in HALF the water and HALF the DME, according to the timings in the recipe, then cool your wort and transfer to your FV ... where you'll add the other HALF of your DME and top up to the FULL volume

Cheers, PhilB