Reducing an AG brew down to kit sized proportions

[BrewStew]

my mate loves my beer. which is a great thing :thumb: but he can only carry so much home on the bus :lol:

he's just started kit beers, so i was thinking... does anyone see a problem if i were to do an AG brew, as i normally would, except at the end of the boil, i stick the wort in a pressure cooker and let it reduce down over night while on economy 7 to about 3 to 5 litres syrup?

i think i would definitely need to get it off the hops before the long reducing process otherwise it might be way too bitter.

i also wonder whether i should chill it first before pressure cooking it to drop the crap out of suspension.

i am wondering whether i could do it in the boiler instead of a pressure cooker to reduce the risk of scorching? but i'm guessing that a pressure cooker will work faster as it's under higher temperature.

then there's the bitterness... will it get unbalanced? even if my mate adds exactly the amount of water that i lost during the long reducing process?

 

[Vossy1]

my mate loves my beer. which is a great thing but he can only carry so much home on the bus

If he's a real mate you'd give him a lift home :rofl:

 

[BrewStew]

:lol:

you forget, i drink, and often

 

[Vossy1]

you forget, i drink, and often

I've seen you drink...you forget :lol:
You'd probably get more alcohol from a x-mas pudding :rofl:

 

[BrewStew]

:rofl:

 

[Vossy1]

does anyone see a problem if i were to do an AG brew, as i normally would, except at the end of the boil, i stick the wort in a pressure cooker and let it reduce down over night while on economy 7 to about 3 to 5 litres syrup?

Isn't that virtually making extract ?

quoting Palmer

When making malt extract, the sugar solution is drawn off, pasteurized, and run into vacuum chambers for dehydration. By boiling off the water under a partial vacuum, the wort sugars are not caramelized by the heat of full boiling and a lighter tasting extract is produced. To make a hopped extract, Iso-Alpha Acid extracts of hops are added along with hop oils to give a complete hop character to the final wort extract. These hop extracts are added at the end of the process to prevent loss during dehydration. Malt extract takes a lot of the work out of brewing.

Malt extract is sold in both liquid (syrup) and powdered forms. The syrups are approximately 20 percent water, so 4 pounds of Dry Malt Extract (DME) is roughly equal to 5 pounds of Liquid Malt Extract (LME). DME is produced by heating the liquid extract and spraying it from an atomizer in a heated chamber. Strong air currents keep the droplets suspended until they dry and settle to the floor. DME is identical to LME except for the additional dehydration and lack of hopping. DME is not hopped because hop compounds would be lost during the final dehydration.

 

[BrewStew]

yeah essentially, but so all my mate has to do is add water and yeast, not boil it as your would with extract.

looking at john palmer's quote, it looks like i might lose some if not all hop character on the way

i'm still tempted to give it a blast. if i lose all the hop flavour then i wont bother but if i only lose a little i could always up the hop bill to compensate

 

[Vossy1]

You could always boil/steep a few hops in some water prior to reconstituting the wort, like some of the kits do, to get some of the flavour/aroma back :hmm:

 

[Aleman]

It would probably be a dismal failure without a vacuum evaporator as the heat input will be way too high.

Is there no way he can take home a plastic jerry can say around 20L??

 

[MEB]

Or how about giving him 10L of max strength wort? He can then top it up to 20L or so with water and boil as per an AG? :hmm:

 

[jamesb]

Or tell him to stop pansying around and turn to the dark side.

:whistle:

 

[BrewStew]

Or how about giving him 10L of max strength wort? He can then top it up to 20L or so with water and boil as per an AG? :hmm:

he's only got equipment for kit beers

Or tell him to stop pansying around and turn to the dark side.

i'm working on it

 

[MEB]

Get him to boil a few kettles then. Or tell him he can only get good beer if he commits to AG. You must have some old kit after you've got all your new shiney? Sell him that.

 

[BrewStew]

nah i'm not gunna get rid of my 5 gal brewery. i'll still be using it to brew pilots before running full length on the kilderkin brewery.

i'm actually thinking about making a 10 litre stainless brewery... would make pilot brewdays ALOT shorter and would use less ingredients too :)

 

[EskiBrew]

Same as Aleman, I'm not convinced it will be a good idea. When you raise the pressure by using a pressure cooker, the boiling point increases so it will be hotter than 100C before boiling. This may well cause some unpleasant cooking of the malt liquor :wha:

Inversely, when using a vacuum while boiling, the boiling point is lower than 100C.

 

[mysterio]

MEB's idea sounds the best so far, make 10L of double strength wort and tell him to add the same again in water

 

[BrewStew]

:hmm:

twisted my arm.. i might give that a try. :thumb: