Wychcraft Extract clone

[Oakers73]

Wychcraft extract clone....

I am looking at doing my first extract style brew and am looking to try and get as close to the lush blonde ale Wychwoods Wychcraft. I am thinking that I could steep some crystal malt, then boil some light malt extract with fuggles hops from 60 minutes then Goldings at 15, more goldings 2 minutes from end and then use the wort to top up a Wilkos pilsner kit....pitch with an ale yeast not a lager yeast and then dry hop with a cascade teabag after initial fermentation has done..... and I might get something interesting. I would appreciate comments from those with more experience than myself

 

[jonnymorris]

If you're going to go to the effort of extract brewing, i.e. boiling some DME with hops etc why then dilute it with a kit? I think you'd be much more satisfied with your own creation and more able to tweak the result to whatever taste you prefer. As for recipe's... the must be one on the web you can hijak.

 

[pittsy]

For better results drop the kit and use more dried malt extract or fresh liquid extract ( only a few months at most old) . Liquid extract in kits are often many months if not years old and so aren't as tasty . Apart from using similar grains using the right yeast will be the best thing to copy so have a look online if you can find any info on what yeast they use .
You basically want medium dried extract with some crystal to steep , how much and how dark is up to you . Often you should be thinking of using around 500g (approx) for your 23l batch .
You sound like you've got the idea right though :thumb:

 

[Oakers73]

Thanks for all the great advice chaps.... i will write a shopping list and get on it. Just one thing, you mention fresh liquid malt. Do you mean the tins that are on sale everywhere or am I missing something?

 

[pittsy]

Same stuff but new is better than dried but old liquid is worse than dried . I used dried and was very pleased with results . You would want around 3kg for a brew (dried) , try the homebrew company above for dme.

 

[Oakers73]

Good, thanks. Also, the only reason I thought a pilsner kit would be a good addition is that the clone all grain recipe I found asked for pilsner malt and crystal malt....will do some searching on yeast types...

 

[pittsy]

Pilsner malt would suggest extra light dme and how sweet does it taste and what is the ibu for example if it's fairly high like say 45 ibu but tastes a little sweet (ish ) then you want a decent amount of crystal to balance it (say 10%) and if it's dry and not sweet then you want less crystal . How dark is it ? The lighter the beer the lower the crystal , the darker the beer the higher the crystal . Darker crystals have a stronger taste so be careful how much (5% usually enough ) and can give a raisin flavour the darker the crystal .
So really stick to light or extra light dme and then using crystal malt to add colour and flavour with the yeast doing the main job of flavouring to style (assuming grain bill fits style too ) . All this goes hand in hand with hops , higher strength beer often will have more bittering hops to balance flavours and the same is often used for sweet or dry beers with hops used to balance flavours .
And this all changes from person to person depending on how you like your beer so best to try the same recipe out a few times but change 1 thing at a time what you didn't like such as less bittering hops or lower strength until you get the beer how you like it and that will give you a guide on how to build recipes that you like best .

 

[Oakers73]

Ace...Thanks. ..

 

[Oakers73]

So I think I have got it sorted guys. I will be creating the Wort using 1500g of light DME and 1.5kg of coopers light malt extract and do the crystal steep first. Do the hops as described above....will take some advice from my local Home brew shop in Gornal about the yeast. I chose to use the tinned malt as I will be using a 15 litre Wort pan and topping up. I have read that i should increase hop amounts slightly if not boiling the entire Wort amount....Any idea on how much by? I thank you for all the advice and I am sure this experiment will be a learning experience! Incidentally I am going to name this brew "Who put Bella in the Wych Elm? after a local spooky truthful story to me...Google the phrase Iif you are interested..:-)

 

[Oakers73]

All ingredients bought today....gotta wait for my big pot and wort chiller to arrive then all systems go. Gonna fill the space with a Wilkos golden ale tweak so brew day is two weeks time....Thanks for the advice guys, I will keep you posted.

 

[Oakers73]

Brew day tomorrow. ..will post some pics and an update when it's done!