Extract brewing

Khannie

Thanks. Got the pot today in living island. Extract kit arriving tomorrow. Looking forward to it.

gosplan

Question 1:

Been reading a bit about extract brewing this morning.

I reckon this summer will be another summer of kits (mainly because they've already been ordered) but I don't have the cash yet to get new equipment and have beer ready for summer.

Over the winter I might pocket some cash and get myself a boiler and a wort chiller. anyone got any recommendations on which ones are best?

Don't mind spending money provided it's worth it and it's on stuff I'll use into the future.

I know people say 'big pot' but my fine lady would rather not have the smell about, plus I've small kids so doing it in the garden would be way preferable.

Question 2
Last question is what about larger. You'll need some refrigeration equipment in this country I gather?

I brewed some Pilsner well enough last year in the middle of the heatwave by leaving it in an outside fridge, monitoring it closely and then turning it on and off as appropriate. But it was a coopers kit which are supposed to be rather forgiving and it was a massive pain.

How does one go about achieving a stable 12 degrees in Ireland?

BeerNut

gosplan wrote: »

anyone got any recommendations on which ones are best?

I use this boiler and it's grand. the ones with thermostats seem to be more hassle than those without.

gosplan wrote: »

How does one go about achieving a stable 12 degrees in Ireland?

The standard way in Ireland seems to be a fridge with an ATC-800+ temperature controller.

gosplan

BeerNut wrote: »

I use this boiler and it's grand. the ones with thermostats seem to be more hassle than those without.

The standard way in Ireland seems to be a fridge with an ATC-800+ temperature controller.

So you wouldn't bother with the fancy 200 quid brew kettles or anything then?




Thanks by the way for all the time you take to post answers to my questions, much appreciated.

BeerNut

gosplan wrote: »

So you wouldn't bother with the fancy 200 quid brew kettles or anything then?

Me personally, no. But I'm sure there are more conscientious, less half-assed brewers out there who would.

xbox gamer

Hi Gosplan,

I'm going to give the extract route a go and so far i've made a wort chiller and boiler. I used these guides to help me and it hasn't been expensive either:
boiler with tesco kettles
Fermenter: all ready had
Tesco Kettles: €6.91 each (i got two but i'm sure one will do)
Hole Saw: used my dads
Hop strainer: €11 (can use the bag that came with the extract kit)
Kettle Leads: you can buy these to fit the element but i soldered the wires instead

Wort chiller
10 meters of 10mm copper pipe: €21
Paint can: had
Hose: lucky enough had
Fittings: €13 online including postage

Hopefully the beer will taste an awful lot better than the kits!

gosplan

BeerNut wrote: »

Me personally, no. But I'm sure there are more conscientious, less half-assed brewers out there who would.

You have a beer blog and are called beernut.

I'll trust you

BeerNut

Your funeral...

Hingo

BeerNut wrote: »

Me personally, no. But I'm sure there are more conscientious, less half-assed brewers out there who would.

Hey Beernut,

Have you tried doing BIAB before? Was thinking of getting a kettle with a temp dial for that (have me eye on one for around €110) for exrtact and BIAB (when I eventually start that) but if you've done BIAB yourself without any hassle on a standard kettle, might be worth just getting the boiler kit with chiller from HBC for the same price.

BeerNut

Hingo wrote: »

Have you tried doing BIAB before?

Nope. I don't do all-grain.

Khannie

I'm gonna give BIAB a whirl if these extract brews work out well.

calnand

I wouldn't recommend getting the wort chiller from the homebrew company, I got it as part of a deal with the kettle and finding fittings for it was a nightmare. It's an imperial measure 3/8 inch(9.52mm) and no plumbing specialist I went to had the proper fittings for it only 10mm.

BeerNut

What do you mean by fittings? Garden hose and jubilee clips should be all you need.

Hingo

calnand wrote: »

I wouldn't recommend getting the wort chiller from the homebrew company, I got it as part of a deal with the kettle and finding fittings for it was a nightmare. It's an imperial measure 3/8 inch(9.52mm) and no plumbing specialist I went to had the proper fittings for it only 10mm.

Probably gonna get the temp control boiler tbh, be handy to just set it 65'c for BIAB mash and then full heat for the boil. I'm not in any rush to move from extract mind you as I know the OGs will prob be off for the first brews but I need a boiler anyway so may as well invest for future plans. (using a 20L pot and electric stovetop for now doing half boils)

With that conclusion was gonna give the homemade chiller a go, if it's worth while. Any decent immersion chillers range from €40 - €65 so if I can make one for around €30, might be better off!

Khannie

Well.... It's boiling away here. Happy out. Hops in a muslin bag, right?

Knifey Spoony

BeerNut wrote: »

What do you mean by fittings? Garden hose and jubilee clips should be all you need.

Nope! The copper used in that chiller is just to thin to use a jubilee clip and a standard 10mm hose. No matter how hard I tightened the clip, there was still a leak on the input side. I've ordered a 10mm to 8mm hose reducer which will hopefully solve the leaking problem.

BeerNut

Khannie wrote: »

Hops in a muslin bag, right?

Wut? No, I wouldn't. Let your hops roam wild and free.

calnand

What I did is got a copper hose connector in b&q and jammed it on the end of the copper piping and then sealed it with a epoxy putty, and then jubilee clipped the garden hose onto it. And it worked fine. I'll do a proper job on it in the future but it seamed to hold up.

Khannie

BeerNut wrote: »

Wut? No, I wouldn't. Let your hops roam wild and free.

Too late. I muslin'd them.


So....it's done and brewing away this morning. Here are the mistakes I made:

I expected the boil to be more vigorous so I could have / should have put more water in. I tried using the weighing scales but wasn't measuring it properly. In the end only 10L of wort came out (which I topped up to 20). I'd imagine that will hurt the final flavour.

I used the bath to cool it down. This was very effective (used the shower on cold spraying onto the side of the pot. It was however a pain in the arse. I pony'd up for a 2nd hand copper coil yesterday.

I put the hops in a muslin bag. I'm not sure this was such a mistake tbh. The hops looked and smelled well used when I emptied them out.

There was a large amount of "gick" at the bottom of the bucket. That kinda freaked me out. It has settled down quite a bit today. I'll put up a pic that I took last night.

The last hop addition said to add at 60 minutes of a 60 minute boil. I wasn't quite sure what to do with this (the implication was to leave it in for zero time, but obviously that's not correct), but I left it in for a minute or two / swirled it around.


Here are the things I did right:

I had 10L of bottled water chilling in the fridge. After 20 minutes bath time and the 10L of chilled water the wort was at 22C. Win.

I kept the roiling boil going well.

There were no boil overs.

It is brewing.

Looking forward to it now.

loyatemu

what recipe did you go with in the end?

(I think the 60 minute hops are supposed to stay in while you cool the wort?)

Khannie

I did the American pale ale from The Homebrew Company.

Ah, that makes sense about the final hops. I suppose I'll know for next time. Thanks.

I think I'm going to bottle half, then dry hop the other half to see the difference.

Khannie

Here's the "gick" I was referring to. It had compressed down quite a bit this morning, but was still at the 4L mark (ish).

BeerNut

How did you transfer the wort from pot to fermenter?

Khannie

Just poured it in, then back to the pot, then into the fermenter again (for aeration). I watched a video online that showed doing that. I know you mentioned straining through a sieve, but I figured I didn't need to do that since I had the hops in the muslin bag.

I can pass it through a fine gold filter I have (for coffee) on the way into secondary I suppose.

BeerNut

You've got your break material in there then. Not a disaster but not ideal. The gick level will continue to fall with time, I'd say.

Khannie

Give it another day then transfer to a clean fermenter, leaving it behind?

edit: What should I have done?

drumswan

When using a boiler you empty it via the tap at the bottom, the wort is filtered through the hop strainer. All my break material seems to form above the water line anyway.

BeerNut

Khannie wrote: »

Give it another day then transfer to a clean fermenter, leaving it behind?

Not really worth the effort or risk, IMO.

Khannie wrote: »

What should I have done?

As drumswan says, this is the advantage to using a kettle with a tap. Pouring through a sieve or muslin would do some good to filter out the break material, or if you want to be very persnickety siphon it, just making sure it gets properly oxygenated.

Khannie

Oh, I've two more questions:

Dry hopping - Just throw some hops into secondary? Do I need to sanitise the hops somehow?

This is my first beer / ale / anything of that nature. What's a reasonable FG range? OG was 1.050 (I put a very small amount of glucose in)

BeerNut

Khannie wrote: »

Do I need to sanitise the hops somehow?

Nope, hops are self-sanitising. They're a natural preservative.

Khannie wrote: »

OG was 1.050

That's perfectly reasonable. You can expect high 4s to low 5s % ABV from that, all going well with the fermentation.