cheezemm

Recipes 

I have a 4 gallon brewpot that I use for almost all of my brewing. Most of my extract kits have called for steeping grains in 1-2 gallons of water and then adding another 1-1.5 gallons of water to boil. This has always left me with .5-1 gallons of headspace to add the LME/DME. I recently picked up a kit that uses 2 gallons for steeping, instructs to then add 2 more gallons bring to a boil, then mix in LME/DME. I DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH ROOM!

Is there any harm in doing the steeping in the instructed amount, but using less water for the hopping and extract/60 min boil? Pretty expensive kit that I'd rather not screw the pooch on

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"If you forget what you were about to do, just walk into the garage and grab a homebrew, it'll come back to ya."

Yooper

Recipes 

Sure you can do that. I'd prefer to boil with just the steeping grain liquor (after the grains are removed) and add the LME/DME at the end of the boil. That should give you a bigger boil, and keep the LME/DME from darkening and tasting "carmelly" or "extracty". Some people add half the LME/DME when it's called for in the recipe, and the other half near the end of the boil for that reason.

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Broken Leg Brewery
Giving beer a leg to stand on since 2006

cheezemm

Recipes 

Ahhhh, the voice of reason to help the panic of a noob!

I didn't think about just boiling the "tea water" and adding hops and such (whirfloc). After the 60 minute boil I will have the following options:

1) Have enough headspace to add all my LME/DME to my single 4 gallon pot, then cool in the snow
2) Pour all into my primary, add LME/DME, top off to 5 gallons put outside in snow
3) Divide between a 4 gallon and a 2.5 gallon pot and add LME/DME to those and cool separately then combine in fermentor

Life is good again

__________________
"If you forget what you were about to do, just walk into the garage and grab a homebrew, it'll come back to ya."

mixedbrewer

Recipes 

Just make sure you have enough boiling water/ wort to pasteurize your dme in case there is a pin hole in the bag.

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I am yet to taste the worst beer ever.

Yooper

Recipes 

right! Do number 1, or even add it near the end of the boil to make sure the LME/DME is sanitized/pasteurized. Top up with water after chilling the wort.

Or you can split the boil, but that's just more equipment to clean!

__________________
Broken Leg Brewery
Giving beer a leg to stand on since 2006

Calder

Recipes 

Turn the heat down/off when adding it late in the boil, otherwise it can burn on the bottom of the pot. Once dissolved, start the heat again.