Shakybones said:Oh, one more thing...don't pitch until your wort is cooled to 70F!
Cheers crookedtail, I am just starting to get into modifying kit beers and there is some great advice here I have tried to follow for a grolch esk kit mod I am currently putting down.
A couple of questions:
If you are adding the remainder of the extract in the last 15 minutes of the boil, how long are you boiling for? The book I have only suggests boiling for 15 minutes?
When is LME considered to old to risk using? is it ok up to the used by date? or is there rule of thumb that one is best off brewing x amount of time before the used by date?
What kind of kits are you using? I would only use a 15 minute boil if you're hop-bursting the beer. In other words, you're adding a lot of hops in a short boil. Beers typically go through a 60 minute boil (all-grain brewers sometimes do 90 minute boils). If you add all of your extract at the beginning of the 60 minute boil, it's going to darken considerably. That's why you should add only a portion of it at the beginning, and then the rest at flameout.
Your second question depends on the environment the extract has been sitting in. If it's refrigerated, extract can last a pretty long time. If it's in a warm temp setting, I'd say no longer than a couple of months. If you're buying from a local shop, ask the store owner how long it's been sitting there. I'd probably be more inclined to buy dry extract instead of liquid at a small local store. If you're buying online from a place like Northern Brewer, Austin Homebrew, or Midwest, they turnover LME very quickly. So the extract you get from them is probably only a few weeks old.
I used a coopers european lager kit. It came for free with my brewing kit (brought second hand) so I thought I would give it ago (probably not the best idea in hind sight) They guy said he had had it for about a year, and I doubt it would have been refrigerated. It was however before the best before date.
I boiled about two thirds of it (was to heavy with my pour) for about 20 minutes along with half of a #15 coper tun brew booster, before adding the remaining of both and returning to heat for about 5 minutes (it never got back to a boil) Then I simmered 10G of hallertau pellets for two minutes before allowing to stand for 10 minutes and then strained into the extract batch, squeezing out all liquid that I could.
added that with some not quite cooled boiled water to the fermentor to 22L and put it in the fridge to cool. 18 hours later I was finally down to 22 degrees, and pitched the lager yeast after starting it in 100ml of cooled boiled water and a teaspoon of brew booster scraped from the walls of the packet.
wort is still in the fridge cooling, where I hope to stabilise it at about 13 degrees
Guess we will see how the results go, but any advice on how to improve my procedure would be greatly appreciated and received with open ears
yes, I made a kind of "hop tea" with a little more boiling then a regular tea and then added the liquid to the wort post boil.
Yep I am pretty sure that the coopers european lager is a pre hopped beer.
So when using kits, I should boil for a shorter period? (15 mins?)
Or not boil at all? The book I have suggests boiling kit beers for 15 minutes to improve the final result.
unhoped malt extract and specialty grains sounds a little intimidating at this point, but I will work up to it I have a muntons gold IPA kit waiting in the fridge for my next brew once my temp controller arrives.
yes, I made a kind of "hop tea" with a little more boiling then a regular tea and then added the liquid to the wort post boil.
Yep I am pretty sure that the coopers european lager is a pre hopped beer.
So when using kits, I should boil for a shorter period? (15 mins?)
Or not boil at all? The book I have suggests boiling kit beers for 15 minutes to improve the final result.
unhoped malt extract and specialty grains sounds a little intimidating at this point, but I will work up to it I have a muntons gold IPA kit waiting in the fridge for my next brew once my temp controller arrives.
yeah I wondered if I had pitched a little too early for the lager.
Is 8.9 degrees C not a little on the cold side? the Saflager s-23 packet suggests that 12 - 15 degrees C is optimum. It also suggested that two packets would be needed for pitching at lower temperatures, which I did not have. I appreciate your advice on this subject.
Should I be ignoring the packet and going for lower temperatures? I was going to continue to cool to about 13 degrees or so, But could always go lower if it is advisable.
It is taking a lot longer to cool then I had expected!
@BigFloyd, when you say you chilled the wort before transferring to the bucket, do you mean that one should cool the wort before transferring to the fermentation chamber and topping up with any extra water? (if one is not able to boil their wort at full volume)
isn't cooper's european lager kit prehopped extract? If so it doesn't need boiling. It does need 'repasteurization ' to sterilize.
Also trying to understand what you did with the hops. Did you make a separate hop 'tea ' with water and add that post boil to your wort
edit : Crooked tail types faster than i can on tablet...
yes, I made a kind of "hop tea" with a little more boiling then a regular tea and then added the liquid to the wort post boil.
Yep I am pretty sure that the coopers european lager is a pre hopped beer.
So when using kits, I should boil for a shorter period? (15 mins?)
Or not boil at all? The book I have suggests boiling kit beers for 15 minutes to improve the final result.
unhoped malt extract and specialty grains sounds a little intimidating at this point, but I will work up to it I have a muntons gold IPA kit waiting in the fridge for my next brew once my temp controller arrives.
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