Recipe Confusion

I'm new to brewing and so far have been using kits. I've decided to try to get away from kits and followed a recipe from The Brewmaster's Bible for Bavarian Wheat beer (found on page 208 if you have the book). I went to my local brewing supply store and bought the ingredients (1/2 pound light crystal malt, one 4 pound can of ALexander's pale malt extract, two 1.5 pound cans of Alexander's wheat "kicker", 2 ounces boiling hops, 1/2 teaspoon irish moss, 1 package wyeast 3056 bavarian wheat liquid yeast, and 1/4 cup corn sugar for priming) and when I sat down and read the actual instructions I came to a part that says, "when you're ready to brew, put the crushed grain mix into one of the boiling bags, tie off the top of the bag and put it into the biggest stainless steel or enameled pot you can find. Add water to the pot, leaving space for malt (approx 3/4) of a gallon and a couple inches at the top for boil. Apply heat" So my question is what is the crushed grain mix? Its not in the ingredients list and it isn't mentioned in the introductory section, only in the procedures section. Is there something else I need to buy? Thanks for your help

That's your 1/2 lb of crystal malt. In this case since there's only one grain it's not a "mix", but I assume these are generic instructions.

Edit: Hopefully you had them crush it for you? If not you're going to need to do that. Really best to get it properly milled but you can try the rolling pin thing in a pinch (I tried that exactly once many yrs ago and never made the mistake again).

Thanks. Although that brings up another problem. The guy at the brewing store gave me Muntons Spraymalt Extract which is a powder. Do I just boil that into the water or do I have to let it settle to the bottom of the pot after I boil it and siphon the liquid off?

The extracts are all part of your fermentables and need to be dissolved into the wort. The Munton's is a dry malt extract or DME, the wheat kicker and Alexander's pale are liquid malt extracts or LME. You can add these all at the beginning of the boil or add a portion at the beginning and the rest at the end. Search for extract late addition if you want to learn about this second technique, it prevents some of the over darkening of extract beers and also helps with hop utilization.

Thanks! I'm going to brew the beer now

Good Luck and enjoy!

I find it useful when doing extracts to compartmentalize in my mind the ingredients by type:

STEEPING GRAINS
(crystal malt)-- steep this is grain bag before the boil

EXTRACTS
(Alexander Pale Male; Alexander kicker; Muntons Spraymalt)-- add these at either the beginning or at beginning and end of boil

HOPS
bittering-- add at beginning
flavor-- add at 30 and/or 45 minutes into the boil (recipes and style vary)
aroma-- add at the end

YEAST
--- after the boil, after been cooled, pitch

Most things should fall into one of these categories.

Curious about letting something settle to the bottom and siphon it off. Where did you read about that? Oh, I guess you are referring the trub and cold break and hot break (if you have any) and hoppy bits and detritus. You can siphon off them, or use a (sanitized) strainer, or simply let them settle to the bottom of your kettle and not add them to, or you could simply add them to your fermenter and not worry about them. I've never strained them. They just settle to the bottom of the fermenter and don't hurt anything. Although I'm beginning to think I *will* start straining in the future. My trub (gunk that, along with dead yeast, settles to the bottom of the fermentor) has begun to get a bit too high when it comes to bottling.