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hightechlofi

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Hi,

I am a newbie and am about to get my first ingredient (extract+grain) kit from Northern Brewer. Needless to say I am trying to get my equipment figured out so that when it gets here I can brew right away. Here are a couple of ideas I wanted to toss out to see if they are viable.

I am going to steep the grain/boil the wort with 3gal water in a pot I already have (it has a nonstick coating, is this an issue?). I have purchased a heat exchanger I found on these forums: http://www.dudadiesel.com/choose_item.php?id=he30s

For these type heat exchangers, I am assuming that I will need a pump to send the wort through it, is this correct? I intend to try all grain soon, so I am in the market for a pump anyway.

From the heat exchanger, I was thinking about running the wort through a whole house filter like this:http://products.geappliances.com/ApplProducts/Dispatcher?REQUEST=SpecPage&Sku=GXWH40L to filter out the hop pellets, hot/cold break etc.

From there, I am going to use corny kegs as my primary/secondary fermenters (am going to use fermcap-s to try to help control the krausen.

Does this sound legit, or are there any gaping holes in my plan which I need to rethink?

Here is a list of the equip I am thinking about:
Transfer Pump (March, Little Giant, suggestions?)
Heat Exchanger (purchased)
Whole House Filter
(4) Corny Kegs - (suggest ball or pin lock?)
5# CO2 Bottle, Regulator, Hoses

Here is the setup I am looking at for the CO2, regulator,etc: http://www.kegcowboy.com/products-page/homebrew-kegging-kits/homebrew-faucet-kit-with-co2-tank/
Look decent?

Thanks for the help!

Also, one other thing. My dad has three old (as in 60's old) kegs up on a shelf which I can have. Anyone have experience converting these kinds (the fat ones, not the straight sides) into keggles, hlt's. mlt's? Will these work, or should I try to locate some newer ones?

Thanks again. Sorry for being long winded.
 
dont know about the rest but your steeping idea sounds a little off. typically you steep in 1 gallon of water not 3. i believe this helps with efficiency.

never boil your grains this will extract tannins and make you pucker when you drink your beer. heat the water to 160F +/- 10F then soak your grain in a grain bag in the water for 30 minutes. maintaing temps are not important. then dissolve your extract. after the extract is dissolved top off to 3 gallons.
 
Good to know about the steeping, thanks. To clarify, dissolve the extract in the 1 gal, then once dissolved top to 3 gal and begin my boil? Also, I have read that it is best to wait for the hot break before adding the first hop addition, then boiling for 60 min, is that correct?

Thanks again.
 
Good to know about the steeping, thanks. To clarify, dissolve the extract in the 1 gal, then once dissolved top to 3 gal and begin my boil? Also, I have read that it is best to wait for the hot break before adding the first hop addition, then boiling for 60 min, is that correct?

Thanks again.

correct and correct. if you add the hops while the hot break is still going on you will have a major boil over.

now as far as adding the extract i'm a fan of late extract addition. you add half the extract after you steep. then do your hops. with 10 minutes left in the boil add the rest of the extract. this will help keep your brew from getting to dark during the boil. but be warned that this will affect your hops utilization. the lower boil gravity will cause more bitterness to be drawn from your hops so you wont need as much to get the same level of bitterness.

unless the recipe says other wise just assume it doesn't use late extract addition.
 
What exactly are the benifits of late extract addition? Less chance of burning the wort?

as you boil the extract it gets darker. doing late extract addition lessens this effect by having less extract in the wort during the boil. late extract addition also lowers your boil gravity which increases your hops utilization. a higher hops utilization means you can use less hops to get the same level of bitterness.
 
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