ScarySouthernMan
Active Member
Hi friends,
I recently found myself in a bit of a new set of circumstances that has me going in reverse on my brewing experience.
My good friend CVstrat (forum handle) and I have been all-grain brewing at his place for over a year now. We had one heck of a great run at it (I think well over 20 batches), but life took him to a new location along with his awesome mash tuns and other equipment. As it were, I am going to continue to enjoy the spoils of homebrewing on my own here in my basement apartment.
Here is my ordeal;
I have amassed quite a bit of equipment of my own. I have a few fermenters of different sizes (1 gal to 15 gal), a propane banjo burner, a half barrel (15.5 g) Keggle, and all the little goodies that sanitize, rack, clean and test my beer and equipment.
What I DO NOT have access to is a 10 Gal batch size mash tun OR a reliable source of malt grain selection from my local supply store (a small corner inside of a Ma & Pa country store, but hey, at least they're tryin'). Every package/vial of liquid yeast in the entire store is expired and I recognize some of the bags of malt grains from the first time I ever went in there 2 years ago... swear! Anyways, I fear this leaves me no choice but to try my hand at extract brewing. It's not my first choice but it sure beats not brewing at all.
I invited some of the neighborhood guys over for my inaugural brew here at my place on this Sunday and it occurred to me that I don't know how to extract brew. I've read several threads and stickies and can't find some hard info on a couple subjects I had questions about. This is where I was hoping some of you extract gurus can help me.
First question. Steeping grains? I'm assuming that you heat up 2-3 gallons of water and dunk the sac of grains in there and wait "x" amount of time and then add your LME. AT THE TIME OF THE LME ADDITION, DO I REMOVE THE SACK OF GRAINS? I assume so, but never saw any literature on this.
Second question. Adding water after the boil? All sorts of sanitation alarms start going off in my head when I read this. What's to guarantee the water you add post boil isn't contaminated? I understand you could boil the addition water but then do you chill it too? Perhaps a more important question; Why can't I get my preboil volumes determined and boil the whole darn batch like the All-Grain folks do it? I have a fifteen gallon brew pot. I should be able to boil ten G's and have plenty left over for additional boil off volume right? Does it HURT the recipe to boil the entire batch?!? I get the feeling that most of the extract brewing literature I've read thus far is for beginners. While technically I AM new to Extract, I'm plenty comfortable with the brewing process from the big picture standpoint. I need some extract veterens to chime in on this one for me.
Thanks ahead of time for any advice you guys can offer!
Also, I want to give a shout out to CVstrat for all that he has done for me and I'd like also to take a minute and say Cheers to him for introducing me to the obsession that is homebrewing. I know wherever he goes, he will continue to spread the education and enjoyment of the art of brewing.
Thanks guys,
Jacob - Scary
I recently found myself in a bit of a new set of circumstances that has me going in reverse on my brewing experience.
My good friend CVstrat (forum handle) and I have been all-grain brewing at his place for over a year now. We had one heck of a great run at it (I think well over 20 batches), but life took him to a new location along with his awesome mash tuns and other equipment. As it were, I am going to continue to enjoy the spoils of homebrewing on my own here in my basement apartment.
Here is my ordeal;
I have amassed quite a bit of equipment of my own. I have a few fermenters of different sizes (1 gal to 15 gal), a propane banjo burner, a half barrel (15.5 g) Keggle, and all the little goodies that sanitize, rack, clean and test my beer and equipment.
What I DO NOT have access to is a 10 Gal batch size mash tun OR a reliable source of malt grain selection from my local supply store (a small corner inside of a Ma & Pa country store, but hey, at least they're tryin'). Every package/vial of liquid yeast in the entire store is expired and I recognize some of the bags of malt grains from the first time I ever went in there 2 years ago... swear! Anyways, I fear this leaves me no choice but to try my hand at extract brewing. It's not my first choice but it sure beats not brewing at all.
I invited some of the neighborhood guys over for my inaugural brew here at my place on this Sunday and it occurred to me that I don't know how to extract brew. I've read several threads and stickies and can't find some hard info on a couple subjects I had questions about. This is where I was hoping some of you extract gurus can help me.
First question. Steeping grains? I'm assuming that you heat up 2-3 gallons of water and dunk the sac of grains in there and wait "x" amount of time and then add your LME. AT THE TIME OF THE LME ADDITION, DO I REMOVE THE SACK OF GRAINS? I assume so, but never saw any literature on this.
Second question. Adding water after the boil? All sorts of sanitation alarms start going off in my head when I read this. What's to guarantee the water you add post boil isn't contaminated? I understand you could boil the addition water but then do you chill it too? Perhaps a more important question; Why can't I get my preboil volumes determined and boil the whole darn batch like the All-Grain folks do it? I have a fifteen gallon brew pot. I should be able to boil ten G's and have plenty left over for additional boil off volume right? Does it HURT the recipe to boil the entire batch?!? I get the feeling that most of the extract brewing literature I've read thus far is for beginners. While technically I AM new to Extract, I'm plenty comfortable with the brewing process from the big picture standpoint. I need some extract veterens to chime in on this one for me.
Thanks ahead of time for any advice you guys can offer!
Also, I want to give a shout out to CVstrat for all that he has done for me and I'd like also to take a minute and say Cheers to him for introducing me to the obsession that is homebrewing. I know wherever he goes, he will continue to spread the education and enjoyment of the art of brewing.
Thanks guys,
Jacob - Scary