greetings and a few questions

hello all - great site. i am getting ready to brew my first batch of a red nectar clone using the palmer how to brew recipe. the recipe explains that one lme is used at the beginning and one is added at knockout. crystal malt is also listed in the recipe, but it doesnt explain when that is added. when do you put this in? also, i have helped someone brew a kit beer before. as i was totally clueless i just did what he told me. after reading the palmer book i noticed that it appears that the hops are just added (dumped) in at the requisite time. when i brewed with this other guy, he placed the hops in a mesh sock and pretty much steeped them in the wort and removed later. was this incorrect? should i be adding the hops in directly without the mesh sock and then straining it out as it is decanted into the fermenter? thanks in advance.

It sounds like the crystal grains are for steeping. Heat water to 150 or so - don't go above 175. Steep the grains for 20 or 30 minutes. Did Palmer really not talk about this?

Anyway, use a grain bag or a paint strainer bag to hold the grains. When done, lift them out and let drain (don't squeeze). Then bring to a boil and add the LME and hops according to schedule.

As for the hops, you can do it either way. If I do a recipe sith just a 60-minute addition, I'll put them in a bag, and lift it out at the end of the boil. If there are lots of additions, it's too much trouble to bag them all, I just toss 'em in. They just end up as sludge, which gets left behind during the subsequent tranfers.

The sack is optional for hops. Many of us dump the hops in the boil. Some people strain before it goes into the fermenter, others don't. I strain but it is not necessary.

The grains likely are steeping grains, asuming this is an extract with grain recipe and not a part mash recipe. I'm sure Palmer mentions steeping in the book, but the recipe probably assumes that you've read the preceding chapters of the book before attempting the recipe. Frazier's right about the steeping technique. At the end of 30 mins, you might want to rinse the grains in about 1/2 gallon of 170F water.

The hops bag is optional, and really not necessary at all.

The reason the LME is added at 2 different times is to help kep the wort from caramelizing and/or burning in the boil pot. It also helps keep the color of the beer lighter.

frazier said:

It sounds like the crystal grains are for steeping. Heat water to 150 or so - don't go above 175. Steep the grains for 20 or 30 minutes. Did Palmer really not talk about this?

Anyway, use a grain bag or a paint strainer bag to hold the grains. When done, lift them out and let drain (don't squeeze). Then bring to a boil and add the LME and hops according to schedule.

As for the hops, you can do it either way. If I do a recipe sith just a 60-minute addition, I'll put them in a bag, and lift it out at the end of the boil. If there are lots of additions, it's too much trouble to bag them all, I just toss 'em in. They just end up as sludge, which gets left behind during the subsequent tranfers.

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ok perfect, thanks all for the quick informative replies. palmer goes into steeping in a different chapter, however this is just a recipe that i decided to use instead of the cincinati pale ale recipe (no crystal listed) that he uses for the first brew selection. there are a bunch of recipes toward the end of the book and i wanted to substitute the red nectar clone instead of the cinci. i just didnt know what to do with the crystal.

hops oils dont get absorbed into the wort as easily if there is more malt extract dissolved into the wort. if you added all the extract at the beginning of the boil then you would have to use more hops to get the same bitterness level.