10 tips to better extract brewing

unionrdr said:

That's pretty much what I'm doing for my Hopped & Confused ale. But it works for dark ales/lagers as well. I use combinations of LME & DME in my AE beers,so I get more complexities there. The fresh wort in my partial mashes being 50% of the fermentables allows me to save the couple ponds of extract for flame out as a late addition.

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That's exactly how I brew my PM brews as well. I'm basically brewing an all-grain brew during the boil, then adding the extract at flameout, chilling the wort, and topping it off with cold water in the fermenter.

It works beautifully.

CrookedTail said:

That's exactly how I brew my PM brews as well. I'm basically brewing an all-grain brew during the boil, then adding the extract at flameout, chilling the wort, and topping it off with cold water in the fermenter.

It works beautifully.

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Yes it does. And I'm doing partial boils with 3.5 gallons to boot!

Great topic. Thanks for all the tips.

This is a great thread.

I have one question: If the issue with steeping in a large volume of water is the possibility of high ph extracting tannins, would it not be better to adjust the ph of the steep water rather than the volume? My water ph is 7.2. I add 2 tsp of gypsum to 5.7 gallons of steeping water @ 155F to bring the ph down.

Adjusting the PH is probably the better way to do it.

Just got back from my LHBS, talked to a guy there who's opinion has never set me wrong. He believes that ph during steeping of specialty grains in extract brewing is a non-issue, as you are not trying to pull sugars out of the grains as in a mash for all-grain. As long as temp is kept below 170 (I steep at 155) no significant tannins will be released.

Also did a little more research online today about gypsum (which I add to my water before steeping); apparently adding it to the steeping water doesn't affect ph, I would have to add liquid extract as well for it to lower ph...who knew! A non-issue tho if ph doesn't really matter for steeping.

Opinions?

From what I have always read, extract brewers really don't need to worry about water pH. In fact a lot of people recommend using distilled water when brewing extract beer, because the extract already has minerals in it from the water the extract manufacturer used to produce it. Personally I just use filtered tap water, and never had an issue.

As for a steeping method, I make a loose porridge with my steeping grains and some 150-160 degree water in a smaller pot. I then sit a fine mesh pasta strainer over my brewpot and drain the porridge into it. Then I ladle some sparge water over the grains as they sit in the strainer over the pot. Once it drains I discard (or save for bread) the grains and proceed with the boil. When I'm brewing extract beer this has worked well for me.

This is a great thread and should be a sticky IMO anyway

One question if you add the extract late wouldn't you still have to worry about hot break or does the hot break just come from the steeping grains

Thegreatestgray said:

This is a great thread and should be a sticky IMO anyway

One question if you add the extract late wouldn't you still have to worry about hot break or does the hot break just come from the steeping grains

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If you add it flameout, no. If there's still time left in the boil, yes.

Read this once before, worth saving. I have an IPA in my secondary right now that did not retain any of the hop flavor that it should have. I'm going to stop using bags, per this article's suggestion.

Great thread, forcing me to shake-up 10yrs of the same procedures!

I've always steeped in a grain bag in the full pre-boil volume (5.7gallons for a 5g batch). This time I steeped loose in 1gallon, then transferred through a sieve with cheesecloth and rinsed the grains with extra water. Probably unrelated, but my hot-break wasn't as extreme as usual.

I didn't do a late LME addition as I'm not convinced yet it's the way to go...

Used my new home-made immersion chiller to bring the wort down to 21C in 10min...love that thing! Pitched 1056 at 21C and fermented 5 days at 16C. Usually I ferment at around 19-20C, but read in the specs that 1056 can introduce citrus notes at the lower end of the range (probably hard to tell with all the Simcoe and Amarillo). Had a great steady fermentation and am sending to the secondary today.

Unfortunately I broke my hydrometer just before measuring the OG...doh! Supposed to be 1.055, and usually have nailed it right on in the past. Down to 1.012 this morning on the new hydrometer (3rd one broken already this year...clutz) and still a bit of action.

This is one of my tried-and-trues, a homemade recipe I've made maybe 6 times before, so hopefully I'll notice some differences!

Paco's Pale

Ingredients

1.00 tsp Gypsum
0.35 kg Carafoam (3.9 EBC)
0.10 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (118.2 EBC)
3.40 kg Pale Liquid Extract (15.8 EBC)
10.00 g Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min
10.00 g Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min
0.50 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins)
15.00 g Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 7.0 min
10.00 g Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 7.0 min
15.00 g Simcoe [13.00 %] - Aroma Steep 0.0 min
10.00 g Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Aroma Steep 0.0 min
1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056)
15.00 g Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days
10.00 g Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days

Est Original Gravity: 1.055 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.048 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.013 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.013 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.5 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.6 %
Bitterness: 40.8 IBUs Calories: 159.8 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 18.8 EBC

Let us know how it comes out sutepan, im interested in your thoughts since you have a good control

This beer turned out very very well, definitely the best of all the times I've made it. The body and mouthfeel are spot-on for what I like. I can't really say how much this has to do with it, but I will continue to steep my grains loose in a smaller volume of water.

The hop aroma on this one is stunning. My favourite recipe just got better!

Very good info. I'm subbing to come back to this when I do my next brew.


-Kingboomer

I'm thinking the best tip of all would be to not think too far ahead on brew or bottling day. That's still a hard one after a couple of years at this beer brewing. Let alone adding all the years I made wine. Think too far ahead & you'll likely forget some quick,simple little thing that's important to the over-all process somehow. Aaaah,boy that NZ IPA airlock smells bloody good. Bubbling so strong I can smell it some 6' away...yum yum.

will be coming back to this on my next brew day

OK, I'm brewing MoreBeer's Blind Pig IPA extract kit w/ specialty grains this weekend and I want to use as much of this info as possible.
I can do full boils as I have a 9 gal kettle and I made a immersion chiller that drop the wert down to 80 in less than 10 min.
I also did the late extract addition (or more like 1/2 now and 1/2 late) on my last brew and felt it helped but on all my previous attempts I did steep in 3-3.5 gallons of water and then rinsed the grains with about two gallons of water, which is all store bought Mountain Spring water.

So should I warm up 5+ gallons in my kettle while I steep the specialty grains on my stove in a small pot. I can then strain that mini mash into the kettle and rinse with that brew pot water? This seems like the most efficient way other than steeping in the kettle, rinsing with a bit of warmed water and then adding almost 4 gallons of room temp water from the bottles.

Also does anyone else use Mountain Spring water? My house water isn't bad but I don't have a water report that's worth a crap, I also have a softener and I've seen somewhere that using that water might be preferred.

Thanks in advance

I used spring water from Giant Eagle @ 79c per gallon. Then I remembered the 2 local spring water sources. I get local spring water now at the source for 10c per gallon. 60c for enough to brew 5 gallon batches plus boil off is pretty good right there...

Tried first wort hop additions on my last two batches, a rye ale and a Simcoe IPA. Steeped my specialty grains in a small volume of water for 30 minutes @ 155, strained out grains, brought to full boil volume at 155, added liquid extract and hops, let sit at 155 20 minutes, then commenced with regular 60 minute boil.

Will post results when I taste them in a few weeks...

Obelisk said:

Why the obsession with high hop flavor? I hate IPA's because of the hop bitterness. I can't think of a PA that I enjoy unless it's with food. There are so many wonderful beers with low hop content, and yet so many of these tips are suggested with hop treatment as the reason.

My real question is this, If I don't care about having high hop bitterness, can I cut down on the boil time? If the LME only requires 15 minutes to sanitize it, can I increase the hops and reduce the boil time to say, 30 minutes?

The suggestion to step up to "real" or "better" PA/IPA won't help me.

Thanks

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I know this post is old, but I think I remember reading somewhere you want to boil for min of 45min. Something with extracting enough alpha/beta acids to act as your preservatives or something my fream ale last summer was a 45min boil and only beer to not age well...

robbyhicks said:

I know this post is old, but I think I remember reading somewhere you want to boil for min of 45min. Something with extracting enough alpha/beta acids to act as your preservatives or something my fream ale last summer was a 45min boil and only beer to not age well...

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In a beer style that needs hops only for balance, and not much hop flavor and aroma, you're correct. You want to boil the hops longer to extract bitterness while boiling out the aromatics.

However, in a hoppy style like a pale ale or IPA, you can get away with a 15 minute boil by loading up on high alpha acid hops. Having a large amount of high alpha hops provides enough bitterness, while retaining much of the aroma and flavor. It's a technique called hop-bursting. It's my preferred way of hopping IPAs.

Turning off the heat when adding extract is vital. I tried lowering the heat and having SWMBO stirring while I added the extract and still ended up with some scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Nice.

Cheers

I tried adding the LME and honey at different intervals for my last batch. I added half of it upfront and half of it in the last 10-15 min stirring vigorously and so far looking through my fermenter it looks way lighter than my last two batches.

Great tips! Thanks!

Me too!

scrawbag said:

i had to comment so i can find this easily on brew day
now lets party :rockin:

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The problem is these burner these days have those safety timers which really suck...

mblanks2 said:

Turn on your second largest burner and slide between the two as they cycle on and off or better yet, just get a turkey frier and 20# propane tank. The efficiency of the propane burner is worth every penny. $75 or less at Lowes or HD for the burner.

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trefilov22 said:

The problem is these burner these days have those safety timers which really suck...

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That's why I use a 1996 turkey fryer on the Big Deck. Works great!

I should probably start looking on C-List for an older turkey fryer burner. Does anyone know if the burners that are sold at brewshops have that darned timer? I honestly never really looked.

brewbama said:

That's why I use a 1996 turkey fryer on the Big Deck. Works great!

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From the op:

9. Water
Malt extract is condensed wort and it contains everything that wort contains, including dissolved minerals. Any minerals in your dilution water are added to the (unknown) amount of minerals in the extract. Unless you have a good reason not to, always use soft water (or even distilled water) for extract brewing.

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I have a water softener (ion exchange), but the kitchen water faucet bypasses the softener for cooking/drinking. I've been using this for brewing but it sounds like I should use the softened water. Does everyone agree?

I'm referring specifically to extract brewing and know all-grain is different.

trefilov22 said:

I should probably start looking on C-List for an older turkey fryer burner. Does anyone know if the burners that are sold at brewshops have that darned timer? I honestly never really looked.

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Not that I would ever recommend or condone such activity....bit that timer can be bypassed. A quick search on YouTube will walk you through the procedure.

I have two burners, one made without and one with. Other than the small work area and my fat ape fingers, it is a simple process

I got a replacement hose for my turkey frier from Blowes that omits the timer. I used to use a pair of Chanel Locks but decided to replace it.


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