Hey guys, im an apartment brewer with two batches under my belt. The first was a NB mild ale and the second is a recently completed, still very green NB American Amber ale. Both were drinkable but i still feel like i can/need to do better.
I just ordered the blue moon clone from Austin Hombrew because i love blue moon and most wheat beers. I know blue moon is BMC but i dont care its tasty haha. Anyways, i want to try new techniques with this brew. I read this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f37/10-tips-better-extract-brewing-100861/ which was very interesting but i need clarifications on a couple things so here we go:
3. Other Dark Forces
Boil volume is not the only factor in wort darkening. Another problem is the potential to caramelize partially dissolved malt extract. When you stir malt extract into hot water, it does not dissolve instantly or evenly. Little blobs of extract can remain intact for quite awhile, even when everything looks dissolved. These blobs will sink to the bottom of your brewpot and can caramelize there. So, whenever you stir in extract, turn off the heat and stir until you dont see any undissolved bits of extract then stir for another minute or so.
When it says this i understand what it means, turn off heat, add extract, stir, resume heating. But im wondering do you include this "stir time" in your total boil time or are we only counting the time where the wort is actually boiling?
5. Got Grains?
In order to get the colors and flavors you want from your specialty grains, without extracting excess tannins, you need to do one of two things either steep in a small amount of water or in weak wort. A small amount of water means 13 qts. of water per pound of grains (2.16.3 L/kg). If you steep in a larger volume than that, add malt extract until the specific gravity is over 1.010 before adding the grains. And finally, rinse with a very small amount of water 0.51 qts. of water per pound of grain steeped (12 L/kg) works well (see Steeping, in the MayJune 2005 issue of BYO for more on this topic).
Alright, for this part i understand what steeping in a small amount of water means. Do i heat the water im steeping in? If so to what temp and for how long? Then when im done steeping the grains i can just add this solution to my brew pot and top up with water to whatever my boil volume is?
The longer you boil your wort, the darker it gets. So, boil your wort only as long as the longest hop addition requires. And, keep in mind that some liquid extracts have already been boiled (although others have only been evaporated). Liquid malt extract only needs to boil (or steep at temperatures over 160 °F/71 °C) for 15 minutes to sanitize it.
Does this mean i should add my extract when i do my first hop addition? Or add it all as a late(15min) addition? Or some combination of the two? So far i have just been following the directions which normally means adding the extract at the start of a 60 min boil.
Thanks in advance for the help, i have learned so much just browsing and reading but i felt it was time to ask some things for myself. Help me brew better beer! i told myself once i brew something good enough to be worth kegging i can get myself a keg system
I just ordered the blue moon clone from Austin Hombrew because i love blue moon and most wheat beers. I know blue moon is BMC but i dont care its tasty haha. Anyways, i want to try new techniques with this brew. I read this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f37/10-tips-better-extract-brewing-100861/ which was very interesting but i need clarifications on a couple things so here we go:
3. Other Dark Forces
Boil volume is not the only factor in wort darkening. Another problem is the potential to caramelize partially dissolved malt extract. When you stir malt extract into hot water, it does not dissolve instantly or evenly. Little blobs of extract can remain intact for quite awhile, even when everything looks dissolved. These blobs will sink to the bottom of your brewpot and can caramelize there. So, whenever you stir in extract, turn off the heat and stir until you dont see any undissolved bits of extract then stir for another minute or so.
When it says this i understand what it means, turn off heat, add extract, stir, resume heating. But im wondering do you include this "stir time" in your total boil time or are we only counting the time where the wort is actually boiling?
5. Got Grains?
In order to get the colors and flavors you want from your specialty grains, without extracting excess tannins, you need to do one of two things either steep in a small amount of water or in weak wort. A small amount of water means 13 qts. of water per pound of grains (2.16.3 L/kg). If you steep in a larger volume than that, add malt extract until the specific gravity is over 1.010 before adding the grains. And finally, rinse with a very small amount of water 0.51 qts. of water per pound of grain steeped (12 L/kg) works well (see Steeping, in the MayJune 2005 issue of BYO for more on this topic).
Alright, for this part i understand what steeping in a small amount of water means. Do i heat the water im steeping in? If so to what temp and for how long? Then when im done steeping the grains i can just add this solution to my brew pot and top up with water to whatever my boil volume is?
The longer you boil your wort, the darker it gets. So, boil your wort only as long as the longest hop addition requires. And, keep in mind that some liquid extracts have already been boiled (although others have only been evaporated). Liquid malt extract only needs to boil (or steep at temperatures over 160 °F/71 °C) for 15 minutes to sanitize it.
Does this mean i should add my extract when i do my first hop addition? Or add it all as a late(15min) addition? Or some combination of the two? So far i have just been following the directions which normally means adding the extract at the start of a 60 min boil.
Thanks in advance for the help, i have learned so much just browsing and reading but i felt it was time to ask some things for myself. Help me brew better beer! i told myself once i brew something good enough to be worth kegging i can get myself a keg system