question regarding adding hops

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chainsawbrewing

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i got my austin homebrew belgian white-extract recipe kit, and i'll be brewing it tomorrow. it will be my first homebrew. i've read the instructions a ton, read up on my books, and online, studied my equipment so much it's making SWMBO crazy.

something i don't know the right answer to though. all the grains appear to be already in a grain bag, the kit came with a bag with a little thing of 1oz of hops, a little baggie with the orange peel, and coriander mixed together, and a big mesh bag with all the grains pre mixed in it i assume, and a small white pail that i assume must be my malt extract.

i'm confused about two things.

first off, the instructions say "add the malt extract and any additional sugars listed below: 4 1/2 lb wheat extract, 1 lb extra pale extract."

so do i have to buy those two "additional" things? are they all mixed up together in the little white pail?

2nd, the instructions tell to add the bittering hops, and the flavoring hops, (orange peel, coliander) and to add the aroma hops, but do i just throw all those coriander seeds, hops, and orange peel into the wort, and let them sink to the bottom? or do i put them into a 2nd nylon bag?

thanks guys for all the help!
 
How much malt extract came with the kit, do you know how much you ordered with it?

Adding the hops dirrectly into the boil will help with their utilization, I can only assume that the same would be true with the coriander and orange peel. When you transfer your wort to the primary after the boil, you can whirlpool and you will be able to siphon and leave everything behind. Or you can pour it through a strainer on its way into the primary. Either way, i don't think you should need the bag, even if some of it gets into your fermenter, it will eventually settle out.
 
I just made a wheat from a kit on tuesday. The coriander was put in at the same time as the aroma hops, in this case 2 minutes before the end of the boil. I just threw them in the pot. The coriander and orange peel are not your aroma hops. Aroma hops are the same as bittering hops except the amount of time they're boiled. According to the directions on mine, it says add the lemon peel (in your case orange) to the secondary when you rack.
 
My suggestion is, weigh the pail you got. It needs to be atleast 5 and 1/2 pounds (the additional sugars) aswell as any malt that they supplied. The grains in the bag, you steep like a teabag before you boil for 30 mins at 155F, then remove, let drain and give a slight squeeze to get the "juice" out of the bag. Then add the malted extracts.

Add the first lot of hops or the only lot of hops once the water with the malt in it (which you mixed thoroughly) is at a rolling boil. Add the hops and start timing for 60 minutes. Once you reach about 50-55 mins, add the 'aroma' hops, as this will stop them from being cooked and hence going bitter.

DO NOT ADD THE CORRIANDER/ORANGE PEEL INTO THE BOIL!! strain the wort (which you have rapidly chilled in a sink full of ice (place the pot in the ice) and chill till it is around pitching temp 60-70F. Then, strain the wort into the fermenter (which you sanitized) and add the corriander / orange peel. Top up to 5 gallons (or whatever recipe specifies) and take an OG reading. Let ferment for a week, then rack into secondary, at racking taste the beer for that corriander / orange peel taste. If not enough / to your liking, then just add the bags into the secondary aswell.

:mug:

PS, just found this link

http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_452_42_164&products_id=396

Says it comes with 5 pounds of extract, you might be shooting for 10.5 pounds total
 
thanks guys. this kit here http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_452_43_246&products_id=10902

is actually what i got. it's a blue moon clone. i still don't understand the whole

"add the malt extract and any additional sugars listed below: 4 1/2 lb wheat extract, 1 lb extra pale extract."

all i got in my "kit" was the muslin bag full of grains, a 1oz bag of hops, and the little bag of corainder, and orange peel, and a little white pail (bucket) that says nothing at all on it, but i opened it, and it looks like brown mollases, so i assume it's the malt extract.

i just want to be sure i don't screw up, and i have no idea what the "additional sugars listed below" are, and if i NEED them, or if they're already mixed into that little white bucket, or what.
 
The direction say that generically but they list all the fermentables underneath that. Bottom line, all your extract is in the bucket. Do the directions call for the full 1oz of hops to be boiled for bittering? Maybe they only want you to add half for bittering and then half for the aroma. Either that or there are no aroma hops for this particular recipe. IIRC, when I made my American wheat with Blue Moon on the brain, I used 1/2oz cascade for bittering and 1/2oz for aroma. What kind of hops did they give you?
 
thanks!

i got 1oz of cascade hops, and the directions say to use 1/2oz for bittering, and the other 1/2 for aroma.

im pretty sure i got everything else figured out, it was just confusing to me that the directions seemed to ask for extra fermentables, that the kit didn't seem to come with. knowing that it's all "in the bucket" works for me.

the other thing i figure out last night, i was going to attempt a "dry run" just as a test, to make sure i knew what i was doing, and had everything i needed, and i figured out real quick, that it's pretty much impossible to boil 5 gallons of water on an electric stove, lol. and i burnt the paint on my stovetop too, so that made SWMBO really happy. needless to say, i got a turkey fryer on the way, or i might attempt it on the gas grill outside. anybody had luck with that before?
 
Most stove tops can boil 3 gal which is sufficient for and extract with specialty grain recipe like you have. You can just add the extra water to the fermenter after the wort has been added.
Ofcourse don't let that stop you from buying more beer gadgets.
Craig
 
I brew on my grill but I just so happened to have a specific grill that allows me to put my big pot directly on two burners and have it not come crashing down. I have solid cast brass burners that hold the weight of 6 gallons of wort. CBBaron is right though, you really should only be boiling about 3 gallons which will boil down to about 2.5 by the time you're done. In fact, the recipe (specifically the hop amounts) are already figuring for the higher gravity boil. Wait, I'm getting too technical for your first brew..

Only boil 3 gallons (or even less if you have to) then add enough cold water afterwards to get it up to your 5 gallons in the fermenter. It's very hard to cool 5 gallons anyway. Get a few of these under your belt and then we'll talk full 6gal boils, wort chillers, and hop utilization later.
 
Maybe the AHS Belgian White kit is more complicated, but I've done a few AHS extract and mini-mash kits and the instructions included are usually pretty straightforward. They should have included everything you need (except for equipment). You can get additional sugars (alcohol boost) and ingredients but in my experience the kit's got all you need to get started. They provide a good starting point too from which you can tweak the recipe when you get more comfortable with things.
 
Sounds like you have it all figured out. Let us know how brewday progresses, and I can't wait to see what your SWMBO says when a turkey fryer turns up!

:mug:
 
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