evaluation on 1st and suggestions on my 2ud brew

ive just recently bottled a coopers ipa with 800g of dextrose and im waiting to see how that turns out. i havent had the courage or equipment to boil extracts and grains yet, but as a beginner ive added the coopers ipa to boiling water, which had had 800g of dextrose dissolved into, then i topped up my 'trash pail/pale'(?) with cold water to get a good temp to pitch the dried packet yeast supplied. and fermented, carbonated and bottled.

i cant wait to try it but have a made any glaring errors so far? im concerned and trying to learn about my emission of 'dried malt extracts' which seems to be on many other recipes; however such recipes seem either vague or im struggling with terminology (i am reading 'the joy of homebrewing' by charlie papazian to get to grips with it all by the way!) haha

so far ive ordered coppers dark ale 1.7kg, 1kg of dextrose and i want to make something based around what ive got because i like dark ales such as old peculier and am trying and learning to get my home brews to resemble such ales. ive thought of adding amber malt and dark malts but have little idea on amounts and whether my original method before fermenting is adaptable to this?

any suggestions would be really appreciated, thanks

The only thing that stands out to me is that you added the kit extract to boiling water. I've been told that you should NOT boil the kit extract, because it's been pre-hopped. Boiling converts any aromatic hops to bittering hops, so by boiling the kit extract, you're basically destroying any delicate balances already cooked into the recipe. I was told to simply dissolve the extract in hot (but NOT boiling) water, and proceed to cooling and pitching the yeast.

kombat said:

The only thing that stands out to me is that you added the kit extract to boiling water. I've been told that you should NOT boil the kit extract, because it's been pre-hopped. Boiling converts any aromatic hops to bittering hops, so by boiling the kit extract, you're basically destroying any delicate balances already cooked into the recipe. I was told to simply dissolve the extract in hot (but NOT boiling) water, and proceed to cooling and pitching the yeast.

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okay im hoping it wasnt too hot then but i dont think i added it straight after boiling the water as i stirred the dextrose into it for about 3-5 mins to dissolve, so it would have cooled but all i can do now is hope it cooled significantly enough not to let it spoil the wort.

thanks for interest any suggestions on my next batch with coopers dark ale extract?

Something you might try for the next batch would be to use liquid malt extract (LME) for the additional sugar instead of powdered dextrose. I just tried that for 2 Munton's Pale Ale kits, so I can't yet say if it'll make a difference, but I'm hopeful the resulting beer will have more body.

If you decided to use LME, note that you SHOULD boil it, unlike what I just told you about the kit extract. That's because the kit extracts are (usually) pre-hopped, so if you boil them, you turn all of those hops into bittering hops and lose any of the subtle aromatic hoppiness in the kit. But LME is not hopped, so you can boil it away, even adding in your own hops if you want to play with the flavor.

The Pale Ale kit I did, I boiled the LME for 20 minutes with 1 oz. of Cascades hops. Then turned off the heat, mixed in the kit extract, chilled to 80 F, topped up to 5 gallons with more spring water, and pitched the yeast.

I brewed this about 5 months ago and it was AWESOME.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f5/fullers-london-porter-extract-recipe-25325/index2.html

You could give it a go...

First, It's not uncommon for English Pale Ales to use adjuncts. If you bought a kit, it should probably come out OK.

kombat said:

If you decided to use LME, note that you SHOULD boil it ... But LME is not hopped, so you can boil it away ... .

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LME is prone to scorching and darkening during a boil, especially if the boil is very vigorous. If you use LME, consider adding it at or near the end of the boil.

You only need to pasteurize the LME. You can heat it to 73C for 15 seconds and Bob's your uncle.

ludomonster said:

First, It's not uncommon for English Pale Ales to use adjuncts. If you bought a kit, it should probably come out OK.



LME is prone to scorching and darkening during a boil, especially if the boil is very vigorous. If you use LME, consider adding it at or near the end of the boil.

You only need to pasteurize the LME. You can heat it to 73C for 15 seconds and Bob's your uncle.

Click to expand...

Okay thanks for the advice. I think ill experiment with 300g of dextrose, , 450g of light malt extract and 150g of amber malt extract along with the 1.7kg of dark ale extract. Message back if this recipe is expecting a distasteful beer, if not ill let the forum know how this eager beaver got on!