Different Extracts/malt help?

Am wondering about all the different IPA recipes I see floating around. The beers iv made are ALL one type of extract. Say Amber Liq Malt Extract, or Light liq malt extract.

I see recipes and my homebrew store online sells say Crystal malt and chocolate malt, English Pale Malt etc. Is this the same - eg extract, or is this grain that needs to be in bags etc (tricky !).

Im wondering also if these ale yeasts are ok ... Safale Yeast, Gervin Ale Yeast , Muntons Premium Gold Yeast, Black Rock Yeast or what one is best for IPA?

If anyone has a minute the page I saw these (NZ) is here...

http://www.yourshout.co.nz/beer.html.

Am mostly just wondering about the extract(s) and yeast rather then a recipe. Thanks in advance.

Those malts you mentioned are grains. If your looking to use dry ale yeast Safale and Nottingham are good ones.

Oh damn I didn't wanna use grains. If your just using extract, is LME better then DME? Does it make a difference which you use, or if you use both?

Your beer will move into a whole different world even with just steeping some grain and adding it to the rest of your extract brew. The taste will improve greatly and you will have better control over the color and taste of your beer. I have always used DME simply because that is what was available at my LHBS.

But a better question is, why dont you want to use grains? You dont even have to crush or mill them if you are just adding them for color or minimal flavor.

Arneba28 said:

Your beer will move into a whole different world even with just steeping some grain and adding it to the rest of your extract brew. The taste will improve greatly and you will have better control over the color and taste of your beer. I have always used DME simply because that is what was available at my LHBS.

But a better question is, why dont you want to use grains? You dont even have to crush or mill them if you are just adding them for color or minimal flavor.

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I guess because I dont know too much about them, and am just getting my head around the boiling extract/adding hop side of it. Doesn't the wort need to be a specific temp etc when you add grains?

Iv been reading John Palmers online guide. All the recipes there have both LME and DME. Am wondering also if this is for a reason, eg not just using one type.

You don't need to use both LME and DME, you can use one or the other. I've heard people say that it's easier to get fresh DME than fresh LME, as it degrades quicker. This might be a good reason for you to choose DME. (Then again, maybe the LME you get is very fresh).

As for grains----------->seriously, don't worry! Just steep them like you're making tea. Add them to the water you're heating up for the wort and take them out when it gets around 70c or 160F. Then boil and add the extract as usual. You truly will get a much tastier beer that you'll love. Have no fear. Good luck!

Monk said:

You don't need to use both LME and DME, you can use one or the other. I've heard people say that it's easier to get fresh DME than fresh LME, as it degrades quicker. This might be a good reason for you to choose DME. (Then again, maybe the LME you get is very fresh).

As for grains----------->seriously, don't worry! Just steep them like you're making tea. Add them to the water you're heating up for the wort and take them out when it gets around 70c or 160F. Then boil and add the extract as usual. You truly will get a much tastier beer that you'll love. Have no fear. Good luck!

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Hmm well seems easy enough. So do you "steep" the grains in the boiling water (before adding extract)? As you normally add the malt extract once the water has reached boiling point, and this would be too hot for the grains?

So by steeping, do I dunk the grain in and out of the water? Am guessing it would take about ten min for the water to go from room temp to 70*C?

Thanks for any help, sorry if the Q's sound dump!

I see for example on John Palmers site this recipe I wanna do next....but with NZ available hops prob.

8 lbs. of Pale Malt Extract (syrup) OR 7 lbs. of Pale Malt LME
1/2 lb. of Crystal 120L Malt OR 2 lbs. of Amber DME

2 oz of Galena (11%) at 60 minutes
2 oz of East Kent Goldings (5%) at 15 min.
1 oz of East Kent Goldings (5%) at 5 min.

I see the crystal grains are available in my town, but what is the 120L mean? another IPA on this John Palmer page (http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter19-3.html) has 60L. The recipe also doesn't give times with the grains etc :-(

Kiwi_Jonno said:

I see the crystal grains are available in my town, but what is the 120L mean? another IPA on this John Palmer page (http://www.howtobrew.com/section4/chapter19-3.html) has 60L. The recipe also doesn't give times with the grains etc :-(

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I always steep my grains from "room temperature" to 170F. Then I pull them, let them drain and continue heating my water. No dunking, pulling out, etc. just let them sit in a grain bag.

The 120L is the color. Crystal Malts come in many "colors" from 10L and goes higher. You want to get as close as you can to 60L if that is what the recipe calls for.

I'm new to this too, and trust me if you can boil water and pour pre-crushed grains into a sack you can use specialty grains. Super simple, only adds 1 step to the entire water heating process. As was said, stick them in the mesh bag, dangle them in the water, heat for a bit, remove. Enjoy! Kyle

Kiwi, if I may. I've been watching some videos on youtube where you can watch the whole process of grain brewing. The videos from bobbyfromnj were pretty good and I think he's a member on this forum too.

MN_Jay said:

Kiwi, if I may. I've been watching some videos on youtube where you can watch the whole process of grain brewing. The videos from bobbyfromnj were pretty good and I think he's a member on this forum too.

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10-4 it's Bobby_M. Yuri_Rage, SuperiorBrew, and EdWort all have informative videos as well. I'm sure there are more too

Kiwi_Jonno said:

Hmm well seems easy enough. So do you "steep" the grains in the boiling water (before adding extract)? As you normally add the malt extract once the water has reached boiling point, and this would be too hot for the grains?

So by steeping, do I dunk the grain in and out of the water? Am guessing it would take about ten min for the water to go from room temp to 70*C?

Thanks for any help, sorry if the Q's sound dump!

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Never steep grains in boiling water. The easiest thing to do is throw them in a steeping bag, put them in 2 gallons of room temp water (use a cloths pin to keep the bag from touching the bottom of your pot) turn up the heat and remove the grains shortly before the water comes to a boil. Swishing the bag around every now and then to ensure all of the grain is exposed to the warm water is a good idea. Sparge the grains by putting them in a strainer and pouring some warm water through them to get all that malt goodness. Then proceed as usual with your 60 min. boil, adding extract and hops at the appropriate times.

Thanks for all the help guys. Seems very straight forward! Am gonna def try the IPA recipe with the Crystal 120L Malt.

One last question... with say crystal 120 malt and the crystal 60, can you use more of one to achieve the other? The store here has limited stock thats all. I see some IPA use the 60 one anyway, so I don't suppose it would matter too much for a recipe?

Well, no, they aren't really interchangeable. The 60L, for example, has a medium color, and some sweet medium caramel flavor. It's pretty versatile and not really out of place in many beer styles. The 120L, though, provides much more color, and some heavy flavor like burnt sugar and raisiny tasting. So, twice as much 60L doesn't really "equal" 120L. It's more the degree of kilning the grain undergoes (for the color) that the L is measuring. The flavor really is quite different.

Is it weird that an IPA recipe would require crystal 120L? Crystal 60L makes sense but crystal 120L seems out of place for that type of beer. Maybe it's just me?

hey i also live in christchurch and buy my extracts from your shout however i get my grains from work (i work in an brewpub that brews traditional cask conditioned ales). I used grains on my second brew. I reconmend reading john palmers book completely or at least the first sections.

i just did what he said and my beer turned out great

Nah, 120L has its place in some IPAs in very small quantities.

Here's my extract process (which I haven't done in a year).

[YOUTUBE]RENxL0HhRu4[/YOUTUBE]