Anyone mind filling in the blanks?

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So here's the situation...

I went to the homebrew store to get a recipe, when I got back I realized there were no directions. It's a partial grain kolsch.

I assume I would place the milled grain in the brewpot until the water starts to come to a boil, remove that after running some hot water over the grains. Then add the LME. After that, I'm not sure how long the bittering hops should be brewed at. I have .5oz of chinook and .5oz of N. Brewer. Any suggestions on how long on these? Note that the chinook and n. brewer are together, so I would have to add them together. Then I have cascade and fuggles (.5oz each) for finishing. Ten last ten minutes with heat off?

Another question...The homebrew shop was out of kolsch yeast, so I got some Saflager s-23, it says to just sprinkle on the wort? Does anyone have contention with this, and what temperature should I pitch at?

Thanks
 
Yup, a recipe or list of ingredients would really help in determining what you've got and how to handle it. A lot of folks are going to recommend reading How to Brew by John Palmer. It's free online and will get you going. You will also want to read Chris Holst's Homebrewing for the Absolute Beginner, also free and online. Chris's tutorial has the advantage of being shorter, more applicable to what you're doing right now and having pictures to help you sort things out. Be aware that it's geared toward 2 gallon batches, so the quantities are going to be wrong for your (presumably) 5 gallon batch. The techniques and processes are the same, though.

Chad
 
Yeah sorry,

Extract and steep is correct. The extracts I have are 2 quarts of pale malt liquid extract, and .5 quarts of wheat malt liquid extract. The grains that I have are 6oz of pale malt, and 3oz of wheat malt. Hope this helps, and please let me know if I'm still being vague, or anything else is unclear. This is also a 5 gallon brew. Thanks
 
What ever you do DO NOT boil the water for the grains.

You need to bring about 1 gal of water to between 150-170F then add the grains. Let it steep for 20-30 mins. Somehow you need to strain the water from the grains. If you use a grain bag DO NOT squeeze the water from it or you will get tannins from the grain. You don't want that.

If you let the grains just steep freely in the water you need to strain the grains out and rinse them with another gallon of water of the same temp as the steep.

Bring the water to a boil then add the malt and bittering hops. Boil for 1 hour. Done.

Of course that's not the only way to do it. Maybe you'll get a couple more procedures. Select what works best for your situation.;)
 
Yes. Steep your grains in 1 gal @150-170F for 20-30 mins (or whatever the directions say) then have another pot with 1 more gal in it (same temp) and rinse the bag with that water then combine the 2.

You could just dip the bag in it like you would a tea bag. The point is you are trying to get all the sugars off the grain as possible. ;)

If you are only boiling 2 gals you can add the LME at 45 mins into the boil. This is called the "late addition" method. It reduces carmelization of the wort which in turn reduces darker coloring to a minimum.
 
Thanks homebrewer_99

homebrewer_99 said:
Yes. Steep your grains in 1 gal @150-170F for 20-30 mins (or whatever the directions say)

Yea I didn't get directions with the recipe, so that's why I wasn't sure. Any suggestions on the yeast question I had?
 
Saflager S-23 rehydration instructions.

This is pretty much the universal method for rehydrating dry yeast. Generally 1 packet of dry yeast in 4oz of 95-105F water. Let it sit for 15 minutes, stir and let it sit a little longer (another 15-30 minutes), stirring occasionally. You can just sprinkle the yeast on but you'll kill off a good number of them and increase your lag time. Better to pitch the right amount of healthy yeast.

Chad

EDITED TO ADD: Doh! Just realized this is a lager yeast. Fermentis says to rehydrate at 23C, which would be 73F. In any case, warmish tap water will do the trick.
 
Chad said:
You can just sprinkle the yeast on but you'll kill off a good number of them and increase your lag time.

I'm curious as to why this is. I always just sprinkle on and I have a Krausen in 2-3 hours.
 
eviljafar said:
I'm curious as to why this is. I always just sprinkle on and I have a Krausen in 2-3 hours.

When the yeast are first re-absorbing water they can not restrict what passes into the cells. So, a number of the cells die because too much toxic crap has ended up in the cells. Also, if the wort is too sugary then they cannot properly 're-fill' themselves.

Some yeast are OK just being sprinkled though, plus there are a lot of cells in those packs.
 
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