My first full wort boil, any adjustments needed?

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emr454

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Im going to be doing my first full wort boil tomorrow, making a Brewers Best irish stout. I want to know if any adjustments are needed when doing a mini-mash? The kit comes with a small can of LME, some DME andmaybe a pound of malt that needs mashing. I believe the recommended mash time is 30 min? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Also, are hop schedules affected by a full boil? The kit came with UK Gold pellet hops, 2 oz.

And last but not least, can potassium metabisulfate be used to sanitize aluminum? I know caustic cleaners shouldnt be used, but have no idea about the potassium metabisulfate.

Thanks for any help.

Eric
 
Steep the grains 15 to 30 mins at 150 to 160 degs

You will need slightly less hops, but not really a significant amount enough to worry about adjusting IMHO

Dunno about the sanitizing question.

Not a lot of help there, just putting my opinion out there so you can compare it to the incoming opinions. ;)
 
If you want, you could post the recipe and we could check it to see if you should reduce the hopping a bit. You can usually plan on reducing them 25% or so, but we can make sure if you post the recipe and the AA% of the hops (found on the package).

You don't have to sanitize aluminum- if that's your brewpot, you don't sanitize it anyway. Make sure you boil water in it first, though, if it's brand new to build up an oxide layer on the inside. It'll turn gray-ish- that's a good thing.
 
Ok, heres the recipe:

Brewers Best Irish Stout

SG: 1.043-1.045
FG: 1.010-1.012
Hop Bittering Units 18.5

Muntons hopped dark LME 3.3lbs
Muntons dark DME 2 lbs
Crushed crystal malt 6 oz.
Crushed roasted barley 4 oz.
UK first gold hop pellets 7%AA 2 oz.

Bring water to boil, and turn off heat. Place both grains in the steeping bags and place in the hot water for 20-30 minutes.
Discard the spent grains and turn heat back on and bring water back to near boiling. Turn the heat off and slowly stir in the LME and DME and hops. Bring to a boil for 20-30 minutes.

Then proceed as usual. Cool wort, put in fermenter yadda yadda.

I guess they want to add both 1 oz. packets of hop pellets all at once?

Any and all help is greatly appreciated. There is so much conflicting info on the net that its hard to get it all straight.

Eric
 
YooperBrew said:
You don't have to sanitize aluminum- if that's your brewpot, you don't sanitize it anyway. Make sure you boil water in it first, though, if it's brand new to build up an oxide layer on the inside. It'll turn gray-ish- that's a good thing.
Click to expand...

Sorry for the hijack, but I just purchased a turkey fryer with aluminum and I was wondering if you should always boil water first or do you only need to do that when it's new? Is it possible to scrub off the oxide layer and need to boil again? I am also going to do my first full boil.

Thanks.
 
Only when it's new. You shouldn't have to scrub it hard enough to remove the oxide layer, but if you did you'd want to pre-boil it again to restore it.
 
emr454 said:
Ok, heres the recipe:

Brewers Best Irish Stout

SG: 1.043-1.045
FG: 1.010-1.012
Hop Bittering Units 18.5

Muntons hopped dark LME 3.3lbs
Muntons dark DME 2 lbs
Crushed crystal malt 6 oz.
Crushed roasted barley 4 oz.
UK first gold hop pellets 7%AA 2 oz.

Bring water to boil, and turn off heat. Place both grains in the steeping bags and place in the hot water for 20-30 minutes.
Discard the spent grains and turn heat back on and bring water back to near boiling. Turn the heat off and slowly stir in the LME and DME and hops. Bring to a boil for 20-30 minutes.

Then proceed as usual. Cool wort, put in fermenter yadda yadda.

I guess they want to add both 1 oz. packets of hop pellets all at once?

Any and all help is greatly appreciated. There is so much conflicting info on the net that its hard to get it all straight.

Eric
Click to expand...

They only have you boil for 20-30 minutes? They don't specify how many? That's very weird. Can you double check that?
 
Thats exactly what it says. I thought it was odd myself. Since it doesnt give you a real hop schedule, it must be a set of generic instructions they give out with every kit.

Any Ideas? I'd like this batch of beer to turn out decent. The last batch I made I followed the supplied instructions and the beer was drinkable, but definitely not enjoyable.

Eric
 
This was the kit I did for my first brew 15 years ago, It was great!

Put the grains in a bag and put them in the cold water and leave them there until it almost heats to a boil, but remove them before it boils.

Once it hits a boil, go for a full hour, despite the directions.
 
Ok, I'll run it through my software and let you know. I've done several Brewer's Best kits, and they've all had pretty darn good instructions, so this one is weird to me.

Don't get your grains above 170 degrees. You can steep them for 20 minutes at 150-160 degrees, and then remove them. Then add the extract and bring up to a boil. After the boil, then you can add one ounce of the hops. That will give you approx 28 IBUs which is higher than the recipe states. I ran it every which way- full boil, partial boil, 30 minutes, etc, and I think their IBU calculation is wrong. Anyway, then you can chill as quickly as possible to pitching temperatures.

Do you have a way to chill the boiling wort?
 
I have a sink full of cold water, snow and icicles lol.

Also, when should I add the other ounce of hops, at the beginning of the boil?

Thanks for your help.

Eric
 
emr454 said:
I have a sink full of cold water, snow and icicles lol.

Also, when should I add the other ounce of hops, at the beginning of the boil?

Thanks for your help.

Eric
Click to expand...

In a full boil, I wouldn't use them unless you want a much more bitter beer than the recipe calls for. I would leave them out, put them in the freezer and save them for a different brew.

I'm concerned that you may have difficulty chilling a full boil batch with an ice bath. It might take a long time.
 
I did my first full boil two weeks ago. Took about 45 minutes to cool the wort to pitching temp using an ice bath.

I bought a wort chiller the very next day.
 
I could always set in out in the garage, covered of course. Its only about 30 degrees during the day out there, and then maybe an ice bath, or vice versa.

Or, I could do a 4 gallon boil, and just top up with one gallon of ice cold water, then ice bath, snowbank etc.

Eric
 
Since you don't have a wort chiller.

I would boil 2 gallons and sit it covered outside. Then I would start with 4 gallons for the recipe. Once you are done with your boil, you will have approx 3 gallons left. Top it off with the 2 gallons that you sanitized to start with.

I would do the 2 gallons first thing in the morning in order to bring in below pitching temps.
 
Well, Im glad I didnt try a 5 gal boil. My stove barely brought 4 gal to a boil and it didnt get to the rolling boil stage. I split it up into 2 separate pots and it still had a hard time boiling.

So, well see how this turns out. Hopefully not another failed attempt. Next time I'm using a turkey fryer burner outside.

Eric
 

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