Critique my extract brewing process

In advance of my first foray into extract brewing (after doing 2 prehopped kit brews), I've written up my planned process so that I stand a better chance of not missing something vital when I brew up my first extract batch tonight. I've based the process on what I've learned from various sources and on what I've got available to me. It would be awesome if some of you guys could take a look at it and let me know if I'm missing something or make suggestions for any improvements you can think of.

I have the process written up here:
http://beerandgarden.com/extract-brewing-process/

Thanks,
Aidan

First, don't sanitize anything the day before! Wait until you're ready to use it, then sanitize. Are you using bleach? If you are, you can do it early in the day I guess but not too much before you use the item. I sanitize my fermenter while the wort is chilling, for example.

Don't let your steeping grains touch boiling water. 170 degrees is more than hot enough for the sparge (rinsing of the grains) in the second pot. I didn't quite understand what you were saying, so maybe you know that but it wasn't clear.

Here's more my steps:

Bring steeping water to 160 degrees. Turn off heat. Add grain bag. Cover. Dunk the grains, and stir with a spoon to make sure the grain is thoroughly wetted well inside. Steep for 20 minutes.

After the steep, remove the grains and bring up the liquid to boiling. Turn off the heat and add 1/2 the extract. Bring to a boil.

Set the timer for 60 minutes and add first hops.
Add the rest of the hops as indicated.
Add the second 1/2 of the extract with 10 minutes left in the boil.

Chill the wort.

While the wort is chilling, sanitize the container for rehydrating the yeast. Rehydrate. Sanitize the spoon, airlock, siphon tubing, strainer, hydrometer, etc, whatever you're using including the thermometer.

check the temperature of the wort, stirring gently to keep the chilling action of the water bath. (Stir the water bath with a different spoon).

Pour the wort into the fermenter, once it's lower than 24C. Then add the cool top off water (I never boiled mine first, but I have very good tap water without chlorine- if you've boiled yours first, that's fine). Check the OG with the hydrometer. Add the yeast. Cover and airlock.

That's it, I think!

Couple things I noticed:

Just throw your hops (dry hop) that you aren't using right away in the freezer.

Steep your grains between 150-160F (not sure if that was what you meant by "almost a boil").

I would wait at least 10-14 days until you dry hop, then dry hop an additional 7-10 days.

EDIT: Yoop beat me to it. Listen to her.

Well, here's a few things I noticed that are probably not neccissary. You're extremely thourough though...which is great.

There's really no need to boil/sanitize anything prior to brewing. The only water you'd need to have boiled would the top-off water that you add after cooling. Everything prior to this point will eventually be boiled, so it's just a waste of time doing it twice.

Brew Day:
1. No need for a sanitized container for the hops either. I leave them in the bag until I'm ready to use them. The bag is plenty sanitary.
3. You shouldn't bring the water to "almost a boil". It should be around 150-160F. Anything above 170 has the possibilty of extracting things you don't want in your beer.
5. If you're using dry yeast, there's no need to allow this much time. I usually rehydrate while I'm waiting for my wort to cool down. This is plenty of time.
7. Rinsing your extract can may be a good method of making sure you get everything, but I always found it to be a waste of time. If you let the can soak in a pot of hot water for 15-20 minutes before you use it, it will be nice and liquified by the time you need it. Most of it should come out. I always used to scrape the inside of the can and anything that didn't come out got thrown out. Maybe a waste...but it's not really going to amount to much.
13. I don't like the "touch the pot" method of figuring out how hot it is. You need to get a thermometer and take a reading. It needs to be around 70-75F.
12. This should probably be done before you start brewing so the water isn't cold when you need it.
15. Just use cheap vodka.

Well, I think I covered everything I thought of... hopefully it helps. Good luck with the first brew!

Thanks very much for your advise Yooper!

Yooper said:

First, don't sanitize anything the day before! Wait until you're ready to use it, then sanitize. Are you using bleach? If you are, you can do it early in the day I guess but not too much before you use the item. I sanitize my fermenter while the wort is chilling, for example.

Click to expand...

I'm using sodium met which requires at least 1 hr dry time (I plan to switch to star san or iodophor but that's what I have for now). Basically it's just the fermentor that I sanitised last night as I wanted to put water into it and stick it into the fridge to chill.

Yooper said:

Don't let your steeping grains touch boiling water. 170 degrees is more than hot enough for the sparge (rinsing of the grains) in the second pot. I didn't quite understand what you were saying, so maybe you know that but it wasn't clear.

Click to expand...

I don't have a thermometer at the moment (apart from strip on FV). If I boil and let it cool off for 5 mins should it be about right? Temp will drop over the 30 mins of steeping - is that ok or does it need to be put on a low heat to keep it hot?

Yooper said:

Bring steeping water to 160 degrees. Turn off heat. Add grain bag. Cover. Dunk the grains, and stir with a spoon to make sure the grain is thoroughly wetted well inside. Steep for 20 minutes.

Click to expand...

So you recommend just 20 mins steeping instead of 30? I've seen 30 mins stated in a few different sources.

Yooper said:

After the steep, remove the grains and bring up the liquid to boiling. Turn off the heat and add 1/2 the extract. Bring to a boil.

Click to expand...

That's what I've planned more or less. I will just add 1 can of extract (out of 2.5), slightly less than half but my boil is less than half as well.

Yooper said:

Set the timer for 60 minutes and add first hops.
Add the rest of the hops as indicated.
Add the second 1/2 of the extract with 10 minutes left in the boil.

Click to expand...

Is giving it a 10 min boil just for ensuring it's sanitised?

Yooper said:

Chill the wort.

While the wort is chilling, sanitize the container for rehydrating the yeast. Rehydrate.

Click to expand...

According to the instructions for safeale us-05, it will take about an hour to rehydrate, which is why I put this step earlier in my process. (They call for an additional 30 mins of stirring after the initial 20-30 mins) But I should probably move it until about half way through the boil.

Yooper said:

Sanitize the spoon, airlock, siphon tubing, strainer, hydrometer, etc, whatever you're using including the thermometer.

check the temperature of the wort, stirring gently to keep the chilling action of the water bath. (Stir the water bath with a different spoon).

Pour the wort into the fermenter, once it's lower than 24C. Then add the cool top off water (I never boiled mine first, but I have very good tap water without chlorine- if you've boiled yours first, that's fine). Check the OG with the hydrometer. Add the yeast. Cover and airlock.

That's it, I think!

Click to expand...

My thermometer will be my hand on the outside of the pot. Since I'll have 15L of chilled water and 10L of wort I shouldn't need to chill the wort all the way down to 24C. If I'm a little over, I should be able to get it down to 24 fairly fast in the fridge.

braceful said:

Couple things I noticed:

Just throw your hops (dry hop) that you aren't using right away in the freezer.

Steep your grains between 150-160F (not sure if that was what you meant by "almost a boil").

I would wait at least 10-14 days until you dry hop, then dry hop an additional 7-10 days.

EDIT: Yoop beat me to it. Listen to her.

Click to expand...

Was planning on putting them in the fridge but I guess freezer would be better.
Don't have a thermometer so I was just planning to guess it. Is it critical to keep it in that range?
Was just planning 2 weeks in primary plus maybe an additional 5 days cold crash and then straight to bottles from primary. Myabe I'll wait 7 days and then dry hop for 7. Does dry hopping during cold crash count?

aidan said:

Was planning on putting them in the fridge but I guess freezer would be better.
Don't have a thermometer so I was just planning to guess it. Is it critical to keep it in that range?
Was just planning 2 weeks in primary plus maybe an additional 5 days cold crash and then straight to bottles from primary. Myabe I'll wait 7 days and then dry hop for 7. Does dry hopping during cold crash count?

Click to expand...

Yeah, temperature is critical. You can get by without a thermometer if you absolutely have to, but "warm" to your hand could easily be over 100 degrees F. Boiling is 100C- but simmering is 180ish. How can you tell when you're at 150-160?

You can dry hop whenever you want. As long as the beer is finished, you can cold crash/dryhop/whatever without any kind of time line.

Suthrncomfrt1884 said:

Well, here's a few things I noticed that are probably not neccissary. You're extremely thourough though...which is great.

There's really no need to boil/sanitize anything prior to brewing. The only water you'd need to have boiled would the top-off water that you add after cooling. Everything prior to this point will eventually be boiled, so it's just a waste of time doing it twice.

Click to expand...

Thanks. The idea behind boiling water in advance is to have it chilled so I can bring down wort temp faster. I will add the content of the brew pot (8L) to the 15L of chilled water. Therefore I shouldn't need to chill my wort all the way down to pitching temp.

Suthrncomfrt1884 said:

Brew Day:
1. No need for a sanitized container for the hops either. I leave them in the bag until I'm ready to use them. The bag is plenty sanitary.
3. You shouldn't bring the water to "almost a boil". It should be around 150-160F. Anything above 170 has the possibilty of extracting things you don't want in your beer.
5. If you're using dry yeast, there's no need to allow this much time. I usually rehydrate while I'm waiting for my wort to cool down. This is plenty of time.
7. Rinsing your extract can may be a good method of making sure you get everything, but I always found it to be a waste of time. If you let the can soak in a pot of hot water for 15-20 minutes before you use it, it will be nice and liquified by the time you need it. Most of it should come out. I always used to scrape the inside of the can and anything that didn't come out got thrown out. Maybe a waste...but it's not really going to amount to much.
13. I don't like the "touch the pot" method of figuring out how hot it is. You need to get a thermometer and take a reading. It needs to be around 70-75F.

Click to expand...

Since I'll be adding it to the chilled water temp would be a bit of a guess anyway. That's why I reckon if it ends up a little above pitching temp I can chill it down in the fridge prior to pitching.

Suthrncomfrt1884 said:

12. This should probably be done before you start brewing so the water isn't cold when you need it.
15. Just use cheap vodka.

Well, I think I covered everything I thought of... hopefully it helps. Good luck with the first brew!

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advise!

Yooper said:

Yeah, temperature is critical. You can get by without a thermometer if you absolutely have to, but "warm" to your hand could easily be over 100 degrees F. Boiling is 100C- but simmering is 180ish. How can you tell when you're at 150-160?

You can dry hop whenever you want. As long as the beer is finished, you can cold crash/dryhop/whatever without any kind of time line.

Click to expand...

Hmm, I might have to run out and look for a thermometer.

Check the kitchen. A meat thermometer would work.

smokewater said:

Check the kitchen. A meat thermometer would work.

Click to expand...

My wife was heading out so I asked her to see if she could pick up one.

I hadn't thought the temperature of the steeping was that critical because I watched this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCqRH-fFRP8&feature=player_embedded#!

In that one the guy puts the grains in cold water and then brings up to close to a boil. Is that a dodgy way to do it?

aidan said:

Thanks. The idea behind boiling water in advance is to have it chilled so I can bring down wort temp faster. I will add the content of the brew pot (8L) to the 15L of chilled water. Therefore I shouldn't need to chill my wort all the way down to pitching temp.



Since I'll be adding it to the chilled water temp would be a bit of a guess anyway. That's why I reckon if it ends up a little above pitching temp I can chill it down in the fridge prior to pitching.



Thanks for the advise!

Click to expand...

Sure, you'll have to chill the wort first before adding the cold water. Maybe not all the way down to 65F, but certainly below 90 degrees. If you lower the temperature of the wort to 70 degrees, and then add 70 degree water to it, then the wort will be 70 degrees. Probably the best way to do it, rather than trying to chill one batch to 90 degrees and add 40 degree water and hope for the best.

Maybe it's not CRITICAL but it definitely requires a thermometer so you can be between 150 and 170. Below 150, and you don't get much out of them. Over 170, and you can extract mouth-puckering tannins.

When the guy says "the fermentable sugars are already coming out" and it's in cold water, he's full of baloney, by the way! Not a great video.

I don't have a video to offer, but please see this: http://howtobrew.com/section2/chapter13.html Great, easy, CORRECT instructions, about three pages in from that link.

Yooper said:

When the guy says "the fermentable sugars are already coming out" and it's in cold water, he's full of baloney, by the way! Not a great video.

I don't have a video to offer, but please see this: http://howtobrew.com/section2/chapter13.html Great, easy, CORRECT instructions, about three pages in from that link.

Click to expand...

I kinda thought that was a bit dodgy alright. Yup, Palmer's How To Brew is one of my main references already, but I've also picked up a lot on this forum other sources. Often I get conflicting info about something or other, but getting to the root of those issues helps me learn the ins and outs myself.

Cheers, Aidan

Yooper said:

Sure, you'll have to chill the wort first before adding the cold water. Maybe not all the way down to 65F, but certainly below 90 degrees. If you lower the temperature of the wort to 70 degrees, and then add 70 degree water to it, then the wort will be 70 degrees. Probably the best way to do it, rather than trying to chill one batch to 90 degrees and add 40 degree water and hope for the best.

Click to expand...

I reckon if my water is chilled to 5C I will just need to chill my wort to 54C. Here's my math:

((5 x 15L) + (WT x 8L))/23L = 22C

75 + (WT x 8) = 506

WT (wort temp) = 54

Not sure if the different gravities would factor into the mix of liquid temps but I reckon it should be fairly close. Does that make sense or is my logic flawed?

45 mins into boil at the moment - all going well, next hops addition in 5 mins

ended up that I did have a themometer after all - attached to the BBQ hood - works great

Originally Posted by braceful
Couple things I noticed:

Just throw your hops (dry hop) that you aren't using right away in the freezer.

Steep your grains between 150-160F (not sure if that was what you meant by "almost a boil").

I would wait at least 10-14 days until you dry hop, then dry hop an additional 7-10 days.

EDIT: Yoop beat me to it. Listen to her.

Click to expand...

Was planning on putting them in the fridge but I guess freezer would be better.
Don't have a thermometer so I was just planning to guess it. Is it critical to keep it in that range?
Was just planning 2 weeks in primary plus maybe an additional 5 days cold crash and then straight to bottles from primary. Myabe I'll wait 7 days and then dry hop for 7.

Click to expand...

Most people on here advocate leaving the beer in primary for 3-4 weeks before bottling to allow the yeast enough time to clean up after themselves. Will you still make beer with a 2 week primary? Absolutely. Will it be better if you leave it in primary for 3-4 weeks? Probably.

If you're in a rush to drink your beer, go ahead and dry hop after 7 days, but if you can wait, I would.

Well, I got the batch done and into the fermentor last night and now I'm waiting for some airlock action to start. Having put my process down on paper and then doing it for real, I do have a few slight concerns about my process. I would be interested in opinions from experienced brewers on these concerns.

1. A lot of exposure of wort to air - risk of contamination? It took quite a long time to get the wort from the brew pot into the fermentor because I used a sieve to strain out the hops gunk. There was quite a lot of gunk building up in the sieve and blocking it, so I had to pour a little, then work it with my spoon and pour some more. So it probably took me 10-15 mins to transfer the wort into the fermentor. Just wondering if a lot of exposure to the air during this time is a concern?

2. Risk of contamination from stirring spoon? There was a lot of froth on top of the wort in the fermentor after I had given it a good shake to mix and aerate. I used my long handled stirring spoon for stirring the wort a few seperate times (e.g for stirring in the yeast). Each time I used it, when I pulled it out, the handle was covered in froth. I just placed it sitting on top of the brew pot (which I guessed should be fairly sanitary). But I'm a bit concerned that all that froth on the handle would make it easy to pick up contaminants from the air. Maybe next time, having a tall container of pre-boiled water to stick it into in between usage would be a better idea?

3. Risk of contamination from hands? Your hands end up touching the sanitised surfaces and even the wort itself - it's hard to avoid. Of course I did wash my hands and even had them in water with some bleach. But you are always touching other unsanitised surfaces throughout the process. Should I be concerned about risk of contamination from my hands? Do you guys do anything special to keep hands sanitary?

4. Fermentor spigot contamination risk? I took an OG sample from the fermentor spigot (I had taken one from top with sanitised jug but SG measured lower than expected so I took another sample from bottom to compare). Could this contaminate the spigot and result in contamination when bottling? I thought of this when bottling my previous 2 batches and did give the spigot nozzle a bit of a clean with some bleach solution. But it's not possible to thoroughly clean it while still attached to a fermentor of beer. Should I be concerned about contamination risk?

5. Not enough air dry time for some sanitised items. With Sodium Metabisulfite you are supposed to air dry for 1 hour. But there were a few things that I had to sanitise on the go, e.g. stirring spoon, and they only got a few minutes dry time. I know something like Star San or iodophor is the ideal solution here and plan to get some. But should I be concerned having used Sodium Met in this way?

6. Is there a contamination risk from paper towels? I used paper towels to sit sanitised things on while air drying. I also dried off excess sanitiser with paper towels when needing something in a hurry (e.g. stirring spoon).

With 2 extract batches under my belt plus a few kit batches, and a lot learned from this forum, I've refined and simplified my process. My 2nd batch went very smoothly and brew day was much more relaxed and enjoyable. I've posted my new updated process on my blog: http://beerandgarden.com/updated-extract-brewing-process/

aidan said:

With 2 extract batches under my belt plus a few kit batches, and a lot learned from this forum, I've refined and simplified my process. My 2nd batch went very smoothly and brew day was much more relaxed and enjoyable. I've posted my new updated process on my blog: http://beerandgarden.com/updated-extract-brewing-process/

Click to expand...

Doesn't seem too bad. I'd invest in Starsan if I were you. It really is an amazing product. Also, if you're not cooling with a wort chiller I suggest trying to chill your wort w/ ice. There's a pictorial link in my signature that may help as far as cooling w/ ice is concerned.

It seems like your process is pretty good though.

dfc said:

Doesn't seem too bad. I'd invest in Starsan if I were you. It really is an amazing product. Also, if you're not cooling with a wort chiller I suggest trying to chill your wort w/ ice. There's a pictorial link in my signature that may help as far as cooling w/ ice is concerned.

It seems like your process is pretty good though.

Click to expand...

Yeah I thought of doing that with the ice, might try it next time. For my last batch I did get it cooled in under 30 mins so was happy enough with that and the hops gunk settled to the bottom in that time so pouring into fermentor was easy. First time round I did a shorter cool (because I used chilled top up water), but the hops gunk didn't settle out and pouring and straining went very slow. If you do a fast cool with ice, does hops settle out in the shorter timespan?

I'm pretty happy with the idophor, I've heard it's as effective as starsan, has similar contact time and here in NZ much cheaper. The sodium met is what most home brew places sell here, it's a pain because you have to wait an hour so it requires more careful advance planning. Don't see any downside to iodophor so far.

aidan said:

Yeah I thought of doing that with the ice, might try it next time. For my last batch I did get it cooled in under 30 mins so was happy enough with that and the hops gunk settled to the bottom in that time so pouring into fermentor was easy. First time round I did a shorter cool (because I used chilled top up water), but the hops gunk didn't settle out and pouring and straining went very slow. If you do a fast cool with ice, does hops settle out in the shorter timespan?

I'm pretty happy with the idophor, I've heard it's as effective as starsan, has similar contact time and here in NZ much cheaper. The sodium met is what most home brew places sell here, it's a pain because you have to wait an hour so it requires more careful advance planning. Don't see any downside to iodophor so far.

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I filter my hops so they don't end up going into the primary bucket so I'm not sure if they settle out or not when using ice in your wort.

It seems like most of the hops settle out when I chill quickly and are resting on the bottom of the kettle when I pour the wort into the fermenting bucket.....and then I pour the whole mess into the bucket because I want all the wort and I know that they will settle to the bottom of the fermenter and I can rack off above them when I bottle and lose much less. Usually by bottling day the hops are trapped in the yeast cake and unless I really stir it up, they stay right there.

RM-MN said:

It seems like most of the hops settle out when I chill quickly and are resting on the bottom of the kettle when I pour the wort into the fermenting bucket.....and then I pour the whole mess into the bucket because I want all the wort and I know that they will settle to the bottom of the fermenter and I can rack off above them when I bottle and lose much less. Usually by bottling day the hops are trapped in the yeast cake and unless I really stir it up, they stay right there.

Click to expand...

I like to strain out most of the hops so I have less trub in the bottom of the fermentor as I bottle straight from primary spigot. I'm wondering though, does leaving them in do anything for hops flavour?

aidan said:

I like to strain out most of the hops so I have less trub in the bottom of the fermentor as I bottle straight from primary spigot. I'm wondering though, does leaving them in do anything for hops flavour?

Click to expand...

No, they won't impact flavor.