Some extract questions

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Yin_Yang

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im pasting the below, because i'm too lazy to type it again LOL

Hey all. Most probably don't know me, but I'm back from almost 2 years of being gone. Anyway, with the temps cooling here in upstate NY soon, I was thinking about taking up brewing again for fun. The problem is it's been so long, and been so far from my everyday thought process that I've totally forgotten everything, and I've started rereading all my homebrew books, to try to remember how to do things, and some things are re-confusing me.

When I stopped I had made about 3 batches of extract/specialty grains steeping method beer.

I was going to start again with partial mash, but just in case I don't I wanted to ask some questions to refresh my memory with the extract side of things.

The first two extract/specialty grain beers i made were kits, so instructions were attached, and the final one was a recipe from here, but like I said i forgot some of the process, and Homebrewing for DUmmies kind of skips over the whole process for the intermediate brewing section. It jumps from beginner to partial mash/all grain.

My questions is:

1. How much water do I use for each step?
a. how much water do i steep the specialty grains in
b. how much water do i sparge the specialty grains with?
c. how much water do I boil the extract and the water from the specialty grains in?

and as far as the process, ill post a recipe for examples sake below for a brown ale. and after that ill put what i THINK the process is supposed to be, and you can tell me whats right and wrong about it.

malt extract: 6 lbs liquid malt
specialty grain: 1lb 40L crystal malt, .25 chocolate malt.
bittering: 1oz Fuggles (60min)
flavoring: .5oz fuggles
yeast: wyeast 1028
misc fermentables: .5 lb light brown sugar

1. bring brewpot filled with water (amt. determined from above q) to boil. While waiting to boil, do below:
2. bring a pot of water (whatever amt from above q) to 170, turn off heat and stir in milled specialty grains. steep for 20-30min.
3. pour out water from the steep through a collander into brewpot.
4. sparge specialty grains in collander with water that is at 170 degrees (amt determined from above question)
5. by this time water in brewpot should be boiling. Add extract to pot, and boil together with specialty grain water for 60 min.
6. add 1 oz of fuggles right at beginning of boil for bittering
7. add .5 oz of fuggles after 40 min of boiling
8. after 60 min of boiling, turn off heat, and add brown sugar.
9. promptly put brewpot in sink full of ice water, to cool it down.
10. when cool to touch pour contents of brewpot into primary fermenter, top off w/ cool clean chlorine free water to 5 gallons.
11. pitch yeast, seal, airlock, and wait.

thanks in advance for your guys' help. i'm a newb all over again.
 
Welcome back!

1. I would use as much water as you can, meaning if you have a kettle that can hold 6-7 gallons go for it. My first batch was a partial boil, then i obtained a larger kettle and now I'm doing 6.5 gallon boils and MAN is the beer getting better.

2. I steep my grains in the boil kettle with whatever volume you have in (partial 2.5 gallons -or- full 6.5 gallons)

3. I dont sparge my steeping grains, some do though. I just let it drip out over the kettle. Remember not to squeeze them, because you don't want to extract tannins.

As for the process:

1. bring brewpot filled with water 2.5 or 6.5 gallons to 155 F
2. turn off heat and steep grains in a grain bag. steep for 20-30min.
3. After 30 min, remove grains and bring kettle to a boil.
4. by this time water in brewpot should be boiling. Add extract and first hop addition
5. add .5 oz of fuggles after 40 min of boiling
6. after 60 min of boiling, turn off heat, and add brown sugar.
7. promptly put brewpot in sink full of ice water, to cool it down.(Make sure you cover it with a lid because your wort will be vulnerable to nasties)
8. when cool to touch pour contents of brewpot into primary fermenter, top off w/ cool clean chlorine free water to 5 gallons. (unless you did a full boil)
9. pitch yeast, seal, airlock, and wait.

If you do a full boil you will also get more hop utilization, i wouldn't worry about it in a brown ale though. Here's a good site, where you could plug in your recipe: http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator

Also see DeathBrewer's PM post
 
For PM, a good amount of water to use is 1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain, and then sparge (rinse) with 170 degree water. You can use up to .5 gallons of water per pound of grain for the sparge, which may be enough to bring you up to your boil volume.

You can boil whatever amount you want- it depends on the size of the pot.

You separate your base grains and your specialty grains- they go in the mash together.
 
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