Beginner question

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

40ozOLDe

Member
Joined
Apr 1, 2007
Messages
21
Reaction score
0
Location
MASS
well just bought my home brew kit today. Cleaned everything quite extensively and started brewing. a couple of questions or comments. First what is this "steeping" talk of refer too? Second i made the mistake of pouring my hot wart into the fermenting bucket with 4 gallons of cool water. Apparently a mistake as i have been waiting for it to cool for over an hour too add my yeast.

Thanks
 
Some recipes call for the steeping of specialty grains. These grains will add some flavor, color, and body to your beer. Many people brew with extract + specialty grains because steeping grains is relatively easy, you just let them sit, in a bag, for 15 minutes at ~150F before you add the extract the boil.

I have found the best way to cool the wort is to put it, in my brew pot, in the bath tub with ice water. Cover the pot, open it and stir occasionally. My last brew I was able to cool in 10 minutes. You want to do this as quickly as possible as to not let any bacteria or wild yeast get into the wort. You are having trouble cooling it because the plastic bucket is a better insulator than the pot. I usually cool then pour the water in on top of the wort vigorously to aerate.
 
I recently made a batch of beer that required steeping of carmel malt and I boiled it. Apparently if you boil specialty malts instead of stteping you will likely cause the tannins in the husks to give your beer an astringent quality. Luckily the beer I made had a ton of vanilla in it so the vanilla seems to be the dominant flavor which has mostly masked my error.
 
Beerrific said:
Some recipes call for the steeping of specialty grains. These grains will add some flavor, color, and body to your beer. Many people brew with extract + specialty grains because steeping grains is relatively easy, you just let them sit, in a bag, for 15 minutes at ~150F before you add the extract the boil.

I have found the best way to cool the wort is to put it, in my brew pot, in the bath tub with ice water. Cover the pot, open it and stir occasionally. My last brew I was able to cool in 10 minutes. You want to do this as quickly as possible as to not let any bacteria or wild yeast get into the wort. You are having trouble cooling it because the plastic bucket is a better insulator than the pot. I usually cool then pour the water in on top of the wort vigorously to aerate.

good stuff man thanks.
 
40ozOLDe said:
...Second i made the mistake of pouring my hot wart into the fermenting bucket with 4 gallons of cool water. Apparently a mistake as i have been waiting for it to cool for over an hour too add my yeast.

Thanks

I always put three 1-gallon jugs of water into the freezer at the beginning of my brew. (make sure they don't freeze solid)

I put my boil pot into my kitchen sink with cold water. Wait for the surrounding water to warm and move to the other sink with cold water. Stir it gently to move the water but don't aerate yet. Repeat three times and then pour into fermenter with the three super chilled jugs of water (or until you hit 5 gallons) and you'll hit 75 degrees everytime.
 
Back
Top