Moving into extract brewing seeking advice.

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Ukdazz

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Hi there
I've been doing kits for a year and just done my first extract which is busy fermenting. I'm looking at this next one below to get my processes right as trying steeping grains for first time. Apologies for long post...

Classic APA

Ingredients
8.5 lbs (3.86 kg) American two-row malt
0.25 lb (113 g) Crystal malt (20 °L)
0.5 lb (226 g) CaraVienne malt
7 AAU Columbus whole hops (0.5 oz/14g at 14% alpha acids) (60 min.)
0.5 oz (14 g) Centennial whole hops 11% alpha acids (15 min.)
0.5 oz (14 g) Cascade whole hops 6% alpha acids (5 min.)
1 oz (28 g) Cascade whole hops 6% alpha acids (0 min.)
1.5 oz (42 g) Centennial whole hops 11% alpha acids (dry)
Wyeast 1272 (American Ale II) yeast

Substitute 6.4 lbs (2.9 kg) of light-colored American liquid malt extract or 5.1 lbs (2.3 kg) of very pale dry malt extract for the American two-row malt. Mill the specialty grains and put them in a grain bag. Steep the bag in the 6 gallons (22.7 L) of strike water (RO water treated with 1 tsp calcium chloride) at 155 °F (68 °C) for 30 minutes. Lift the bag from the water and rinse gently with hot water. Let the bag drip into the kettle while adding the malt extract. Stir thoroughly and bring to a boil. Follow the main recipe from there.

- Is the strike water seperate from my wort boil pot that I'll add extract too? Not clear to a newbie! 😬
- is the chloride neccessary too?
- Assume after chilling I leave the hop sediment behind?
- when so I do that last dry hop
Addition for centential 7-10 days?

Any other suggestions welcome, just want to try out this before I try anything more complex.
Darren
 
First, you don't really need 6 gallons of water to steep the grains in. You don't have that many grains. Do you have the pot size/heating power to do a full boil?

But it's all going to be one pot in the end. Usually, you steep the grains in the pot, remove the bag and then add the extract (and more water if you held some back). You could and probably should hold back half the extract for very late in the boil.

You don't need calcium chloride, but you can use it. I'll let someone else advise on that. I don't use RO water.

If you are using whole hops, you probably want to filter them out before it goes to the fermenter. You won't have much grain-derived sediment.
 
In general, if you're doing extract, you should use only RO water, as the dried extract will contain all of the electrolytes that area needed. The wort is made using water that should have already been pre-treated. When the water is dehydrated away, the electrolytes are left behind.

Basically, the wort that the DME or LME is made of is made with good water, so when RO water is added, the wort's chemistry should be the same as before it was dehydrated. I wouldn't add the calcium chloride.
 
Thanks for your replies,
I'll be doing a half batch I think 12L, my brewpot is 20 Litres. if I'm steeping 300g of grains is 2-3 litres enough?

Won't bother with the Calcium I think, I use filtered water in any case.
Hope to do a full boil say 14 litres which reduces in an hr to 12 on my stovetop. So:
Steep the Grains,
top up to 14L and bring to boil,
add half extract,
hop schedule, and late addition for other half of extract?

I use hop pellets and my first extract there was a lot of slosh at the bottom so assume that's hop sediment and should be filtered out.
Sounds good :) anything else?
Thanks again!
 
Thanks for your replies,
I'll be doing a half batch I think 12L, my brewpot is 20 Litres. if I'm steeping 300g of grains is 2-3 litres enough?

Won't bother with the Calcium I think, I use filtered water in any case.
Hope to do a full boil say 14 litres which reduces in an hr to 12 on my stovetop. So:
Steep the Grains,
top up to 14L and bring to boil,
add half extract,
hop schedule, and late addition for other half of extract?

I use hop pellets and my first extract there was a lot of slosh at the bottom so assume that's hop sediment and should be filtered out.
Sounds good :) anything else?
Thanks again!
You've got it!
The hop residue and rest of the trub is OK to leave, and OK to strain out. I pour through a kitchen strainer which removes most of the big stuff. But don't worry about it, it'll turn out the same either way.
 
Thanks for your replies,
I'll be doing a half batch I think 12L, my brewpot is 20 Litres. if I'm steeping 300g of grains is 2-3 litres enough?

Won't bother with the Calcium I think, I use filtered water in any case.
Hope to do a full boil say 14 litres which reduces in an hr to 12 on my stovetop. So:
Steep the Grains,
top up to 14L and bring to boil,
add half extract,
hop schedule, and late addition for other half of extract?

I use hop pellets and my first extract there was a lot of slosh at the bottom so assume that's hop sediment and should be filtered out.
Sounds good :) anything else?
Thanks again!

I never filter anything out, just dump it into the fermenter. Sometimes I may leave the last of the hop sludge but never more than a cup. The hops will settle out in the fermenter when the yeast finish their feast and the yeast will settle out on top of it. With a little care the hop sludge gets left behind when you transfer from the fermenter to the bottling bucket.
 
Thanks for this thread, very insightful.
Newbie here. One question: when do you consider "late addition" for the remainder of the extract? Last five minutes of the boil or whats the time frame?? Curious how this turned out for you.
 
Thanks for this thread, very insightful.
Newbie here. One question: when do you consider "late addition" for the remainder of the extract? Last five minutes of the boil or whats the time frame?? Curious how this turned out for you.

You want to add the "late addition" after the majority of the boil is done to avoid darkening the beer. You also want to add it when the wort is hot enough to pasteurize the extract in case there are any contaminates. The wort will be hot enough for that for some time after the heat is removed unless you work to chill it. I'd recommend the "late addition" to be added when the boil is done but before you start to chill the wort. That way you can't have the extract go to the bottom and burn because you don't have the heat turned on.
 
I'm hoping to put this down in a week or so. The one I'm working on now just out loads like 90grams of dry hops, will these disolve over time? Just noticed on my sample there were bits in it, very small tho and still tasty :)
 
I'm hoping to put this down in a week or so. The one I'm working on now just out loads like 90grams of dry hops, will these disolve over time? Just noticed on my sample there were bits in it, very small tho and still tasty :)

Hops are vegetable matter and don't dissolve. However, they do sink to the bottom of the fermenter when the fermentation is over and get covered by the yeast. If you are careful when racking to the bottling bucket (or keg) the hop particles will stay in the fermenter. If you use whole leaf hops that doesn't work but you can put a fine mesh bag over the racking cane to keep them out.
 

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