malt_shovel
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AS prologue to this post, I live in the Caribbean, where the only beer available commercially tastes pretty average. There are no home-brew stores, and no raw ingredients readily available. I ordered a recipe for Australian Golden Ale (I am Australian) from DeFalcos in Houston for a friend who works in the gulf to bring back through customs.
He turned up with 5lbs of light malt-extract, 2.1/2 lbs of un-cracked malted barley - 1/2lbs were Cara-Pils), 1oz of Hallertauer & 1oz of Northen/Hallertaun mix hop pellets, 1 pack of burton water salts, 1 pack of Bru-Vigor and WhiteLabs liquid yeast.
Here's what I did.
Mash-
2.1/2lbs were added to 2.1/2 ltrs of water at 150oF on stove-top (135oF starting temp). After 30mins keeping close eye on the temp, added 1.1/4ltrs of boiling water to get the temp up to about 155oF. After further 45mins raised temp to 158oF for further 10 mins, then cranked it to 170oF for a couple of minutes before sparging with 7.1/2ltrs water at 170oF. (I used a large collander / sieve to sparget he grains).
I then got the brew boiling then added the 5lbs of malt extract, along with 3./4lbs of Demerara sugar (the recipe mentioned 1lb of white sugar - but I wanted a lower alcohol content and lighter beer, plus I had a lot of Demerara in the kitchen).
Boil-
Put 1oz of Hallertauer in at the start of the boil (sitting in muslin on the side of the boil), after 40mins added further 1/2oz. of the North/Hall mix, then a further 1/2oz. for the last 5 minutes of boil.
I brought the wort fown to pitching temperature (70oF) by immersing the brew-pot in a kitchen sink with ice water, then drained the cooled wort through a sanitized strainer into the fermenter (plastic with air-lock) before pitching the yeast and adding the Bru-Vigor.
I decided not to use the Burton water salts, mainly because I am not familiar with them, nor what they would do to the bottled water I was using.
It has been happily fermenting for the last week and I am planning to bottle next weekend (2 weeks in total - could wait longer if there is a convincing argument- I really want to get this stuff bottled!!). The recipe has the OG as 1054, FG as 1012, but considering I used slightly less sugar during the boil, and my cracking of the grains was probably not ideal, I am not sure what the actual OG was (I didn't have a hydrometer to use - trying to source a battery hydrometer currently - don't be too critical, it aint easy to source equipment out here).
I am planning to use 3/4cup of corn sugar as priming sugar prior to bottling, but have not used this before.
This is my first attempt at partial mashing / extract brewing, andmy first brew after a few years away from this great hobby.
Any thoughts, criticism welcome.
Cheers
He turned up with 5lbs of light malt-extract, 2.1/2 lbs of un-cracked malted barley - 1/2lbs were Cara-Pils), 1oz of Hallertauer & 1oz of Northen/Hallertaun mix hop pellets, 1 pack of burton water salts, 1 pack of Bru-Vigor and WhiteLabs liquid yeast.
Here's what I did.
Mash-
2.1/2lbs were added to 2.1/2 ltrs of water at 150oF on stove-top (135oF starting temp). After 30mins keeping close eye on the temp, added 1.1/4ltrs of boiling water to get the temp up to about 155oF. After further 45mins raised temp to 158oF for further 10 mins, then cranked it to 170oF for a couple of minutes before sparging with 7.1/2ltrs water at 170oF. (I used a large collander / sieve to sparget he grains).
I then got the brew boiling then added the 5lbs of malt extract, along with 3./4lbs of Demerara sugar (the recipe mentioned 1lb of white sugar - but I wanted a lower alcohol content and lighter beer, plus I had a lot of Demerara in the kitchen).
Boil-
Put 1oz of Hallertauer in at the start of the boil (sitting in muslin on the side of the boil), after 40mins added further 1/2oz. of the North/Hall mix, then a further 1/2oz. for the last 5 minutes of boil.
I brought the wort fown to pitching temperature (70oF) by immersing the brew-pot in a kitchen sink with ice water, then drained the cooled wort through a sanitized strainer into the fermenter (plastic with air-lock) before pitching the yeast and adding the Bru-Vigor.
I decided not to use the Burton water salts, mainly because I am not familiar with them, nor what they would do to the bottled water I was using.
It has been happily fermenting for the last week and I am planning to bottle next weekend (2 weeks in total - could wait longer if there is a convincing argument- I really want to get this stuff bottled!!). The recipe has the OG as 1054, FG as 1012, but considering I used slightly less sugar during the boil, and my cracking of the grains was probably not ideal, I am not sure what the actual OG was (I didn't have a hydrometer to use - trying to source a battery hydrometer currently - don't be too critical, it aint easy to source equipment out here).
I am planning to use 3/4cup of corn sugar as priming sugar prior to bottling, but have not used this before.
This is my first attempt at partial mashing / extract brewing, andmy first brew after a few years away from this great hobby.
Any thoughts, criticism welcome.
Cheers