Challenge to All You Experts!

[DeBAD]

Being new to brewing (we've only done two extract batches) we are beginning to realize the "right of passage" to this hobby is falling on your face and screwing some stuff up only to hopefully get better and better at brewing by learning from mistakes and getting tips from experts like all of you. The biggest thing we've noticed about brewing beer is that although most key steps are the same, it still seems like everyone has their own little techniques. You literally can read 4 different directions and all four will be somewhat different. Here is where the challenge comes in:

Below are the ingredients for a 5-gallon batch of Irish Red Ale extract recipe:
6 lb. Gold liquid malt extract
12 oz. Caramel 40L
2 oz. Special B
2 oz. Roasted Barley specialty grains
1 oz. Cascade
1 oz. Fuggle pellet hops
Munton Dry Yeast

List your entire process (listed in step by step detail) from first preparations to popping the cap off your first bottle of exactly how you would go about brewing this recipe.
* You have to follow this exact recipe EXCEPT you can alter the hops, can add or delete hops or dry hop, or add or alter the yeast.

I welcome any and all experts to weigh in.

We bow to all you yodas out there. Haha!

 

[chickypad]

List your entire process (listed in step by step detail) from first preparations to popping the cap off your first bottle of exactly how you would go about brewing this recipe.

Yeah, not going to type all that out. What's your goal, do you have specific questions about why some people do some steps differently?

 

[skw]

Your question was answered here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/fu...d-about-beer-346883/index433.html#post5683304

 

[jro238]

Normally I would disagree with the somewhat....terse....responses you have gotten so far but to be honest I'm kinda in the same boat with them on this one. Unless you actually have target goal or something to add to this question then it doesn't seem very useful.

To humor it though...

Steep the grains, add about 1oz hops at 60min, boil, add another .5 at 30 minutes, boil, add another .5 and 1/2 of extract at 15 minutes, boil, add the other 1/2 extract at 5 minutes, boil, cool to 70 or below, pitch rehydrated yeast, keep fermentation temps in the mid 60s for at least the first week, bottle after ~2 weeks or when FG is reached and maintained for a few days, keep bottles warmer than 70F for a few weeks to carb up then enjoy.

I didn't calculate anything for this, so move the hops wherever you want them based on desired style.

edit: laughed a little after following skw's link since I was reading that same thread earlier today...

 

[IL1kebeer]

I would worry about fermentation and sanitization more than anything else. Research how to conduct a healthy fermentation if you want to make good beer.

Recipe is important, but as long as you aren't doing anything stupid like using 25% roasted grains or 50% simple sugar or dryhopping for 3 months, etc, etc. then you will be OK as long as you conduct a kick ass fermentation. Pitching rates, oxygenation, yeast health, nutrients, and temperature control of the ferment (not ambient) are critical in making good beer, as well as sanitization. Most everything else is pretty forgiving.

 

[emjay]

Not exactly sure what to write for you, as entire books can (and have been) written on the subject. With the utmost respect, there's just no way I am (or anybody else is) going to write all that on the whims of some random poster.

 

[Glynn]

I'll bite
1)steep your grains in a mesh bag @150 for 20 - 30 min with 3 gals water
2) remove grain bag, add 50% of your extract and bring to a boil
3) add cascade hops and boil 45 mi
4) add fuggles and remaining extract. boil 15
5) chill wort to 70 as fast as you can (don not add ice to your wort)
6) strain into your sanitizedfermenter, bring volume up 5.5 gal, stir well and chill to 62
7) add yeast and hold @ 64 for 2 to 3 weeks
8) bottle and drink in 3 weeks

 

[3PegBrew]

This thread is a joke right? Kind of like a roast for brewers? I like how someone mentions there are books written on how to brew. Let's go with that! If you open any recipe book for clones, it'll even give you the step by step. You silly billy.

 

[DrWill]

The biggest thing we've noticed about brewing beer is that although most key steps are the same, it still seems like everyone has their own little techniques. You literally can read 4 different directions and all four will be somewhat different.

Part of this is down to different equipment. Believe me, process at home doing 5 gallons is not the same as brewing on a 4Bbl system. Best advice? Get to know your equipment and find the process that suits it best.

 

[andy6026]

Why not just say:

I've got these ingredients here and I haven't a clue what I'm doing - I royally ballsed up my first two batches so can someone please give me step by step instructions? Oh, and btw, I'm flexible on the hops part, so if you have alternative recommendations - fire away!

 

[duboman]

yeah, not going to type all that out. What's your goal, do you have specific questions about why some people do some steps differently?

+1

 

[DeBAD]

Haha! Wow I'm taking a bit of a beating from some of you but the responses prove my points. First the "rite of passage" that rooks have to "F" up a few times to join the club. I love it, glad to be invited to crack open the door even though we are far from being invited to the table yet. Second that there is no set of standard instructions for even the most basic brew (details on this one to follow).

I threw this out there as a test. It's purpose not only to see what the experts had to say about their techniques so I could learn from them, but also to prove a point that there are several different ways to go about this amazing hobby.

Thanks to jro38 and Glynn for providing me with enough details to run my experiment.

Thanks to everyone else for either their general comments or for the comic relief at my expense. Haha! All were equally appreciated. Btw andy6026 is only partially right. We made some dumb mistakes with our first brew (the Irish Red Ale that I will explain shortly) but it's happily carbonating in the bottles "as we speak" so I'm not sure how good or bad it turned out yet. Our second batch (Imperial Stout) is in Day 7 of primary fermentation and seems to be doing okay.

When we brewed the Irish Red Ale we followed the directions pretty close to exactly how they were provided except we slightly tweaked the hop additions (plus we later dry hopped) so we could have a slightly hoppier beer than the standard recipe called for. Following is a summary of exactly what the directions said to do:

1. Steep the grains at 155 degrees for 10 to 30 minutes in a minimum of 1.5 to 2 gallons of water. Remove from heat and let grains steep for another 5 to 10 minutes.
2. Before returning the pot to the burner add the malt extract. Once fully dissolved return to the burner and once first bubble is seen add 1oz of Cascade hops and boil for 60 minutes. Add 1oz of Fuggle hops for last 2-minutes and remove from the burner.
3. Cool the wort below 80 degrees, pour into the primary and add water to just over the 5-gallon mark. Aerate the wort and take a hyrdrometer sample.
4. If using dry yeast either re-hyrdrate and add to the beer or sprinkle dry yeast directly over the top of the beer. Attach the lid and insert the airlock. In approximately 1-3 days your should start to see a healthy fermentation.
5. After 5-7 days of fermentation transfer to a glass carboy or if you are using a single fermentation leave the beer in the fermenter for 2-weeks.
6. Prepare corn sugar and add to sanitized bottling bucket. Siphon beer into bucket and use bottle filler to fill bottles, cap and your done. Store in a cool (60 to 70 degrees) dark place for 2 to 4 weeks.

As you can see there is quite a bit of deviation from what others have recommended (see other other posts, especially as it relates to the timing of extract additions) and likely many of you when you brew your beer which again is the biggest reason I decided to start this thread.

For Shts and Giggles here are few rookie mistakes we made that we discovered later/so far:
1. We had read somewhere we should boil 3-gallons of top off water so we'd end up with 2.5. So we did that in a separate pot while we were cooking our wort. The directions only said to only slightly cool it and then pour it into the primary bucket and set the lid on top so it stays sanitary. What we discovered when we made our Imperial Stout was that by the time we were ready to add our wort, the temp of that water was still at least 120 degrees which means when we added our 70 degree wort to it and aerated, the average temp was WAY higher than it needed to be. OOPS!
2. But...this one gets better. When we added the wort we noticed the water level was only at approx 4-gallons which means we had WAY more boil off than we expected. Not knowing what to do we quickly boiled more water, when it was done ice bathed the kettle as quickly as we could to get it down to around 80 and topped it off. OOPS!
3. The directions only called for 1-packet of Munton's dry yeast. However when I later ran our batch through the Mrmalty.com website I discovered we should have added 2. OOPS!
4. Our fermentation room is dark with a constant 68 to 70 temp which is within the recommended ranges, however being rooks, we didn't realize the temp inside the ferm bucket (especially since it likely started at 90 to 95 degrees or so) was likely WAY too hot. OOPS! Needless to say we had a VERY aggressive and immediate fermentation. The airlock was perking like a coffee maker the second we put the lid on. Since we were idiot rooks we had no clue that should have been a major warning sign. Double OOPS!
5. After a week we pitched it to the secondary which we found out later isn't necessary (even though we DID plan to dry hop (which we did).

Luckily when we brewed our Imperial we corrected several of these mistakes (like added a blow off tube and introduced a water bath with regularly rotated ice bottles to keep the ferm temp low). However unfortunately we did undershoot our yeast again (since we didn't know about MrMalty.com yet so I hope that doesn't hurt us too bad.

Thanks VERY much to all that have participated so far.

Now that the the comedy roast portion of this thread is complete (or maybe not so keep them coming if you want to...I love it) please feel free to offer any tweaks or suggestions you might have to provide your own techniques for rooks like us. Believe me they will all be VERY much appreciated!

Thanks again!

 

[chickypad]

Haha! Wow I'm taking a bit of a beating from some of you but the responses prove my points. First the "rite of passage" that rooks have to "F" up a few times to join the club. I love it, glad to be invited to crack open the door even though we are far from being invited to the table yet.

I really don't believe in a right of passage, or that noobs can't be invited to the table without putting in their dues. I also don't think anyone was trying to provide comic relief at your expense. It's just that you kind of did ask a "how do I brew beer" question, which is really hard to answer when we have no idea what your level of understanding is or what level of detail you need spelled out. Reading your first post I might wonder, do we need to tell you to crush the grains or is that implied? Do I need to say to sanitize the fermenter? Now if you had asked why do some people add extract early and some late, you'd get lots of useful information.

So sorry if it sounded like some of us were not being helpful. I just think you'll get better responses if you ask more specific questions.

 

[Glynn]

I really don't believe in a right of passage, or that noobs can't be invited to the table without putting in their dues. I also don't think anyone was trying to provide comic relief at your expense. It's just that you kind of did ask a "how do I brew beer" question, which is really hard to answer when we have no idea what your level of understanding is or what level of detail you need spelled out. Reading your first post I might wonder, do we need to tell you to crush the grains or is that implied? Do I need to say to sanitize the fermenter? Now if you had asked why do some people add extract early and some late, you'd get lots of useful information.

So sorry if it sounded like some of us were not being helpful. I just think you'll get better responses if you ask more specific questions.

+ 1 I feel the same way. Thats why i gave a very in a nut shell version. I personally have not brewed a extract brew in a very long time and have never done one the way i listed it to you. I have spent a lot of time reading post and making my own judgements. What i listed was the knowledge that I have learned from reading. That being said, the one thing you should take to heart is lines 5 though 7 and you will always make good beer. If you haven't done so yet before you go all grain, go out and buy these two books. brewing classic styles and brewing great beer. I promise you wont regret it

 

[duboman]

I really don't believe in a right of passage, or that noobs can't be invited to the table without putting in their dues. I also don't think anyone was trying to provide comic relief at your expense. It's just that you kind of did ask a "how do I brew beer" question, which is really hard to answer when we have no idea what your level of understanding is or what level of detail you need spelled out. Reading your first post I might wonder, do we need to tell you to crush the grains or is that implied? Do I need to say to sanitize the fermenter? Now if you had asked why do some people add extract early and some late, you'd get lots of useful information. So sorry if it sounded like some of us were not being helpful. I just think you'll get better responses if you ask more specific questions.

+1
Again.........

 

[ivegot2legs]

Haha! Wow I'm taking a bit of a beating from some...

tl;dr

Everyone makes errors. Sometimes based on bad intel.

But in addition, some folks have best practices that contradict generally accepted knowledge. So just run with it and adjust.

 

[scoundrel]

Well I don't brew extract much anymore but I do have a process. You asked for it, so here it is, lol.

Brewing Process

Preparation Prior To Brew Day

1. Make starter 2-5 days before brew day (if necessary).
a. Make 2-4 quart starters using this method http://www.brewgeeks.com/quick-and-easy-starter.html
b. Clean and sanitize 3 gallon carboy.
c. Clean and sanitize stir bar.
d. Clean and sanitize funnel.
e. Sanitize yeast vials.
f. Mix starters and yeast.

2. Set fermentation chamber to pre-fermentation temperature 1-3 days before brew day
a. Ale temp should be 54-56 degrees (60 on Johnson Controller).
b. Lager temp should be 40 degrees (?? on Johnson Controller).

3. Mill grains 1 day before brew day.
a. Clean at least two grain buckets.
b. Attach cordless drill to mill over first empty bucket.
c. Setup chain and scale.
d. Fasten red weigh bucket to scale.
e. Weigh and mill base grains
f. Weigh and mill specialty grains in a separate bucket if possible.

4. Refill propane tanks if necessary.

Brew Day Mash Phase

1. Setup brew table.
2. Get propane tanks from shed.
3. Gather mash equipment from the basement.
a. Burner/s
b. Water/Sanitation bucket.
c. Mash paddle.
d. Mash bag.
e. Water hose and filter.
f. Thermometer
g. Calcium chloride.
h. Calcium sulfate.
i. Water dowel.
j. Milled grains.
k. Brew kettle/s.
l. Hydrometer
m. Pyrex cup
n. Candle lighter
o. Mash strainer.
p. 5 gallon paint bags.
q. Gallon pitcher.
4. Put brew kettle on burner.
5. Attach hose and filter to faucet.
6. Fill kettle with the water required for recipe.
7. Light burner and heat water to strike temp.
8. Place scorch protector in kettle.
9. Add calcium chloride and calcium sulfate to the water according to the recipe.
10. Fasten mash bag to the kettle with bungee cords.
11. Slowly add base grains and mix.
12. Take temp reading.
13. Cover kettle and wrap in blankets.
14. In the last 30 minutes take a temp reading and add specialty grains if necessary.
15. Mashout to 167 degrees.
16. If first wort hops are required, add hops to paint bag and add to kettle.
17. Pull mash bag.
18. Place mash strainer on kettle.
19. Squeeze excess wort from mash bag.
20. Discard grain.
21. Top off with additional water according to recipe
22. Pull some wort from kettle with Pyrex cup and test the original gravity.
23. Bring wort to boil.
24. Use skimmer to remove hot break.

Brew Day Boil Phase

1. Add hops to paint bag according to recipe.
2. Gather equipment from the basement.
a. Wort chiller, hoses and tub.
b. Bartender’s friend.
c. Sanitizer.
d. Irish moss.
e. Yeast nutrient.
f. Blowoff tube.
g. Oxygen wand.
h. Carboys.
i. Auto-siphon with clip.
j. Bungs with thermowell.
k. Beer thief.
l. Mason jars with sterilized water (when using dry yeast.)
m. Scale
3. Fill bucket with water and add sanitizer.
4. Sanitize post-boil equipment.
5. Clean and return mash equipment to the basement.
a. Mash paddle.
b. Mash bag.
c. Water hose and filter.
d. Calcium chloride.
e. Calcium sulfate.
f. Mash strainer.
g. Kettle scorch protector.
6. Rehydrate yeast and add nutrient 15 minutes before the end of boil.
7. ADD IRISH MOSS 10 MINUTES BEFORE END OF BOIL!
8. Prepare wort chiller for cooling.
9. At flame out, cool wort.
10. Take final gravity reading.
11. Sanitize carboy
12. Siphon wort to carboys.
13. Pitch yeast.
14. Assemble oxygen wand to tank and oxygenate wort for 1 minute.
15. Secure bung and blow off to the carboys.
16. Put wort in fridge.
17. Clean kettle with Bartender’s friend.
18. Clean remaining equipment and put it away.
19. Put temp probe in thermowell.
20. Put propane tanks in shed and break down table.

 

[DeBAD]

Nice! Now that's what I call a process!!

Thanks bro!