I was hoping a few of the more experienced people on here might be able to give me a few pointers on how to improve the quality of my beer. I listen to podcasts, spend time trolling this form and have read John Palmers book and I think I have my procedure down pretty good but if anyone wants to give me some pointers feel free. I'm going to lay out the steps I used along with the problems I was having while brewing Orfy's Old Speckled Hen recipe. Hope you enjoy reading and hope this helps those who are new to brewing. This recipe is for an extract partial boil and the recipe can be found at the bottom of my post.
1) Boiled 3 Gallons of water and added to my sanitized fermenter. Put fermenter tub full of cold water.
2) Steeped 9oz 60L Crystal Malt in 2.5 gallons of water for 30 minutes. Water Temperature varied from 149 - 153 Farenheit.
3) Added 1/2 LME to boil for 60 min. Also added 2.4 oz of Northern Brewer hops. Removed kettle from heat during addition so I didn't scorch LME. (Barely avoided boilover from hot break. Am using a 3 gallon kettle and really gave me problems with boiling 2.5 gallon wort today).
4) Added other 1/2 of LME to boil at 15 min. mark. Also added .80 oz of EKG hops, 15 oz of Lyles Golden Syrup and 3.0 oz of Turbinado Sugar.
(Removed from heat as to not scorch LME or Syrup. Had difficulties bringing back to a good rolling boil until last 5 min.)
5) Added .53 oz EKG hops at 5 minute mark. Also added 1/2 whirlfloc tablet for clarity purposes.
6) Decided to boil for an additional 5 mnutes because I didn't have a good rolling boil going.
7) Removed from heat and placed in ice bath. (Took 35 mins to get to 75 degrees)
8) Swirled wort to get cold break and proteins to drop out of suspension and forma cone in the middle of kettle. Let it sit for ten minutes.
9) Racked wort into fermenter leaving hops in muslin bags behind.
10) Aerated wort by shaking vigorously for three minutes.
11) Pitched yeast starter into wort and put in airlock with iodophor solution.
12) Noticed bubbles in fermenter in two hours!
13) Fermenter bubbling vigorously at 8 hours.
My OG came out to 1.058 which is right about where it should be. I modified Orfy's recipe a bit and I used to procedure for a late extract addition which should give it a bit more bitterness. I wasn't really sure if his recipe was calculated for that but the sample I took tasted great. I can't believe that I had bubbles in the airlock after just two hours, that's a personal record! The biggest thing I need to do is get a larger brew kettle. I had too many problems trying to balance avoiding boilovers while keeping a rolling boil going. I would appreciate any pointers that you may have. Thanks for reading about my brewday!
TYPE: Extract and Steep
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 2.43 gal
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Ingredients:
------------
6 lbs 6 oz Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM)
15 oz Lyle's Golden Syrup (0.0 SRM)
9.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)
2.40 oz Northern Brewer [8.50%] (60 min) Hops 42.1 IBU
0.80 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (15 min) Hops 4.1 IBU
0.53 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (5 min) Hops 1.1 IBU
3 oz Turbinado Sugar
Mash Schedule: None
1) Boiled 3 Gallons of water and added to my sanitized fermenter. Put fermenter tub full of cold water.
2) Steeped 9oz 60L Crystal Malt in 2.5 gallons of water for 30 minutes. Water Temperature varied from 149 - 153 Farenheit.
3) Added 1/2 LME to boil for 60 min. Also added 2.4 oz of Northern Brewer hops. Removed kettle from heat during addition so I didn't scorch LME. (Barely avoided boilover from hot break. Am using a 3 gallon kettle and really gave me problems with boiling 2.5 gallon wort today).
4) Added other 1/2 of LME to boil at 15 min. mark. Also added .80 oz of EKG hops, 15 oz of Lyles Golden Syrup and 3.0 oz of Turbinado Sugar.
(Removed from heat as to not scorch LME or Syrup. Had difficulties bringing back to a good rolling boil until last 5 min.)
5) Added .53 oz EKG hops at 5 minute mark. Also added 1/2 whirlfloc tablet for clarity purposes.
6) Decided to boil for an additional 5 mnutes because I didn't have a good rolling boil going.
7) Removed from heat and placed in ice bath. (Took 35 mins to get to 75 degrees)
8) Swirled wort to get cold break and proteins to drop out of suspension and forma cone in the middle of kettle. Let it sit for ten minutes.
9) Racked wort into fermenter leaving hops in muslin bags behind.
10) Aerated wort by shaking vigorously for three minutes.
11) Pitched yeast starter into wort and put in airlock with iodophor solution.
12) Noticed bubbles in fermenter in two hours!
13) Fermenter bubbling vigorously at 8 hours.
My OG came out to 1.058 which is right about where it should be. I modified Orfy's recipe a bit and I used to procedure for a late extract addition which should give it a bit more bitterness. I wasn't really sure if his recipe was calculated for that but the sample I took tasted great. I can't believe that I had bubbles in the airlock after just two hours, that's a personal record! The biggest thing I need to do is get a larger brew kettle. I had too many problems trying to balance avoiding boilovers while keeping a rolling boil going. I would appreciate any pointers that you may have. Thanks for reading about my brewday!
TYPE: Extract and Steep
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 2.43 gal
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Ingredients:
------------
6 lbs 6 oz Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM)
15 oz Lyle's Golden Syrup (0.0 SRM)
9.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)
2.40 oz Northern Brewer [8.50%] (60 min) Hops 42.1 IBU
0.80 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (15 min) Hops 4.1 IBU
0.53 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (5 min) Hops 1.1 IBU
3 oz Turbinado Sugar
Mash Schedule: None