Help with planning my first extract brew

[mnixon]

Hi everyone,
I'm planning on doing a wheat beer this weekend, it'll be my 1st extract brew. I'd just like to list what I plan to do and maybe you can all tell me if it's not going to work out/can be improved.

In a 10L stock pot, I plan to add 7 litres of water boiled in the kettle to 1.5kg (3.3lbs) of Cooper's wheat extract (6.5 EBC).
Bring it to the boil and add 10g (1/3 oz) Halletau hops for 60mins
Then 10g Hallertau and a pinch of Irish Moss for 15 mins
10g orange peel and 10g fresh coriander for 10 mins
10g Saaz for 3 mins

Then cool it in the sink filled with ice water,
pour it through a filtered funnel into the fermenter
and top up with water until the SG is 1.050 (I expect this to be around the 10 litre mark)
make sure the temp is approx 23 degrees (73 fahrenheit) and add half of a 11.5g pack of s33 yeast

Does anyone see any problems that would arise from following this method? (you can take for granted that everything will be properly sanatised)

I'm also wondering would approx 10 litres (2.6 gallons) of wort in a 25 litre (6.6 gallon) fermenter lead to an infection? I do have a 10L fermenter but it's not clear and the lid is ridiculously hard to get off so I'm afraid of shaking up the sediment when trying to take it off.

Thanks, Mark

 

[unionrdr]

You can expect the cooper's extract to be darker. Maybe even some caramelization from boiling the LME for an hour. I'd maybe use half in the boil to keep the color/flavor more intact.

 

[drocu]

Everything looks pretty good. Instead of using the funnel, you could whirlpool your wort and rack it into your fermenter. Some people also rehydrate their dry yeast before use but this is open to debate.

For your primary, you can use a larger vessel than the amount of wort you have. Because the yeast are actively producing CO2, the rest of the head space will get filled and prevent oxidation. Or you could use your 10L fermenter; don't worry about shaking sediment up too badly because when you bottle, you should let it sit for an hour anyways to let things settle. The major concern I'd have with the 10L fermenter is that it may be too small if you have a large krausen which is why most people will primary ferment a 5 gallon batch in a 6.5 gallon vessel.

 

[mnixon]

You can expect the cooper's extract to be darker. Maybe even some caramelization from boiling the LME for an hour. I'd maybe use half in the boil to keep the color/flavor more intact.

I'm not too worried with colour for my 1st extract brew but that does sound like a good idea, I'll try that, thanks!

Everything looks pretty good. Instead of using the funnel, you could whirlpool your wort and rack it into your fermenter. Some people also rehydrate their dry yeast before use but this is open to debate.

For your primary, you can use a larger vessel than the amount of wort you have. Because the yeast are actively producing CO2, the rest of the head space will get filled and prevent oxidation. Or you could use your 10L fermenter; don't worry about shaking sediment up too badly because when you bottle, you should let it sit for an hour anyways to let things settle. The major concern I'd have with the 10L fermenter is that it may be too small if you have a large krausen which is why most people will primary ferment a 5 gallon batch in a 6.5 gallon vessel.

Ah! I never thought about the CO2 filling up the head space, so i'll use the 25 litre fermenter and avoid opening the lid during primary fermentation and then i'll rack it into the 10 litre fermenter for the secondary. I've never rehydrated the yeast in the kits I've done but I want to try so I'll do it on this one. And i'll give the whirlpooling a go too. Thanks for the advice!

 

[unionrdr]

Glad to help. Hope it comes out great!

 

[TopherM]

+1 on the not filtering. You really only need to filter if you are going for clarity on your brew, and a wheat beer isn't going to be clear anyway, so no real need to filter. Just leave your wort/beer in the primary for 2-4 weeks, and everything that is supposed to settle will settle, leaving you with the paticulates that are supposed to be left behind in a wheat beer.

 

[duboman]

I do a lot of extract and everything looks pretty good, definitely re-hydrate the yeast as it will speed up the fermentation process and reduce the lag time which sometimes may cause issues with flavors if too long. In the future you might consider using liquid pitchable yeast strains for more consistent results.

 

[rycov]

Looks like your right on track. One thing I might add is that it can be difficult to get your wort stirred thoroughly enough to get an accurate hydrometer reading if you are topping off with water. If the kit gives you a specific target volume then I would go with that, and count on the og being close to what the kit says.

 

[mnixon]

Lots of good advice there, thanks for all the replies

Looks like your right on track. One thing I might add is that it can be difficult to get your wort stirred thoroughly enough to get an accurate hydrometer reading if you are topping off with water. If the kit gives you a specific target volume then I would go with that, and count on the og being close to what the kit says.

It's not a kit as such, just a can of cooper's wheat extract, and then hops from a vacuumed packed. I'm looking for an OG of 1.050 and i worked it out on beertools.com to be about 10 litres (2.6 gallons) so I'll aim for that. Hopefully it'll work out at that, but my main goal for my 1st attempt is just to get a finished product. Thanks for the help!

 

[hairy]

Welcome aboard to the homebrewing circle mnixon.

Looks good. All of us started homebrewing sometime in the past. The first brew will be very exciting. The 2 weeks wait will be difficult but you need to be patient. Actually, the effort needed to make 10L is about the same as 20L (except during bottling).

Why did you choose to make 10L?

 

[rycov]

but my main goal for my 1st attempt is just to get a finished product. Thanks for the help!

Im sure you will, good luck with your first brew. And you can still try to check your gravity, it may be close enough. But if the brew calculator said that's what youll get with 10L then it should be pretty close..

 

[mnixon]

Welcome aboard to the homebrewing circle mnixon.

Looks good. All of us started homebrewing sometime in the past. The first brew will be very exciting. The 2 weeks wait will be difficult but you need to be patient. Actually, the effort needed to make 10L is about the same as 20L (except during bottling).

Why did you choose to make 10L?

I meant my first attempt at extract brewing, I've made 4 kits so far but I want to work my way up to all grain so this is a stepping stone. The reason for going for a 10L brew is that the only malt i currently have is the wheat extract and some light LME, I'd just prefer to do 2 10L brews with them, that way if i mess up on the 1st one I'm only throwing out half as much. And I also want to get in as many extract batches as possible for the experience before moving to all grain. I'll definitely be aiming for 23 litres when i start all grain though!

 

[rycov]

sweet! well when you get these two done then take the plunge! do a little reading first and jump in, once you get started its not as intimidating as it seems.

 

[mnixon]

thanks! I'm currently working on building my equipment from scratch so I'll stick with the extract until the end of summer, hopefully then I'll be ready for all grain. thanks for the help!

 

[hairy]

opps. I am sorry. Misread your post. Thought you are a new brewer.

From experience, extract brewing is not that different from kit brewing. Just need more boiling time. When you start to go AG, that's where the really big difference is.

Anyway, do consider a partial mash (either with a kit or with extract) to hone up mashing skills first before jumping into all grain. The small amount of grain is easier to handle and allows us to practice a little.

 

[mnixon]

I did this brew on saturday and it passed off without any hitches, it's fermenting away happily now. I'll report back when it's bottled to say whether the recipe is any good! Thanks for everyone's help and advice

 

[mnixon]

Does this look infected? I opened it up because the airlock had stopped bubbling to take a gravity reading. OG was 1.040, SG is 1.012. It smells ok and had a tiny taste and it tastes fine.

 

[hairy]

Looks fine. Don't worry. My airlock has never bubbled before. In fact, I got so pissed at it that I decided that I won't use one. All brews worked out ok.

40 is quite a low OG. With gravity now at 12, we are looking at 70% apparent attenuation which is around the average for most yeasts though somewhat on the low side. Let it sit for a few days and continue to take readings.

 

[unionrdr]

I had the same problem with no airlock activity on my cooper's micro brew FV. It had so much pressure that the lid was creaking like an old wooden ship in still water.
I checked it after clean up,& found "molding flash" on the mold seam. This seam happens to run right through the middle of the lid's sealing surface & thread area. I took a small knife (exacto is great here),& trimmed the flash off till flat again. It bubbles when it should now,no more pressure build ups.
So check & see if that's it. It doesn't seem to take much to lift the lid seal up enough to leak co2 around it.