Partial Boil Questions

[Rank_Amateur]

Hey guys,

I'm going to try making an extract based porter this weekend along with some steeped grains. Its not based on a specific recipe (so far my 6 brews have all been kit and kilo brews with some adjuncts or dry hopping to "tart" them up - and all have been drinkable)

I'm still new and learning and so rather than trying specific recipe's or clones I'm working of some general ideas and seeing what happens. So anyhoo my plan is this.

Steep the grains, and the top up to 5l with some LME to get to a gravity of 1.040 to maximise hops utilisation. Then carry out a 30 minute boil with appropriate quantities Fuggles and EKG hops to get an IBU of around 40 or so.

I also have a can of a bock kit which I will add at flame out.

However I was thinking (based on some reading) to also boil the remaining LME and DME (basically the unused portion of the 1.5kg LME,and 500gm Dark DME) for maybe 5-10 minutes (enough to get a hot break and then for 5 more minutes after that) - i have 2 x 7litre stock pots available

My theory is thus:

Boiling the wort produced from the grains and adjusted to 1.040 get the maximum hops utilisation. But I figure that by boiling the remaining LME and DME this should hopefully produce a slightly better beer by creating a hot break and therefore dropping out the associated proteins. This will only be a short boil (i.e. just enough to get a break going), and the gravity wont matter because there are no hop additions.

From what i have read everyone recommends doing a full volume boil if you can so I figured this would kinda achieve the same result, but in 2 batches. Also because I am aiming for a porter style colour doesn't matter and in effect the darker the better.

Thoughts or tips anyone? I will eventually start trying recipes - but at the moment i am happy more or less experimenting and see what comes out - plus this is my first time with grains. I figure at the moment if I come up with a basic idea and see what happens then i wont have any expectations of a recipe and so if it doesn't come out the same it doesn't matter - so long as it is good to drink!

PPS I also keep a detailed diary of the process for each brew (manually) so can use that to identify where possible issues might be. I have some software but most don't have the commonly available kits used in New Zealand (home of Sauvin!) so once I start going to pure extract and away from kits then I will start using the software for more than just calculating IBU's and ABV.

EDIT: The extract only boil will also be 5L and the total volume going into the fermenter will be 23 litres (5 UK gal I think)

 

[Grinder12000]

Geez you say you are new to brewing and not using any recipe? This is like someone new to cooking not making anything he has tasted before. How will you know if you achieved your goal. If the batch turns out bad.... Is it you or the recipe you made up.


Anyway . . . What is the question?

Seems to me you are creating an excuse for failure. Instead of making a guaranteed good beer you are just putting stuff together and hoping it comes out good as an "experiment". If it fails it's just an experiment anyway..

So . . What was the question? LOL

Maybe I'm not understanding something. " going to extracts"

 

[william_shakes_beer]

Up until recently I did all extract batches. Started with brewers best kits, then graduated to recipies I found here on the forums. You do what makes you happy, but I would recommend you take a look at the style guidelines, select a style that appeals to your pallet and craft a recipie of your own based on it. Think of it this way: If I was baking a cake I could either:

1. toss some stuff from the kitchen in to a bowl, stir it around, and throw it in the oven at some temperature for some time

OR:

2. Find a recipie for a cake I had enjoyed in the past, bake it, then tweak the recipie to bring out certain attributes that make it more appealing to me.

Think of the style guidelines as a list of cakes that have been baked successfully throughout generations. The guidelines represent the brewing heritage that has been developed by our predecessors out of necessity, enginuity, and inventiveness. At a minimum they provide a combination of maltiness and bitterness that over the years thousands of beer drinkers have tried and found pleasant. You owe it to yoursef, your investment in time, equipment and ingredients to leverage this historical knowledge to create a beer you will be proud to share with friends and family

Sorry for the soapbox. I only want you to be happy. 8 weeks is an awfully long time to wait to drink a bottle of weasel wee.

 

[Rank_Amateur]

LOL... OK some more background. whilst I am a noob (I have 6 kit'n'Kilo brews under the belt...) I have also done a lot of reading and I do know more or less how to bake a cake to borrow the analogy used... So recipe wise whilst I am not following a specific recipe I do understand the style I am attempting to produce... Grain wise I will be steeping 200gm Rauchmalt, 300gm of dark crystal and 200gm of roasted barley, along with the Cans of LME and DME I'm wanting to produce a slightly smoky robust porter style beer... But this is my first time steeping grains etc so another step towards going all grain which is the ultimate goal.

So my question is basically is there any benefit to boiling my left over DME and LME given I only have a pair of small stock pots to work with... (after seeing a number of posts recommending doing full volume boils if you can - which I can't because I don't have a big enough pot)

 

[william_shakes_beer]

Yes; If you boil your LME and DME to sterilize it and disolve it completely, you will boost your original gravity and most likely will get a maltier beer. What is the size pots are you using? I use a 7.5 gallon turkey fryer to boil. I fill it about 2/3 of the way (about 4 gallons) with water, then do a partial boil with all the ingredients, and top off with tap water after I have cooled and strained to the fermenter. The more you boil the better, although I have yet to do a full boil. Some will say I am risking infection by not boiling my top off water. I figure I would be getting sick all the time if there were harmful bacteria in my tap water. The guidelines provide descriptions for Brown porter, Robust porter, and Baltic Porter. Which one are you aiming for? That will tell you where to shoot for your OG and IBUs. (If I am becoming a nag let me know and I'll stop)

 

[unionrdr]

You can boiol the LME & DME only if they're plain (un-hopped). hopped extracts will boil down flavor/aroma additions into bittering. Since pasteurization happens at 162F,you don't need to boil it to achieve it.
For the most part,steeping grains are for color,head retention,that sort of thing. You won't get a lot of fermentables,as they need to be mashed with a base malt to get conversion.

 

[Rank_Amateur]

Thanks William & Union - appreciate the help. Style wise a Robust Porter (but a little smoky with the Rauchmalt). When i plug my basic ingredients into brew mate and assume 10% efficiency (to reflect steeping over mashing grains - but assuming a small amount of conversion from the Rauchmalt which has some diastatic power) I come out at about 1.045 OG and with my planned hops additions during the boil I come out with 19 IBU, with an additional 20 IBU from the pre-hopped kit. So I'm possibly a bit light on the OG so I will pick up some additional Light DME and will adjust the gravity prior to pitching to get it up to about 1.050 - 1.055

So thanks for the hint - checking the style guidelines was something I will do a bit more often.

Part of the reason I haven't been using recipe's is that I have been using pre-hopped LME kits... and then adding some adjuncts e.g. honey and dry hopping. My last brew I used a pre hopped kit, but carried out a 5 litre boil as I wanted to up the bitterness over what you normally get in a kit... (yep I understand not to boil the pre-hopped kit thanks!)

so i am slowly progressing to the point where i will stop using pre hopped kits and doing extract brews pretty soon - and then yes I will need to follow a recipe.

I hope this makes a bit more sense now?