10 tips to better extract brewing

[pmzjr69]

Question:
I have made "true brew, all malt brown ale" on jan 1st 2012. OG gravity was 1.043. No frementing action since jan 3rd. current gravity reading was 1.022. instructions expecting FG would be 1.010 - 1.012. how much time do i need to wait until start bottling. This inform would be helpful for me to arrange friends for assist with bottle. jan 15th is too soon, I would think.

 

[djbradle]

pmzjr69 - What kind of yeast did you use? Dried or liquid? Did you make a starter? I think you probably used dried yeast. Did you rehydrate it properly? For sure you must not bottle at all until your FG is stable and fermentation has indeed stopped. Swirl the primary and bring into a warmer temp zone for that specific yeast and maybe it will kick start again. Sometimes action stops for a couple days.


To the heart of this thread-
I got myself a 7.5 quart brew kettle with thermometer built in, a ss wort chiller, and an extra primary and secondary on top of the deluxe northern brewer brew kit. The wort chiller is unbelievable and gets me down from around 170 to 70 in like 8-10 mins. I have yet to really utilize the brew kettle size properly but now I can due to reading up through this site voraciously. The info in the above 10 points is simply awesome and gave me some great help. I will definitely try steeping in less and do full boils. I usually let the brew kettle rest over two gas burners ( fits just right) and it gives a vigorous boil, not a rolling boil.

I've been good to my yeast but need to further polish the malt understanding. Of course I have barely gotton into my first secondary for my first brew so I'm setting my bar high =)

 

[StophJS]

I've read in a number of places that it doesn't particularly matter how much water you steep your grains in.

 

[HankyPanky]

Its hard for me to get a rolling boil with my electric flat stove top this is a good read tho.

 

[pmzjr69]

pmzjr69 - What kind of yeast did you use? Dried or liquid? Did you make a starter? I think you probably used dried yeast. Did you rehydrate it properly? For sure you must not bottle at all until your FG is stable and fermentation has indeed stopped. Swirl the primary and bring into a warmer temp zone for that specific yeast and maybe it will kick start again. Sometimes action stops for a couple days.

To the heart of this thread-
I got myself a 7.5 quart brew kettle with thermometer built in, a ss wort chiller, and an extra primary and secondary on top of the deluxe northern brewer brew kit. The wort chiller is unbelievable and gets me down from around 170 to 70 in like 8-10 mins. I have yet to really utilize the brew kettle size properly but now I can due to reading up through this site voraciously. The info in the above 10 points is simply awesome and gave me some great help. I will definitely try steeping in less and do full boils. I usually let the brew kettle rest over two gas burners ( fits just right) and it gives a vigorous boil, not a rolling boil.

I've been good to my yeast but need to further polish the malt understanding. Of course I have barely gotton into my first secondary for my first brew so I'm setting my bar high =)

It was dry yeast and the instruction says spread on top of wort.

 

[scrawbag]

i had to comment so i can find this easily on brew day
now lets party :rockin:

 

[mblanks2]

Its hard for me to get a rolling boil with my electric flat stove top this is a good read tho.

Turn on your second largest burner and slide between the two as they cycle on and off or better yet, just get a turkey frier and 20# propane tank. The efficiency of the propane burner is worth every penny. $75 or less at Lowes or HD for the burner.

 

[unionrdr]

Going back to the original thoughts,it's not globs of LME sinking to the bottom & caramelizing the rest of the wort. Thoat part burns. It's the LME dissolved in the water being boiled a second time for yet another hour that does it. It'd already been processed,& doesn't need to be processed again.
I always save LME for flame out & use half a 3lb bag of plain DME in the partial boil of about 3.5 gallons. Or in partial mash with the grains being 50% of the fermentables,I use that for hop additions & all the extract at flmae out. Works really well.
Late extract aditions make for lighter beers & no twang even in partial boils. The boil volume has little to do with that aspect of it. It's more like how much,when,& for how long. And fermentability of the mash depends on the temp. Lower end of temp range,more fermentabitilty. Higher end,less fermentabitility. And even though those extracts replacing the sugars were darker than the extra light malts used in common lagers,it's misleading to say they told people to replace the sugar with darker malts. That's wrong. It sounds like you've basically got it,but some of the definitions are off.

 

[HopWolf]

I've been looking for improvements in my brewing and this has answered many of my questions

 

[CrookedTail]

Going back to the original thoughts,it's not globs of LME sinking to the bottom & caramelizing the rest of the wort. Thoat part burns. It's the LME dissolved in the water being boiled a second time for yet another hour that does it. It'd already been processed,& doesn't need to be processed again.
I always save LME for flame out & use half a 3lb bag of plain DME in the partial boil of about 3.5 gallons. Or in partial mash with the grains being 50% of the fermentables,I use that for hop additions & all the extract at flmae out. Works really well.
Late extract aditions make for lighter beers & no twang even in partial boils. The boil volume has little to do with that aspect of it. It's more like how much,when,& for how long. And fermentability of the mash depends on the temp. Lower end of temp range,more fermentabitilty. Higher end,less fermentabitility. And even though those extracts replacing the sugars were darker than the extra light malts used in common lagers,it's misleading to say they told people to replace the sugar with darker malts. That's wrong. It sounds like you've basically got it,but some of the definitions are off.

Good advice if you're looking to brew a light-colored extract beer. Although if you're brewing something like a pilsner, I'd go even further and say to only use extra light DME for the entire brew. Using only DME with late extract additions, you can achieve a very light color, even if you're doing a partial boil.

That said I find that I prefer using LME. I think it is easier to work with, and if fresh, tastes better.

 

[unionrdr]

That's pretty much what I'm doing for my Hopped & Confused ale. But it works for dark ales/lagers as well. I use combinations of LME & DME in my AE beers,so I get more complexities there. The fresh wort in my partial mashes being 50% of the fermentables allows me to save the couple ponds of extract for flame out as a late addition.

 

[CrookedTail]

That's pretty much what I'm doing for my Hopped & Confused ale. But it works for dark ales/lagers as well. I use combinations of LME & DME in my AE beers,so I get more complexities there. The fresh wort in my partial mashes being 50% of the fermentables allows me to save the couple ponds of extract for flame out as a late addition.

That's exactly how I brew my PM brews as well. I'm basically brewing an all-grain brew during the boil, then adding the extract at flameout, chilling the wort, and topping it off with cold water in the fermenter.

It works beautifully.

 

[unionrdr]

That's exactly how I brew my PM brews as well. I'm basically brewing an all-grain brew during the boil, then adding the extract at flameout, chilling the wort, and topping it off with cold water in the fermenter.

It works beautifully.

Yes it does. And I'm doing partial boils with 3.5 gallons to boot!

 

[M125x]

Great topic. Thanks for all the tips.

 

[sutepan]

This is a great thread.

I have one question: If the issue with steeping in a large volume of water is the possibility of high ph extracting tannins, would it not be better to adjust the ph of the steep water rather than the volume? My water ph is 7.2. I add 2 tsp of gypsum to 5.7 gallons of steeping water @ 155F to bring the ph down.

 

[unionrdr]

Adjusting the PH is probably the better way to do it.

 

[sutepan]

Just got back from my LHBS, talked to a guy there who's opinion has never set me wrong. He believes that ph during steeping of specialty grains in extract brewing is a non-issue, as you are not trying to pull sugars out of the grains as in a mash for all-grain. As long as temp is kept below 170 (I steep at 155) no significant tannins will be released.

Also did a little more research online today about gypsum (which I add to my water before steeping); apparently adding it to the steeping water doesn't affect ph, I would have to add liquid extract as well for it to lower ph...who knew! A non-issue tho if ph doesn't really matter for steeping.

Opinions?

 

[CrookedTail]

From what I have always read, extract brewers really don't need to worry about water pH. In fact a lot of people recommend using distilled water when brewing extract beer, because the extract already has minerals in it from the water the extract manufacturer used to produce it. Personally I just use filtered tap water, and never had an issue.

As for a steeping method, I make a loose porridge with my steeping grains and some 150-160 degree water in a smaller pot. I then sit a fine mesh pasta strainer over my brewpot and drain the porridge into it. Then I ladle some sparge water over the grains as they sit in the strainer over the pot. Once it drains I discard (or save for bread) the grains and proceed with the boil. When I'm brewing extract beer this has worked well for me.

 

[Thegreatestgray]

This is a great thread and should be a sticky IMO anyway

One question if you add the extract late wouldn't you still have to worry about hot break or does the hot break just come from the steeping grains

 

[CrookedTail]

This is a great thread and should be a sticky IMO anyway

One question if you add the extract late wouldn't you still have to worry about hot break or does the hot break just come from the steeping grains

If you add it flameout, no. If there's still time left in the boil, yes.

 

[BlauMaus]

Read this once before, worth saving. I have an IPA in my secondary right now that did not retain any of the hop flavor that it should have. I'm going to stop using bags, per this article's suggestion.

 

[sutepan]

Great thread, forcing me to shake-up 10yrs of the same procedures!

I've always steeped in a grain bag in the full pre-boil volume (5.7gallons for a 5g batch). This time I steeped loose in 1gallon, then transferred through a sieve with cheesecloth and rinsed the grains with extra water. Probably unrelated, but my hot-break wasn't as extreme as usual.

I didn't do a late LME addition as I'm not convinced yet it's the way to go...

Used my new home-made immersion chiller to bring the wort down to 21C in 10min...love that thing! Pitched 1056 at 21C and fermented 5 days at 16C. Usually I ferment at around 19-20C, but read in the specs that 1056 can introduce citrus notes at the lower end of the range (probably hard to tell with all the Simcoe and Amarillo). Had a great steady fermentation and am sending to the secondary today.

Unfortunately I broke my hydrometer just before measuring the OG...doh! Supposed to be 1.055, and usually have nailed it right on in the past. Down to 1.012 this morning on the new hydrometer (3rd one broken already this year...clutz) and still a bit of action.

This is one of my tried-and-trues, a homemade recipe I've made maybe 6 times before, so hopefully I'll notice some differences!

Paco's Pale

Ingredients

1.00 tsp Gypsum
0.35 kg Carafoam (3.9 EBC)
0.10 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (118.2 EBC)
3.40 kg Pale Liquid Extract (15.8 EBC)
10.00 g Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min
10.00 g Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min
0.50 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins)
15.00 g Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 7.0 min
10.00 g Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 7.0 min
15.00 g Simcoe [13.00 %] - Aroma Steep 0.0 min
10.00 g Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Aroma Steep 0.0 min
1.0 pkg American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056)
15.00 g Simcoe [13.00 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days
10.00 g Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Dry Hop 5.0 Days

Est Original Gravity: 1.055 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.048 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.013 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.013 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.5 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.6 %
Bitterness: 40.8 IBUs Calories: 159.8 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 18.8 EBC

 

[BigAlex]

Let us know how it comes out sutepan, im interested in your thoughts since you have a good control

 

[sutepan]

This beer turned out very very well, definitely the best of all the times I've made it. The body and mouthfeel are spot-on for what I like. I can't really say how much this has to do with it, but I will continue to steep my grains loose in a smaller volume of water.

The hop aroma on this one is stunning. My favourite recipe just got better!

 

[kingboomer]

Very good info. I'm subbing to come back to this when I do my next brew.


-Kingboomer

 

[unionrdr]

I'm thinking the best tip of all would be to not think too far ahead on brew or bottling day. That's still a hard one after a couple of years at this beer brewing. Let alone adding all the years I made wine. Think too far ahead & you'll likely forget some quick,simple little thing that's important to the over-all process somehow. Aaaah,boy that NZ IPA airlock smells bloody good. Bubbling so strong I can smell it some 6' away...yum yum.

 

[el-pietro]

will be coming back to this on my next brew day

 

[HopWolf]

OK, I'm brewing MoreBeer's Blind Pig IPA extract kit w/ specialty grains this weekend and I want to use as much of this info as possible.
I can do full boils as I have a 9 gal kettle and I made a immersion chiller that drop the wert down to 80 in less than 10 min.
I also did the late extract addition (or more like 1/2 now and 1/2 late) on my last brew and felt it helped but on all my previous attempts I did steep in 3-3.5 gallons of water and then rinsed the grains with about two gallons of water, which is all store bought Mountain Spring water.

So should I warm up 5+ gallons in my kettle while I steep the specialty grains on my stove in a small pot. I can then strain that mini mash into the kettle and rinse with that brew pot water? This seems like the most efficient way other than steeping in the kettle, rinsing with a bit of warmed water and then adding almost 4 gallons of room temp water from the bottles.

Also does anyone else use Mountain Spring water? My house water isn't bad but I don't have a water report that's worth a crap, I also have a softener and I've seen somewhere that using that water might be preferred.

Thanks in advance

 

[unionrdr]

I used spring water from Giant Eagle @ 79c per gallon. Then I remembered the 2 local spring water sources. I get local spring water now at the source for 10c per gallon. 60c for enough to brew 5 gallon batches plus boil off is pretty good right there...

 

[sutepan]

Tried first wort hop additions on my last two batches, a rye ale and a Simcoe IPA. Steeped my specialty grains in a small volume of water for 30 minutes @ 155, strained out grains, brought to full boil volume at 155, added liquid extract and hops, let sit at 155 20 minutes, then commenced with regular 60 minute boil.

Will post results when I taste them in a few weeks...