A Pictoral how to brew an extract kit.

[dfc]

Great resource for us newbies. Thanks!

BTW, BFC - you heading to Cornerstone again this year?

I take it you saw my other videos. Nah, I haven't gone since 2007. I quit going when I quit getting paid to go. Also, it's a lot further to Macomb, IL from Arizona than it is from Ohio. Cool festival though.

 

[dfc]

great post!!! i am greatly appreciative of it and will be using this as a guide for my first batch. good work and it looks like an awesome brew! cant wait to try a festive batch myself.

Enjoy the addiction.

 

[Robusto]

DUDE! Totally awesome thread. So helpful. If brewers had a Nobel prize, I would definitely nominate you. Keep up the good work.

 

[dfc]

DUDE! Totally awesome thread. So helpful. If brewers had a Nobel prize, I would definitely nominate you. Keep up the good work.

Haha. I think you may be going overboard, but I appreciate it.

 

[durk]

very nice! thanks for the info. im gonna do my first batch soon and pictorial was very nice to see. whats the soundtrack of your vid? i somehow got more into the music than the actual video. lol.

 

[dfc]

very nice! thanks for the info. im gonna do my first batch soon and pictorial was very nice to see. whats the soundtrack of your vid? i somehow got more into the music than the actual video. lol.

Broadcasting by Comeback Kid.

 

[Cheepbeer]

Great learning post... Thanks!

 

[dfc]

Great learning post... Thanks!

No worries. I'm glad the thread helped you out.

 

[janson745]

This is AWESOME. I just brewed my second Extract kit yesterday and I opted for placing filtered water and Ice into my wort to bring up to the 5 gallons and cool at the same time. Today, I was having second thoughts on wheter or not I should have used Ice, since it cooled the wort to 75* in only about 5 minutes time. Way faster than I cooled it down for beer #1.

But basically you completely put me at ease. And gave me a great idea with the bottling bucket for aeration. Keep up the great work dfc!

 

[dfc]

I did close to thirty batches by adding ice directly to the wort. I never had any issues with that. Glad I could help!

 

[FTG-05]

Excellent thread!!!!!!!!!!! I extract brew exclusively - well actually I would if it was legal here in AL - but if I did it for real, this thread was a great help!!!!

Thanks Much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[dfc]

Excellent thread!!!!!!!!!!! I extract brew exclusively - well actually I would if it was legal here in AL - but if I did it for real, this thread was a great help!!!!

Thanks Much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You got it.

 

[cank]

Very helpful.
I am about to brew my first batch, an extract from Northern Brewers, and I just wanted to ask a few questions.

Do you add the ice to the hot wort in the brew kettle or just pour your hot wort into the bottling bucket then add the ice? What do you use to filter hops and what not from brew kettle to bottling bucket?

Is the ice melted in the ten minutes it takes to cool the wort, and if not, do you wait until it is melted to take a SG reading?

Thanks for a great post.

 

[dfc]

Very helpful.
I am about to brew my first batch, an extract from Northern Brewers, and I just wanted to ask a few questions.

Do you add the ice to the hot wort in the brew kettle or just pour your hot wort into the bottling bucket then add the ice? What do you use to filter hops and what not from brew kettle to bottling bucket?

Is the ice melted in the ten minutes it takes to cool the wort, and if not, do you wait until it is melted to take a SG reading?

Thanks for a great post.

I have since moved on to AG, but on occasion I'll still brew an extract batch. As far as your questions:

I add half the ice to the kettle to cool it down some before I add the rest to the bottling bucket. I then pour my wort into the bottling bucket which has a sanitized nylon 5 gallon paint strainer bag in it. I pull out the bag once the ice is melted and the wort has been strained at that point.

Once the ice is completely melted I aerate by running the wort through my spigot into primary. Once everything drains into primary the wort is mixed very well and that's when I take a SG reading.

BTW, I'm glad I could help!

 

[techbrewie]

That is a pretty creative way to aerate the wort. I usually dont have an issue with my yeast. but I may start trying this on higher gravity brews. Great job on the pictorals!

 

[boscobeans]

When steeping the grains I gently mash the bag around a few times during the time it's in the water.

Great post. I'm sure it will help anyone who follows along with it.

bosco

 

[dfc]

That is a pretty creative way to aerate the wort. I usually dont have an issue with my yeast. but I may start trying this on higher gravity brews. Great job on the pictorals!

When steeping the grains I gently mash the bag around a few times during the time it's in the water.

Great post. I'm sure it will help anyone who follows along with it.

bosco

Thanks, guys!

 

[BonzoAPD]

This is a great step by step how to!

 

[Eman24dx]

For my first ever brew (Before I saw this method) I has a 2.5G water jug (The kind your grandfather had in his fridge before bottled water became popular) I just brought the jug close to frozen in the freezer and used it as my top off ice-water from the counter with my bucket on the ground. Similar to the way you did it. Not only does it cool the work, but you get 2.5G of spring water for top for around $3!

Nice work!

 

[kingofmalkier]

I read through a lot of threads here and read The Complete Joy of Home Brewing beginner's section a whole bunch before trying for first extract brew two days ago. I thought that I had a very good idea of what to do but ran into some procedural issues trying to get from flame out to pitching. It's amazing how many little details can be confusing to a new brewer!

My recipe (Brewer's Best IPA kit) said to add water to get to about 5 gallons while staying in the proper range of SG. I'm standing there with a bunch of wort in a carboy thinking "I will never get my hydrometer out of that little hole, but I don't want to keep pulling out vials of wort and chucking them." Your technique of using a bottling bucket as a step in between kettle and primary looks like it could help me out a lot. Also, giant blocks of ice will work much better than a snowbank to cool the wort. I'm pretty sure I actually just ended up with an igloo that helped keep the wort warm instead of cooling it down...

Thanks for really helping settle this process into my brain.

 

[Eman24dx]

For my first brew I used an ice bath and on my 2nd brew I tried to put it in the snow. For whatever reason the ice bath worked 10x faster. Cold top off water and sanitized ice work well also.

 

[Imprezed86]

Awesome thread man! This will be extremly helpful when i move up to the five gallon batches. Pictures are always more helpful then just reading all the time IMO.... Thanks!!

 

[kebrugler]

Question on top off water. If I start with 6 gallonsi, boil off a gallon or so during the boil, should I add top off water into the bottling bucket before aerating it into the fermetner, to have about 5.5 gallons in the fermenter? Or do you shoot for exactly 5 gallons into the fermenter? I have seen people saying 5.5, 5, 5.25, what is the normal amout to have the level at in the fermenter to begin fermentation?

 

[dfc]

Question on top off water. If I start with 6 gallonsi, boil off a gallon or so during the boil, should I add top off water into the bottling bucket before aerating it into the fermetner, to have about 5.5 gallons in the fermenter? Or do you shoot for exactly 5 gallons into the fermenter? I have seen people saying 5.5, 5, 5.25, what is the normal amout to have the level at in the fermenter to begin fermentation?

It really depends on the batch and your own technique. There's nothing wrong with doing 5, 5.5, 6 gallon batches, etc. If you're doing extract and topping off with water to cool down your wort you'll want more than .5-1 gallon unless you are using another cooling method in conjunction with top off water.

 

[skitter]

Helps take away the worries about steeping Nice Artwork btw!

I'll be trying that recipe out after the Mild I am doing this weekend, 2/3/1 work?

Thanks for the info man!

 

[dfc]

Helps take away the worries about steeping Nice Artwork btw!

I'll be trying that recipe out after the Mild I am doing this weekend, 2/3/1 work?

Thanks for the info man!

No worries. I'm just glad I could help!

 

[skitter]

No worries. I'm just glad I could help!

Normal Ferment/Bottle/Fridge of 2/3/1 work or does this need longer in the fermenter?

 

[Hang Glider]

I've personally never fermented in 2 weeks - I let it sit and do it's thing and forget about it for a month. My fermentation control system will hold 2 carboys, so I'm never hurting for space. That way everything has settled out, the yeast has done everything it ever wanted to do...then 2-3 weeks in the bottle. Fridge can be less - 48 hours is usually fine.

Your methods may vary...of course.

 

[skitter]

I've personally never fermented in 2 weeks - I let it sit and do it's thing and forget about it for a month. My fermentation control system will hold 2 carboys, so I'm never hurting for space. That way everything has settled out, the yeast has done everything it ever wanted to do...then 2-3 weeks in the bottle. Fridge can be less - 48 hours is usually fine.

Your methods may vary...of course.

Mr. Beer keg fermenter, it's an open vat style not an airlock, so unless it's fermenting actively with positive pressure risk of infection increases. This is why I normally don't keep anything in my keg for more than 2 weeks.

 

[dfc]

Normal Ferment/Bottle/Fridge of 2/3/1 work or does this need longer in the fermenter?

If I remember correctly I did 3 weeks in the fermenter, 3 weeks in bottles and a few days in the fridge.