Hey! Soon, my gear will arrive and I'll brew my first extract kit. Because I'm excited, I'm already trying to formulate my procedure for the next recipe. Feeling bold, I don't want to go for a kit this time. I went looking around and found an extract recipe in John Palmer's book which seemed low on ingredients but just complex enough to be a step up from the simple kit, as well as tasty. It uses 2 types of hops, 1 type of steeping grain and one type of malt extract. I tried my best to substitute with what was available to me.
The batch size did not match my goal and as a German I'm used to metric units, so I went ahead and converted and recalculated everything to fit my needs. I'd like to know if these numbers sound correct to you and also, if possible, what you think of the chosen brands!
Original recipe found here: http://howtobrew.com/book/section-4/ale-styles
Victory and Chaos India Pale Ale
Batch size: 12 liters, Boil Volume: 7.2 liters
Malts:
-2 kg GOZDAWA spray malt extract, extra light unhopped
-150 g CARAAROMA® (about 350 - 450 EBC) (substituted for Crystal 120L)
BG: 1.103
OG: 1.060
FG: 1.014
ABV: 6.07%
Hops:
-26g Galena (13.6%) at 60 minutes
-36g East Kent Goldings (5.2%) at 15 minutes
-18g East Kent Goldings (5.2%) at 5 minutes
IBU: 59.5
Yeast: Danstar Nottingham Ale - 11g
Fermenting temperature: 14°C - 21°C (lower is possible, suggested for lagers, though)
All water used is bought in bottles to avoid chloramine problems and ensure the top-off water is sterile. When using tap water, a quarter campden tablet should be used to be safe.
Complete procedure:
Steep grains in the 7.2l of water at around 160F for 30 minutes.
Remove grains, let it drip into the pot for a minute or two, do not squeeze.
Bring to a rolling boil, then remove the pot from the burner and stir in the malt extracts until dissolved.
Return pot to the burner and boil again.
Start the timer and make the hop additions according to schedule.
After 60 min, place into the sink with cold water, ice, whatever you can to chill the wort.
Once cooled to the target temperature, add the remaining 5l of water (bottled, hence sterile - when using tap water, boil first to sterilize) to the fermenter, add the wort and check temperature again. Chill if needed to reach 70F. Calculate the target temperature using the weighted average formula at the bottom.
Pitch the yeast, assemble fermenter, and keep it in a cool room of around 60F until fermentation is complete (2-3 weeks). Check gravity after 3 weeks, then again 2-3 days later. Compare results - if they're the same, fermentation is complete. If not, repeat every 2-3 days until two consecutive readings are the same.
Add 67g of sugar (sucrose, table sugar) dissolved in some water for bottle priming and bottle. Recalculate this amoung to account for losses from the trub and debris!
Store (=Condition) for at least 2-4 weeks before sampling.
(Sanitizing steps for equipment were omitted.)
As for the yeast: 133 billion cells should be added. Likely, the Wyeast package will contain less than 100 billion. A 1 liter starter should be used or alternatively, 2 packages. ncbrewer also suggested using a package of rehydrated US-05.
My final choice will be one package of rehydrated Nottingham.
This procedure is formulated by a beginner as an exercise and should not be taken as 100% correct! (edit: after a lot of advice was given, I'm going to say this is how I will do it) I'm hoping I'll get some input from the more experienced homebrewers so I can make sure everything is correct. I'll be updating this post with every advice I'm getting. Thanks for reading!
simple weighted average formula: (61 x 12 - <top-off water temperature in F> x <top-off water volume>) / <wort volume in l> = <target wort temperature in F>
Example: Wort volume was reduced in the boil to 6.5l, so 5.5l of top-off water is needed, which was stored in the fridge and has reached 53F.
(61*12 - 53*5.5)/6.5 = 67.7F - This is the target temperature.
edit: included some of the advice given by ncbrewer in his first response
edit: added mention for tap water vs bottled, and how to use a campden tablet, adjusted flavor hops back to original amounts. Mentioned yeast cell count and proposed using a 1l starter. Mentioned recalculating the priming sugar to account for any volume lost to trub and debris.
edit: Revisited the recipe and basically changed it completely:
200g Caramunich at 160F for 30 minutes. (= 7 oz)
1 kg Extra Light DME at the start of the boil (= 2.2 lbs)
1 kg Extra Light DME at flameout (= 2.2 lbs)
Boil a total of 15 minutes, since it's extract it should be fine with a short boil.
Hops:
15 g Simcoe Pellet 12.7 Boil 15 min 30.16 (= .5 oz)
30 g Manda B Pellet 9.2 Boil 5 min 11.33 (= 1 oz)
30 g Manda B Pellet 9.2 Boil 0 min --- (= 1 oz)
Total IBUs are 41.5.
The batch size did not match my goal and as a German I'm used to metric units, so I went ahead and converted and recalculated everything to fit my needs. I'd like to know if these numbers sound correct to you and also, if possible, what you think of the chosen brands!
Original recipe found here: http://howtobrew.com/book/section-4/ale-styles
Victory and Chaos India Pale Ale
Batch size: 12 liters, Boil Volume: 7.2 liters
Malts:
-2 kg GOZDAWA spray malt extract, extra light unhopped
-150 g CARAAROMA® (about 350 - 450 EBC) (substituted for Crystal 120L)
BG: 1.103
OG: 1.060
FG: 1.014
ABV: 6.07%
Hops:
-26g Galena (13.6%) at 60 minutes
-36g East Kent Goldings (5.2%) at 15 minutes
-18g East Kent Goldings (5.2%) at 5 minutes
IBU: 59.5
Yeast: Danstar Nottingham Ale - 11g
Fermenting temperature: 14°C - 21°C (lower is possible, suggested for lagers, though)
All water used is bought in bottles to avoid chloramine problems and ensure the top-off water is sterile. When using tap water, a quarter campden tablet should be used to be safe.
Complete procedure:
Steep grains in the 7.2l of water at around 160F for 30 minutes.
Remove grains, let it drip into the pot for a minute or two, do not squeeze.
Bring to a rolling boil, then remove the pot from the burner and stir in the malt extracts until dissolved.
Return pot to the burner and boil again.
Start the timer and make the hop additions according to schedule.
After 60 min, place into the sink with cold water, ice, whatever you can to chill the wort.
Once cooled to the target temperature, add the remaining 5l of water (bottled, hence sterile - when using tap water, boil first to sterilize) to the fermenter, add the wort and check temperature again. Chill if needed to reach 70F. Calculate the target temperature using the weighted average formula at the bottom.
Pitch the yeast, assemble fermenter, and keep it in a cool room of around 60F until fermentation is complete (2-3 weeks). Check gravity after 3 weeks, then again 2-3 days later. Compare results - if they're the same, fermentation is complete. If not, repeat every 2-3 days until two consecutive readings are the same.
Add 67g of sugar (sucrose, table sugar) dissolved in some water for bottle priming and bottle. Recalculate this amoung to account for losses from the trub and debris!
Store (=Condition) for at least 2-4 weeks before sampling.
(Sanitizing steps for equipment were omitted.)
As for the yeast: 133 billion cells should be added. Likely, the Wyeast package will contain less than 100 billion. A 1 liter starter should be used or alternatively, 2 packages. ncbrewer also suggested using a package of rehydrated US-05.
My final choice will be one package of rehydrated Nottingham.
This procedure is formulated by a beginner as an exercise and should not be taken as 100% correct! (edit: after a lot of advice was given, I'm going to say this is how I will do it) I'm hoping I'll get some input from the more experienced homebrewers so I can make sure everything is correct. I'll be updating this post with every advice I'm getting. Thanks for reading!
simple weighted average formula: (61 x 12 - <top-off water temperature in F> x <top-off water volume>) / <wort volume in l> = <target wort temperature in F>
Example: Wort volume was reduced in the boil to 6.5l, so 5.5l of top-off water is needed, which was stored in the fridge and has reached 53F.
(61*12 - 53*5.5)/6.5 = 67.7F - This is the target temperature.
edit: included some of the advice given by ncbrewer in his first response
edit: added mention for tap water vs bottled, and how to use a campden tablet, adjusted flavor hops back to original amounts. Mentioned yeast cell count and proposed using a 1l starter. Mentioned recalculating the priming sugar to account for any volume lost to trub and debris.
edit: Revisited the recipe and basically changed it completely:
200g Caramunich at 160F for 30 minutes. (= 7 oz)
1 kg Extra Light DME at the start of the boil (= 2.2 lbs)
1 kg Extra Light DME at flameout (= 2.2 lbs)
Boil a total of 15 minutes, since it's extract it should be fine with a short boil.
Hops:
15 g Simcoe Pellet 12.7 Boil 15 min 30.16 (= .5 oz)
30 g Manda B Pellet 9.2 Boil 5 min 11.33 (= 1 oz)
30 g Manda B Pellet 9.2 Boil 0 min --- (= 1 oz)
Total IBUs are 41.5.