I plan on making an AG pale ale Saturday, but since I'm going to need at least 10 gallons by Memorial Day, I dedicded to make a batch of extract beer last night. It was my first 5 gallon batch, a porter using DME and some specialty grains. (see below):
6 Lbs. Plain amber DME
0.5 Lbs. Chocolate malt
0.5 Lbs. Caravienne
0.5 Lbs. Caramunich
3.0 oz. Cascade
White Labs California Ale Yeast
I did the following in an attempt to only need my 2 gallon pot and not the big one.
I steeped the grains in 1 gallon of water at 150°F for 30 min.
I added about 1/2 gallon water and 2 lbs. of the DME and brought to a boil.
At boil I added 1 oz. of the hops.
At 15 min I added another 1 oz. addition of hops to let boil for 30 min. After about 20 min or so, I made the fatal mistake of thinking it would be fine without attention for a few minutes while I left it alone for only 5 min. When I came back I noticed it just coming up over the top of the pot and onto the cooktop - big mess.
I only needed another 5 min before flameout, so I decided to add the last 1 oz. of hops. Then I added the remaining 4 lbs. of DME - another mini disaster - even though I added it slowly while gently whisking, it was forming hard clumps that took a good five minutes to dissolve. Once the DME was in solution, it took only a couple of minutes to reach a soft boil, so I removed it from the heat and put it into the sink where I had an ice water bath. It sat for a few minutes while I prepped the fermentation bucket.
I poured the ~1.5 gallons of concentrated wort into the bucket of 3.5 gallons water and mixed it. OG = 1.050. Temp was at around 100° and it was 10 o'clock, so I let it sit overnight and pitched the yeast this morning at 6 am.
Certainly not an ideal brewing session, but I hope that it makes drinkable beer.
Thoughts?
6 Lbs. Plain amber DME
0.5 Lbs. Chocolate malt
0.5 Lbs. Caravienne
0.5 Lbs. Caramunich
3.0 oz. Cascade
White Labs California Ale Yeast
I did the following in an attempt to only need my 2 gallon pot and not the big one.
I steeped the grains in 1 gallon of water at 150°F for 30 min.
I added about 1/2 gallon water and 2 lbs. of the DME and brought to a boil.
At boil I added 1 oz. of the hops.
At 15 min I added another 1 oz. addition of hops to let boil for 30 min. After about 20 min or so, I made the fatal mistake of thinking it would be fine without attention for a few minutes while I left it alone for only 5 min. When I came back I noticed it just coming up over the top of the pot and onto the cooktop - big mess.
I only needed another 5 min before flameout, so I decided to add the last 1 oz. of hops. Then I added the remaining 4 lbs. of DME - another mini disaster - even though I added it slowly while gently whisking, it was forming hard clumps that took a good five minutes to dissolve. Once the DME was in solution, it took only a couple of minutes to reach a soft boil, so I removed it from the heat and put it into the sink where I had an ice water bath. It sat for a few minutes while I prepped the fermentation bucket.
I poured the ~1.5 gallons of concentrated wort into the bucket of 3.5 gallons water and mixed it. OG = 1.050. Temp was at around 100° and it was 10 o'clock, so I let it sit overnight and pitched the yeast this morning at 6 am.
Certainly not an ideal brewing session, but I hope that it makes drinkable beer.
Thoughts?
