brewing with malt extract and dextrose

[adityar]

i am first time brewer brewing with approx 2.2 kg liquid malt extract and 1 kg dextrose final volume of 5 gallon. boiling 50-60 mins. irish moss addition (4g) last 15 min boil. i tried hops magnum 15 g during boil (50 mins) and fuggle (dry hopping 5 g). cooling the wort and filtration to remove through course cloth to remove the flocculates. gravity initial 1044 final 1012 (6 days fermentation temp of 25º C). i am satisfied with clarity but not with bittering. can anyone suggest betterment in this recipe or changes in this recipe itself to improve my beer. i am also planning to add orange zest to brew. can you provide suggestion to this too.

please guide me. thanks in advance

 

[rhys333]

Welcome to the forum. How would you describe the bittering, too high or too low? Magnum adds a lot of bitterness as it's high in alpha acids, often twice to three times as bitter as many flavor and aroma type hops. To improve hopping, go with a smaller bittering addition at 60 minutes. Also consider adding flavor hops at 15-10 minutes and aroma hops at 5-0 minutes.

As for your fermentables, it's a very good idea to go with all malt extract instead of using dextrose. Some beers do use smaller amounts of sugar to lighten the body, but usually in the 5-10% range.

You'll also want to find a cooler spot to ferment if you can. 25C is too high for most yeasts strains, and they can throw off-flavors and "hot" alcohol. 16-20C is about where you want it ideally. If you don't have the ability to ferment cooler, there are a few yeast strains that do well at warmed temps (saison for example).

 

[adityar]

thanks for your reply.

can you please guide what smaller bittering addition means. i have magnum hops, fuggle hops and perle hops so how do i play around with these hops only. And all malt extract batch will 2.7 kg malt extract and 0.3 kg dextrose be fine for 21 L batch. About yeast i have WB06, safale T58 and gervin GV12 yeast. which one do you recommend will give better result in my brewing. i tried at temperature 20º C but the fermentation time is very high it took nearly 10 days for gravity to fall from 1044 to 1014.

too many questions i know, but would like if you can guide

thanks

 

[z-bob]

That will be a bit thin for 21 liters; can you drop back to 19L?

I've used T-58 at high temperatures in a wheat beer once, and I really liked it. A lot. I can't comment on the other yeasts you listed. Cooper's is another dried yeast that's supposed to work well at high temps (make sure you get a fresh packet)

You didn't say what color LME you have, or what kind of beer you're shooting for. Knowing nothing else, of the hops you listed I'd probably use the Perle -- maybe 15 grams at 60 minutes and again at 15 minutes?

 

[rhys333]

Yep, we'll need to know a few things like what kind of liquid extract do you have access to (light, medium, dark, wheat?), and what are the alpha acid percentages for the magnum, perle, and fuggles and how much of each hop you have on hand? Also as z-bob says, what kind of beer you want.

I can make an assumption from your list that you might like German wheat beer or hefeweizen. If it's wheat liquid malt extract you have then you can try the following:

HEFEWEIZEN (21L, 17 IBUs, 4.5-4.75%)
3kg Wheat LME
5g Magnum @ 60
15g Perle @ 10
WB-06 yeast
It's low in bitterness with a pretty noticeable banana or clove character from the yeast. You can also add 15-30g dried orange peel in the last 5-10 minutes if you like.

Or if it's light barley extract you have and you like British ales, try:

BITTER/PALE ALE (21L, 28 IBU, 4.2%)
3kg Light LME
8g Magnum @ 60
30g Fuggles @ 15 & 0
GV12 yeast

Above assumes full volume boil.

 

[adityar]

That will be a bit thin for 21 liters; can you drop back to 19L?

I've used T-58 at high temperatures in a wheat beer once, and I really liked it. A lot. I can't comment on the other yeasts you listed. Cooper's is another dried yeast that's supposed to work well at high temps (make sure you get a fresh packet)

You didn't say what color LME you have, or what kind of beer you're shooting for. Knowing nothing else, of the hops you listed I'd probably use the Perle -- maybe 15 grams at 60 minutes and again at 15 minutes?

MY liquid malt extract is dark in color. I do not know much about type of beer. but what best i can do with available resource.

thanks for your suggestion