First American Pale Ale - questions for next time

[AustrianBrewer]

I made my first Amercian Pale Ale using 3kg of malt extract along with a small amount of crushed crystal addition. It is bubbling away nicely in the fermenter (It all came as a kit).

I have some questions. The kit itself says it does 23L. The instructions that come with it calls for a total content level of 26L (21l plus 3l of water the crystal was left soaking plus 3l of hot water in sparging) in the cooking boiler.

I think I lost a bit too much in the boil and also I made a small mistake of trying to get things going quicker by first starting to boil 23L (instead of 21L) of Water in the boiling pot first whilst preparing everything else and putting in the malt to this boiled water.... (before adding the hops) I had to take some water out (After the malt addition, but before the crystal addition as the sparge water and grain water (6L) along with the volume of malt was too much for my 27L boiling cooker. I took out 3l, put my crystals (in a muslin bag) into a strainer and dipped into existing boiling water, squeezing with tongs, then added the 3l of water it had been sitting in for the required time and temperature beforehand.

There were 3 additions of hops, at 60 minutes, 15 minutes and 0 minutes. I think these soaked up a lot of water also.

There is 19L exactly in my primary fermenter right after pitching wort and yeast (including the layer of stuff at the bottom). When I poured the wort (with the help of a friend) into the primary fermenter I strained it through a coriander in two or three goes to collect as much of the hops etc as possible.

1. Is 19L what you would expect? The recipe says 23L, but should that be before or after loss?

2. Should any loss be topped up with water or just left (this would make the beer weaker if you did this?)

3. I will be syphoning this to my bottling bucket after fermentation. How much sugar should I use? Do I melt the sugar in hot water on the cooker first and put that in the bottling bucket first or do I put the sugar straight in as is? - Does it need any gentle stirring before bottling?

4. Can anyone recommend something that can take a beer sample through the airlock hole only? My bucket does not use a large howl with a bung, only a small hole with rubber seal for the airlock. I guess I could drill a hole and use a rubber bung for a wine thief.. But what to know and easier solution? Just open the lid?

5. Both my 27L Boiling Cooker and primary fermenter have a spigot. Is there actually any point in these? The hops etc clog up the cooker spigot before anything much comes out (I was hoping to use the cooker spigot to get everything into the primary fermenter as a way of oxygenating it dropping into the fermenter bucket). The spigot on the primary fermenter seems pointless as it is just at the bottom with all the sediment. I guess it is useful only if wanting to use it as a bottling bucket at some point... I think the next fermenter I buy will not have a spigot...

P.s. I have done further reading and found with malt extract brews it would have been better to just do half the amount in the boiling cooker, using pre-boiled and chilled water along with with immersion chiller to get to pitching temp using the right maths to work it out first, but,a next batch will be all grain... Can I use this technique next of does all grain require full boil of all water?

Thanks




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[RM-MN]

1. The kit should produce 23 liters of beer into the fermenter. 2. You could have topped the fermenter up with water to the 23 liter mark and yes, this will make the beer slightly weaker. I'd just leave it at 19 liters.

3. There are calculators to determine the correct amount of sugar to get the correct carbonation. The sugar should be dissolved in hot water (boiling water would kill any bacteria that managed to survive on pure sugar but I've never had an infection from not boiling) and added to the bottling bucket. I like to start the siphon so there is a bit of beer swirling around in the bucket before I add the sugar because I've had incomplete mixing at times leading to over and under carbonated bottles. I usually use a sanitized spoon to gently stir to help get it all mixed.

4. Just open the bucket. Your beer will have a covering of CO2 and it will stay in place. Don't leave it open too long.

5. The only container I have that has a spigot is the bottling bucket. While doing a 5 gallon batch I just pick up the pot and dump it into the fermenter. Spigots have been known to break or leak. The last thing I want to see is a puddle of beer under the spigot of my fermenter, 2 days into as 3 week fermentation period. I don't even try to strain out the hops. It all goes into the fermenter. Those who have tried straining and not straining say they can't tell the difference in the taste. Straining may make it easier to harvest yeast but I'm not convinced it is worth the effort. The yeast can be separated from the hops when the ferment is done.

6. All grain usually does have all the water added at the start. You can make a more concentrated wort and top up but most brewers do not. If you intend to use all the water for the all grain you will be limited to about 4 US gallons, about 16 liters. You need to leave room at the top of your boiling kettle for hot break as the all grain wort produces way more foam than extract. I'd suggest 32 to 40 liter pot for your 23 liter batch.