I brewed a favorite recipe today

[BeerAndTele]

I do a partial boil. I learned to brew that way back in 1994. The recipes I use were designed to account for this. Cooling the wort is easily done by topping off with chilled water. It does allow me to brew in a smaller kettle, but, more importantly, I wind up with only two gallons in my fermenter in the kitchen, so I'm only carrying 2 gallons down the basement stairs where I top it off. I'm 79 now. A long time ago I moved to a fermenter with a handle and a few years ago I quit topping off in the kitchen. I also moved my bottling to the basement. My kettle could do a much bigger boil if i wanted to do one.

Adding the other half of the extract witn 1/2 gal. water at flame out brings the wort down to about 170-175. This allows me to add my aroma hops in a sort of hop stand while it cools in the sink to about 100-110. I generally wait a few minutes before I start adding water for the sink bath. The whole thing takes about 20 minutes, and I don't actually take temperatures or time it; I just feel the side of the kettle. When I top off I have both chilled and unchilled water available, so it doesn't get too cold. I do measure temperature for pitching.

Oh yah, I completely understand the partial boil concept; it was just the amount of water that raised the eyebrow - 1.5gal instead of 2.5 or 2.75gal. But if weight and basement steps is the answer, I get it. Cheers.

Edit: I used to live in a 100+ year old house and the basement steps were treacherous to say the least, so I can relate.

 

[D.B.Moody]

Oh yah, I completely understand the partial boil concept; it was just the amount of water that raised the eyebrow - 1.5gal instead of 2.5 or 2.75gal. But if weight and basement steps is the answer, I get it. Cheers.

Oh, and I didn't understand that your question was about how I picked 1.5 gal. for the boil. I learned to brew with Charlie Papazian's The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing. It's that simple. But I picked 1/2 gal. for my late addition because I knew that up to 3 lbs. of DME dissolves easily in 1/2 gallon because I used to dissolve 6 lbs. in 1 gallon while I steeped my grains in 1/2 gallon in a side pot before adding to the boil. Okay, he didn't teach me to do that, I just found it useful/easier. Also, a little figuring after I started doing the late addition, led me to the idea of adding aroma hops after the late addition.
I gather you moved on to all grain. That's good, but if you ever want a short, easy brew day, my brew day is 2 1/2 - 3 hours including filtering 5 1/2 gal. of water to start and washing and putting away equipment after. That washing is all my high tech brew gear: the spoon, the kettle, the kettle's lid, and the thermometer.

Edit: The house I live in was built a decade after I was born. Oddly, the stairs are now steeper than when we moved here in 1971. And I think someone slipped another one or two stairs in there. Personally, I blame squirrels for such things.

 

[Brews and Blues]

Brewed a quickie:

6lbs Wheat DME
1oz Liberty - 15mins
1oz Saaz - 10mins
1oz Mount Hood - 5mins
1pkg WB-06

Heard mixed reviews of WB-06 but went for it anyway and really glad i did. This thing took off within hours. Hit FG in 6 days. Held steady and I kegged on Day 8. The sample I pulled had incredible banana/clove that I was wanting. I'm sure it will fade over time, so I decided to get it in a keg and carb it up. But the warm uncarbonated sample was incredible on its own. I will pour the first one Friday so I will post a picture and review the results then.

 

[cajunrph]

Glad I found this thread. I'm returning to brewing after a hiatus from divorces, and moves. I attempted a few BIAB all-grain last year in smaller sizes. 2-3 gallon batches. I wanted to brew indoors as this Texas Heat is a err, killer. My stove couldn't boil the wort well enough and I ended up moving outside. I re-read The Complete Joy of Home Brewing and Palmers How to Brew, and lo and behold if they didn't brew many a partial mash/extract brew. I ordered some kits from Morebeer and Austin Homebrew Supply. I'll brew up 5 gallons of something this weekend. I'll post my results. With the partial boils I should be able to brew indoors.

 

[Brews and Blues]

Glad I found this thread. I'm returning to brewing after a hiatus from divorces, and moves. I attempted a few BIAB all-grain last year in smaller sizes. 2-3 gallon batches. I wanted to brew indoors as this Texas Heat is a err, killer. My stove couldn't boil the wort well enough and I ended up moving outside. I re-read The Complete Joy of Home Brewing and Palmers How to Brew, and lo and behold if they didn't brew many a partial mash/extract brew. I ordered some kits from Morebeer and Austin Homebrew Supply. I'll brew up 5 gallons of something this weekend. I'll post my results. With the partial boils I should be able to brew indoors.

I've been doing nothing but partial boil extract brews. I absolutely love it. The results are there and I can fit it in my busy schedule. One day I may make the jump to all grain, but right now I have no reason or desire to. I feel like I can accomplish killer beers with these partial boils, sometimes adding steeping grains and sometimes not.

 

[cajunrph]

Today I brewed an American Pale Ale 2 Morebeer kit
6.5 lbs Briess Golden Light DME
1.5 lbs Crystal 15° L
8oz Honey Malt

1oz Magnum 60 minutes
2oz Cascade 5 min
1oz Willamette 1 min.
1/2 Whirlfloc tab at 15 minutes
LalBrew Kveik Voss yeast.
Indoors on the gas stove.
Total time including cleanup, 4 hr 20 minutes

Inspired by this thread and my recent reading again of The Complete Joy of Homebrewing and How to Brew, I decided to try an extract brew. I started with all distilled water. I dissolved 3.5 lbs of the DME in 2 gallons of distilled water. Heated to 160 and dropped in the bag of Crystal and Honey malt. The temp settled in at 152ish and held fairly steady for almost an hour. I was shooting for 45 minutes but missed that because I left the house to retrieve cold packs from my work for the ice bath in the sink. The ice bath wasn't planned, I was going to use my immersion chiller I normally use, but I couldn't find my submersible pump I use to pump ice water through the chiller. So I followed Charlie P's sink bath chilling method. Which worked surprisingly well. Using heat loving Kveik didn't hurt. I chilled 3 gallons of distilled water earlier in the day. After just about an hour of seeping the grains, I pulled the bag, squeeze it like it owed me money, and cranked up the fire. I didn't time how long it took to reach a boil. The stove couldn't get a really good boil without using the lid of the pot. I got a vigorous boil with the lid on, so much that I had to turn down the heat. After the boil I added the remaining 3lbs of DME to the kettle after I cut the fire. My pot has a thick bottom. It retained heat to the point it was still boiling ever so slowly after I cut the heat. The DME clumped up horribly. I was able to get it all to dissolve with plenty of stirring. I will dissolve it in a half gallon of cold water next time. Lesson learned. I let it sit for 30 minutes to pasteurize. The temps held above 170 for most of the time. Then the pot was placed in the ice bath. The ice bath worked very well. Knocked it down from 160ish to around 100 in no time. I didn't make note of how long it took. Less than 20 minutes for sure. I added 2 gallons of chilled water to the cleaned sanitized fermenter, after the wort was chilled, I poured the wort into the fermenter. Temp was about 90ish. I topped up with one gallon of room temperature water and the temp was a Kveik friendly 84°. My OG was higher than expected. 1.062 vs the predicted 1.054-1.056. I thought maybe I should have topped up to 5.5 gallons, but the recipe didn't mentioned topping up to 5.5 gallons. 4 hours and 20 minutes. Not a short day, but not all day either. I started at 7pm after I gave up looking for the pump. Next time I'll cut a significant chunk of time off, tweak some things and not make the same mistakes. I may bottle this next weekend if the Kveik rips though this beer like it should. Then another batch will get brewed.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

My OG was higher than expected. 1.062 vs the predicted 1.054-1.056.

The fermentables contain roughly 310 gravity points.

In 5 gal water, that's OG 61. In 5.5 gal water, that's OG 56.

 

[DBhomebrew]

I'm an all-grain brewer who has realized that all-grain brewing doesn't really fit into the family schedule these days. Inspired by this thread and @D.B.Moody's 30m boil, I've started making some batches in a series I call 'Quick Extract...' or 'Weekday Brews'. Brews that could be achieved on a weekday evening.

Ground rules... anything that adds time is probably not going to happen.

>30m boil...nope
Steeping specialty grains... nope
Partial mash... clearly nope
Adding invert sugar...sure
Whirlpool hops during the water bath...sure
Using DME in package quantities... preferred.
You get the idea.

Fast, good, or cheap. I'm using extract so the cheap is gone. Fast and good is what I'm after with emphasis on fast.

First, the quick extract batch I bottled last weekend. A Weekday Bitter.

~4gal into the fermenter
1.037
24 IBU

3gal water into the kettle
1.5# Briess Pale Ale DME
11IBU Fuggle @ FWH

Bring to boil. Add 11IBU Fuggle @ 30m.

Dissolve .5# Invert in 1gal reserved water.
Add 1.5# reserved DME to invert solution.

Flameout. Add .5oz EKG. Add reserved invert/DME solution. Start water bath. Add .5oz EKG as it passes 170°F.

English ale yeast, this time Omega's Fuller's @68°.

Bottled at 1.8 volumes.

Quick Extract Batch #2
Another Weekday Bitter
Same as the first, with Munton's Amber DME. If I can find time, I'll bottle it today.

Quick Extract Batch #3 in development
A Weekday Saison

1.043 OG
25 IBU

2# Munton's Extra Light DME
2# Munton's Wheat DME (55% Wheat)
(Overall Barley/Wheat 72.5/27.5)
25 IBU Saaz split 50/50 FWH & 30m
Omega's Belgian Saison II

Quick Extract Batch #4 on the horizon
A Weekday Belgian Wit

4# Munton's Wheat DME (55% wheat)
25IBU Saaz, bittering only
Omega's Wit

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

@DBhomebrew : looking forward to seeing additional recipes (and techniques for shorter brew days).

 

[cajunrph]

The fermentables contain roughly 310 gravity points.

In 5 gal water, that's OG 61. In 5.5 gal water, that's OG 56.

View attachment 768913

Good to know. I didn't check their numbers on a calculator. I'm going to do that moving forward. This batch will be a few less beers with greater ABV. A win and a loss. Haha. The Kveik is bubbling on along.

 

[Brews and Blues]

Brewed a quickie:

6lbs Wheat DME
1oz Liberty - 15mins
1oz Saaz - 10mins
1oz Mount Hood - 5mins
1pkg WB-06

Heard mixed reviews of WB-06 but went for it anyway and really glad i did. This thing took off within hours. Hit FG in 6 days. Held steady and I kegged on Day 8. The sample I pulled had incredible banana/clove that I was wanting. I'm sure it will fade over time, so I decided to get it in a keg and carb it up. But the warm uncarbonated sample was incredible on its own. I will pour the first one Friday so I will post a picture and review the results then.

Update: Turned out fantastic. Super drinkable, but still have great banana/clove flavors. Not sure what peoples issues with WB-06 are because it worked great with this beer. Picture below

 

[Miraculix]

Update: Turned out fantastic. Super drinkable, but still have great banana/clove flavors. Not sure what peoples issues with WB-06 are because it worked great with this beer. Picture belowView attachment 769012

The issues are it's diastatic nature and that it's not a German wheat beer yeast but more of a Belgian Witt yeast.

Doesn't mean that it cannot produce good beers, but it means disappointment if you did expect a German Hefeweizen from it.

 

[Brews and Blues]

The issues are it's diastatic nature and that it's not a German wheat beer yeast but more of a Belgian Witt yeast.

Doesn't mean that it cannot produce good beers, but it means disappointment if you did expect a German Hefeweizen from it.

Makes sense. Definitely Belgian Witt flavors, which i enjoy.

 

[D.B.Moody]

I brewed a favorite recipe today. Today brewed "Tri-Carb Classic," a brew that features barley, wheat, and rye. This time I used steeped crystal rye for the rye part. In the past I have steeped flaked rye or I have used used Briess Rye LME, so I don't really know if a full pound of crystal rye is what I'll want going forward.

Update 4/25: First tastings yeaterday and today at two week in the bottle suggest that 1 lb. of crystal rye is too much for my mild tettnang hops/hopping. I will test again at three weeks, but I think this would be better with less rye or more assertive hops and/or hopping.

Update 5/18: Later tastings and finishing the last of the batch yesterday confirms that 1# or crystal rye was too much. While I could try reducing the crystal rye, if I brew this again I am more likely to use Briess Wheat and Brises Rye LME and no crystal malt. That worked well before.

 

[DBhomebrew]

A Weekday Bitter.

~4gal into the fermenter
1.037
24 IBU

3gal water into the kettle
1.5# Briess Pale Ale DME
11IBU Fuggle @ FWH

Bring to boil. Add 11IBU Fuggle @ 30m.

Dissolve .5# Invert in 1gal reserved water.
Add 1.5# reserved DME to invert solution.

Flameout. Add .5oz EKG. Add reserved invert/DME solution. Start water bath. Add .5oz EKG as it passes 170°F.

English ale yeast, this time Omega's Fuller's @68°.

Bottled at 1.8 volumes.

Gave this one a taste after a mere 10d of conditioning. Meh. Nothing offensive, just meh.

Yeah, yeah. I'll give it another week.

 

[Miraculix]

Gave this one a taste after a mere 10d of conditioning. Meh. Nothing offensive, just meh.

Yeah, yeah. I'll give it another week.

give it 3 more weeks.

 

[D.B.Moody]

Today I brewed "Toad Hall Stout," a recipe based on Charlie Papazian's "Toad Spit Stout." This is the first time I've brewed it using only East Kent Goldings hops.

This was post #87 on a brew on April 17.
This, I think, is the best stout I've ever made. It is the first time I know I want to brew it again just like this. If you're looking for an extract stout recipe to try, I can recommend this one.

 

[Brews and Blues]

This was post #87 on a brew on April 17.
This, I think, is the best stout I've ever made. It is the first time I know I want to brew it again just like this. If you're looking for an extract stout recipe to try, I can recommend this one.

I brewed a very similar beer this winter but used S-04 yeast. I absolutely loved it. Maybe i will try it again with the s33 and see which I like more

 

[cajunrph]

Today I brewed an American Pale Ale 2 Morebeer kit
6.5 lbs Briess Golden Light DME
1.5 lbs Crystal 15° L
8oz Honey Malt

1oz Magnum 60 minutes
2oz Cascade 5 min
1oz Willamette 1 min.
1/2 Whirlfloc tab at 15 minutes
LalBrew Kveik Voss yeast.
Indoors on the gas stove.
Total time including cleanup, 4 hr 20 minutes

I tried my IPA after a week of bottle conditioning. For just a week, it's quite drinkable. I got a "Not bad" from my sister. It still needs to clear a bit. We'll see what a few weeks will do.

 

[DBhomebrew]

give it 3 more weeks.

Yep, at 4 weeks in the bottle my first attempt at a super simple extract-only pale ale is quite nice.

Kind of a fresh white bread maltiness. Dry with just enough bitterness to make me want another sip. Wierdly, the EKG late addition comes across with grapefruit. Very mild yeast expression. Definitely not an English bitter, but very tasty and refreshing nonetheless...

Brought a sixer in to the not air-conditioned shop today to ease the pain of mandatory weekend overtime. Hot, tired colleagues were very appreciative. Got some great feedback.

The following batch, replacing the Briess Pale Ale DME with Munton's Amber DME is also quite nice at 3wks in the bottle. Where the Briess brings a sweetish one-note fresh white bread, the Munton's comes across drier, less sweet. More of a wheat bread than a white. As a whole, a little more English-y. I'll do a more thorough comparison next weekend, I'm particularly interested in paying some attention to that grapefruit.

On other fronts, I've got the materials together for my next batch. Ordered Omega's Belgian Saison II on Wednesday. Got the message it had arrived at the LHBS on Thursday. Picked it up yesterday. Manufacture date 5/24.

 

[Miraculix]

Yep, at 4 weeks in the bottle my first attempt at a super simple extract-only pale ale is quite nice.

Kind of a fresh white bread maltiness. Dry with just enough bitterness to make me want another sip. Wierdly, the EKG late addition comes across with grapefruit. Very mild yeast expression. Definitely not an English bitter, but very tasty and refreshing nonetheless...

Brought a sixer in to the not air-conditioned shop today to ease the pain of mandatory weekend overtime. Hot, tired colleagues were very appreciative. Got some great feedback.

The following batch, replacing the Briess Pale Ale DME with Munton's Amber DME is also quite nice at 3wks in the bottle. Where the Briess brings a sweetish one-note fresh white bread, the Munton's comes across drier, less sweet. More of a wheat bread than a white. As a whole, a little more English-y. I'll do a more thorough comparison next weekend, I'm particularly interested in paying some attention to that grapefruit.

On other fronts, I've got the materials together for my next batch. Ordered Omega's Belgian Saison II on Wednesday. Got the message it had arrived at the LHBS on Thursday. Picked it up yesterday. Manufacture date 5/24.

I also just had a batch where the EKG dry hop came through a bit like grapefruit but not in a strong and unpleasant way, it actually fits well.

 

[Docod44]

Yes. I've tried late addition, but it creates too much of a mess. Pouring DME into hot wort makes a DME dust cloud that settles all over. I brew in the kitchen, so I don't do that.

By the way, I noticed that the recipe says "roasted malt" when it should had said "roasted barley."

I add all of my DME at flameout. The best way I've found to reduce the mess is to weigh my DME into a SS stock pot and pump just enough boiling wort in to reconstitute it. I then pour the solution into my boil kettle immediately at flameout and wait 15 minutes before starting to chill. This process has significantly cut down on DME getting everywhere.

 

[DBhomebrew]

I also just had a batch where the EKG dry hop came through a bit like grapefruit but not in a strong and unpleasant way, it actually fits well.

I'm pleased to hear I'm not imagining things. I've had EKG in each of the last couple dozen brews. Never had it given me grapefruit, always floral. As you say, not unpleasant but definitely unexpected.

 

[D.B.Moody]

I add all of my DME at flameout. The best way I've found to reduce the mess is to weigh my DME into a SS stock pot and pump just enough boiling wort in to reconstitute it. I then pour the solution into my boil kettle immediately at flameout and wait 15 minutes before starting to chill. This process has significantly cut down on DME getting everywhere.

Actually, I changed to doing a late addition in the brew in post #8. I add it at flame out, but I dissolve it in 1/2 gallon of unheated water. The dissolving pretty much handles itself while I'm doing the grain steeping and the boil. The DME for the boil is dissolved in unheated water before I begin heating it for the boil. This usually takes place while I doing a grain steep. The late addition is not boiled, but it is pasteurized. Since this addition takes my 1 1/2 gal. boil to about 175 F I started doing my aroma hops at this time as posted in #19. This change to late addition was about moving to a 30 minute boil.

 

[Miraculix]

I'm pleased to hear I'm not imagining things. I've had EKG in each of the last couple dozen brews. Never had it given me grapefruit, always floral. As you say, not unpleasant but definitely unexpected.

I used more late and dry hop than usual in this batch, I think it might be related to that. And probably also the year.

 

[MHBT]

Sounds like alot of gypsum no?

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Sounds like alot of gypsum no?

Are you referring to the "Toad Hall Stout," recipe in #87 (link)?

tagging @D.B.Moody

 

[MHBT]

Are you referring to the "Toad Hall Stout," recipe in #87 (link)?

tagging @D.B.Moody

Just a question, still grasping water and im referring to 2 tsp of gypsum

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

grasping water

WIthout going into details (for now), water adjustments for 'all-grain' brrewing and for 'extract' brewing are different things.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Charlie Papazian's "Toad Spit Stout." [mentioned back in #87 (link)]

There is a recipe for Toad Split Stout in Complete Joy of Homebrewing, 4e, p 305. That recipe includes John Bull extract syrup and eight teaspoons of gypsum (5 gal batch).