My LME Brew Day Plan - Please Critique

[angry_gopher]

• Disinfect equipment
• Rinse
• Sanitize
• *Steep crystal malts in 1 litre of boiled water - off burner & covered 30 minutes
  • Meanwhile, put the can of LME in hot tap water to allow it to pour easier
• Strain out steeped malts & return liquid to the burner
• Bring liquid to a temp of about 150* F
• Add DME or enhancer and stir until fully dissolved
• Add prewarmed can of LME and stir until it's fully combined with liquid
• Add yeast nutrition if planning to do so
• Increase temp of liquids to 155-157*F for 30 seconds to pasteurize wort concentrate
• Add wort concentrate to the fermenter
• Add clean & good tasting water to the fermenter**
• Stir vigorously, especially if no method of aeration is available
• Aerate for 20-30 minutes with aquarium aerator & stone or no more than 1 minute with pure oxygen. (I don't have oxygen yet)
• Get the Wort temp to the low side of the recommended fermentation range.
  • Meanwhile, rehydrate the yeast in 1 cup previously boiled water that is about 80*F in a covered cup for about 15 minutes. At 15 minutes, gently stir the yeast so that it can un-clump and moisten better. Cover back up and wait 15 more minutes. The yeast is now ready to pitch.
• Pitch the yeast
• Install the airlock
• Add brew belt & set temp control (I don't have a chamber yet)

HAHBAW

 

[IslandLizard]

It's mostly there. A few Qs:

1. I guess you're using a can of hopped malt extract?
2. How much crystal malt are you steeping?
3. What's the volume of your boil pot/kettle?
4. What's your water source? Municipal, well, bottled?
5. How does your water taste?
6. Is there any chlorine or chloramines in your (municipal) water? If so that needs to be neutralized with Campden/Meta.
7. Unless your fermentor will live in an area where the temps drop below 66F you won't need a brew belt.
8. Are you doing anything to keep your fermentor cool, around 66-68F?
9. What kind of fermentor are you using?
10. Which country do you live in?

 

[angry_gopher]

It's mostly there. A few Qs:

1. I guess you're using a can of hopped malt extract? Yes
2. How much crystal malt are you steeping? 4 ounces (not a lot for this one)
3. What's the volume of your boil pot/kettle? Small, only 9 US quarts (8 litres)
4. What's your water source? Municipal, well, bottled? RO water
5. How does your water taste? Tap water tastes like crap, hence the RO water.
6. Is there any chlorine or chloramines in your (municipal) water? If so that needs to be neutralized with Campden/Meta. The tap water is over chlorinated with mud adjuncts
7. Unless your fermentor will live in an area where the temps drop below 66F you won't need a brew belt. For my current batch which is at maturation stage right now, I had to turn up the thermostat to 60*f in my shop/brew zone, the brew belt couldn't keep up and dropped below target temp.
8. Are you doing anything to keep your fermentor cool, around 66-68F? Not really, I can keep my shop below 70*f most of the year without a lot of effort.
9. What kind of fermentor are you using? Glass carboy with a diy copper temp well & 3 pc air lock
10. Which country do you live in? Canadian prairies. East Central Alberta to be more or less exact.

I've answered in bold. For those interested, the reasoning for the copper diy thermowells was born out of a bruology exbeeriment. IIRC he had used stainless steel thermowells and compared them to taping & insulating the temp probe on the fermenter. What jumped out me was the fact that stainless steel is actually a very poor heat conductor. FWIW, my tape thermo & well thermo's are pretty close to each other for temps. Whether or not this will translate into a quality difference, not sure. I'll drink Keystone light and still be happy!

 

[IslandLizard]

It looks like you've got it all under control!
Ready to go...

Good point on the copper thermowell. Did you crimp and solder the end shut?

Sorry being nosey. I was wondering about your location (YCT) and the need for a brew belt right now.
I've visited Alberta, the Edmonton, Calgary, Rockies triangle, it was impressive! Didn't go too far East. You've got a lot of country there!
Must be difficult to get ingredients in that area.

If you like hops, for your next brew consider adding some extra hops. You don't need to boil them, just steep at 160F for 20-30' with a light stir. Or better yet, stick them in a fine-mesh hop bag and use as a large tea bag. Keeps your wort a lot cleaner (==> more beer). They give off good flavor and aroma at that temp, hardly any bitterness. And/or add as dry hops.

 

[angry_gopher]

It looks like you've got it all under control!
Ready to go...

Good point on the copper thermowell. Did you crimp and solder the end shut?

Sorry being nosey. I was wondering about your location (YCT) and the need for a brew belt right now.
I've visited Alberta, the Edmonton, Calgary, Rockies triangle, it was impressive! Didn't go too far East. You've got a lot of country there!
Must be difficult to get ingredients in that area.

If you like hops, for your next brew consider adding some extra hops. You don't need to boil them, just steep at 160F for 20-30' with a light stir. Or better yet, stick them in a fine-mesh hop bag and use as a large tea bag. Keeps your wort a lot cleaner (==> more beer). They give off good flavor and aroma at that temp, hardly any bitterness. And/or add as dry hops.

YCT is the weather station/airport code. It's been unseasonably cold this year, but it's also normal-ish to get snow that doesn't last right up until the 3rd weekend in May which is what is considered our 1st frost-free days of the year. I also have a very well insulated shop that probably won't be above 70F until mid-June. I'm still trying to figure out which hops I actually like as flavour and aroma. I'm not a big fan of IPA per se, especially since the current fad seems to be making the beer bitter rather than better.

 

[IslandLizard]

YCT is the weather station/airport code. It's been unseasonably cold this year, but it's also normal-ish to get snow that doesn't last right up until the 3rd weekend in May which is what is considered our 1st frost-free days of the year. I also have a very well insulated shop that probably won't be above 70F until mid-June. I'm still trying to figure out which hops I actually like as flavour and aroma. I'm not a big fan of IPA per se, especially since the current fad seems to be making the beer bitter rather than better.

Ah, great locator code!
Hope your weather improves soon. Enjoy that Summer!

The newest trend in IPAs are New England (or North East) IPAs, NEIPAs ["neepahs"]. They are very hazy, yellow to orange milkshake or orange juice-like in appearance. They use abundant amounts of whirlpool and dry hops, and are characterized by (very) low bitterness and tons of juicy hop aroma and flavor. Like drinking liquid hops without the bitter bite. A true delight, alas, not for everyone. Very different from "West Coast" style IPAs, although they brew a lot of them on the East Coast too, and anywhere in between.