Mystery Brew Kit Help

[AllXtract]

Greetings fellow brewers!

I have been given a box of extract homebrew that has been hodge-podged with no instructions. My guess is that it's a brown ale of some sort or maybe a porter, but I do not know what yeast to use or the sequence of the ingredients.

Here's what came in the box:
1# Munich 10 (Crushed)
.5# Light Roasted Malt (Crushed)
.5# Chocolate Malt (Crushed)
1# Extra Light DME
2 x 3.3# Gold LME
2 x 1oz. Mt. Hood Hops

I also have 2# of Extra Dark DME from a previous order mix-up. Can that be used here too?

What yeast should I use? Wyeast American Ale 1056 (with starter), Wyeast London Ale 1028 (with starter) or something else?

Here is the sequence I was thinking of....

Steep grains at 150 degrees for 30 mins
Add one 3.3# Gold LME at start of boil
Add 1oz Mt. Hood Hops at start of boil for bittering
Boil for 60 mins
Add one 3.3# Gold LME and DME at last 15 mins.
Add 1oz Mt Hood Hops at last 5 mins.

Any help on this would be appreciated. This is only my 3rd brew attempt and I'm still getting my feet wet. The first 2 came out great (Cream Ale @ 4.3%and Irish Red @ 6.6%) both using Wyeast American Ale 1056 Activator.

Thanks!

 

[TipsyDragon]

you sound like you got your doing. either yeast will be fine. your brewing times and procedure sounds right. you can add the DME if you want. it will of course darken the beer and make the ABV higher.

 

[TheWeeb]

Facinating, runnnig the ingredients thru a recipie calculator shows an OG of 1.063, FG of 1.016, 6.3% ABV, 22 IBU and 22o SRM. This puts it into an imperial Brown? Should be awesome!

 

[Malintent]

Don't you have to mash Munich Malt?

 

[TipsyDragon]

Don't you have to mash Munich Malt?

yes. this looks to be a partial mash recipe. its really not much harder than a specialty grain recipe. soak the grain in 150F water for an hour then in a separate pot steep them for 10 minutes at 170F. then combine the two pots and brew as normal.

 

[AllXtract]

Great! Thank you all for your help and insight. It is much appreciated. I think I am going to use the Wyeast London Ale 1028. Would that make this a Brown Ale then? When I soak the grains would it be all of them combined or just the Munich 10?

Also, I boil using 6 gallons of water normally. Would it be safe to say soak the grain(s) in 4 gallons @ 150 and steep the grain(s) in 2 gallons @ 170 and then combine the two for the rest of the extract boil or is it the other way around?

 

[TipsyDragon]

Great! Thank you all for your help and insight. It is much appreciated. I think I am going to use the Wyeast London Ale 1028. Would that make this a Brown Ale then? When I soak the grains would it be all of them combined or just the Munich 10?

Also, I boil using 6 gallons of water normally. Would it be safe to say soak the grain(s) in 4 gallons @ 150 and steep the grain(s) in 2 gallons @ 170 and then combine the two for the rest of the extract boil or is it the other way around?

the selection of yeast has nothing to do with it being a brown ale. its the color and/or proportions of the grains that would make it a brown ale or not.

you would mash then sparge ALL the grains together. you want to mash them at 150F in 1 − 2 quarts per pound of grain and sparge in 2 gallons at 170F. you can then top off to your final boil volume if you want.

 

[AllXtract]

Ok, so if I'm understanding this right, I've got a partial mash recipe for some sort of Brown Ale. If my calculations are correct, then I would need to mash (soak) my 1# Munich 10, .5# Chocolate and .5# Lt. roast in 1 gallon of water at 150 for 60 minutes. Then, move the grains to another pot with 2 gallons of water @ 170 for 10 minutes. Once completed, combine the mash water and the steeping water and top off to my final boil volume and continue with the extract brewing. Correct?

Thanks!

 

[specialized]

yes. this looks to be a partial mash recipe. its really not much harder than a specialty grain recipe. soak the grain in 150F water for an hour then in a separate pot steep them for 10 minutes at 170F. then combine the two pots and brew as normal.

quick question... if you have a specialty grain recipe would it hurt any to follow partial mash procedures? Would there be any benefit???