Need info on starting water!!

[joeGrizzly]

Yo! I am going to be brewing my first batch with my own equipment today. I have a recipe for alaskan amber clone. Im extract brewing on a bayou outside burner with 35 qt SS pot. The recipe states " Add cracked crystal malt to 1.5 gals of cold water and bring to a boil. When boiling starts, remove the grain. add malt extract and boiling hops yadayadayada" you guys know the rest. My question is, am I supposed to ONLY start with 1.5 gals of water and use that the whole time and make the remaining 5 gals when i add to fermenter? This seems like a very little amount for a 5 gal batch especially since I havent dealt with burn off rate or anything like that yet. Let me know if i should be starting with more!

 

[freisste]

Start with as much as you can. For you, this is a full boil - something like 6 gallons to account for boil off.

However, you need to make sure you can cool it reasonably. Without a wort chiller, you may want to boil a smaller amount so you can use cold water to chill your wort prior to pitching yeast.

 

[LovesIPA]

If you have the means to do a full boil, you should. It's always better to do that than add water at the end of the boil.

However, I'm a little concerned about the directions. That's just not the right way to steep grains. Crystal malts are already converted into sugar inside the husk, so all you need to do is soak the milled (not "cracked") grains in hot water to dissolve the sugar.

When I did extract I put the grains in a grain bag and steeped in 160 degree water. Then I pulled the bag out of the pot of water and squeezed all the sugar out I could.

Everyone's equipment is different, but I start with 7.4 gallons and boil down to about 5.5. Then I rack about 5.25 gallons into the fermentor and I end up with about 4.8 or 4.9 gallons of beer. I do all-grain but it doesn't matter where the sugar comes from.

 

[fixitoscar]

Most extract instructions are geared to partial boil, just like freisste said.
The one thing I noticed is you said is to bring your crystal malt addition to a boil then remove.
This is not correct. you only want to raise its temp to about 160-170 then remove. Boiling will extract tannins that you don't want.
Looked like you were just paraphrasing the instructions but I just wanted to let you know just in case.

hah LovesIPA beat me to it. I'm a slow typer. lol

 

[jperry]

I think that this brew day checklist, will help you out because most instructions with kits, are confusing and/or wrong. http://cdn2.brewersfriend.com/brewersfriend_checklist_extract.pdf

You don't want to boil those grains, so get a thermometer, and pull 'em out before it gets to ~165*F.

While your waiting for the water temp to rise, stir in about half of the malt extract. BUT, NOT with the flame on because the extract sinks to the bottom, and scorches, before it can be stirred in solution. Which leads to off-flavors.

I like adding most of my extract at the end of the boil. Thats a "flame out" addition. It usually tastes better, and creates a lighter colored beer.

Here is a link to a thread, I made, with more details about making better extract beers. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f37/brewing-extract-without-nuking-extract-417623/

 

[HerbieHowells]

I'll throw in a few wrinkles. You may want to steep, as described above, in the prescribed amount of water. Steeping in too much water may lead to tannin extraction. If you want to do a full boil, add the remaining water after you pull the grain bag (or steep in a smaller pot and add it to the big pot with the rest of the water). Get it heated up while the grain is steeping to save time.

A full boil is generally considered better. However, if your recipe was written for a partial boil, you may want to adjust your hops, as your hop efficiency may change with the higher volume and resulting lower boil gravity.

And because you are on the subject of water and this one screwed me for my first full year, be sure that you are not using straight tap water if your tap water contains chlorine or cholamine. Your extract contains minerals, so you could get away with using distilled water, or you could treat your water with a campden tablet (sold in the wine additive section of your LHBS). Using untreated water could result in a nice band-aid beer, and you don't want that.