Hello all, first off, thank you all for the huge collective resource that has accumulated on this forum! Some awesome info and pretty much every question I have has been googled and answered by you guys!
I’ve done about a dozen extract beers so far. I got my doctorate the other day (not in home brewing) and decided I was going to do a partial mash celebratory brew… any apt name ideas would be welcomed btw. The whole brew took about 3 and a half to 4 hours! Didn’t expect it to take so long.
Good fun but it wasn’t plain sailing. I hit a mash temp of 152f and it stayed there. But during the mash I checked the thermometer and it read 195f ?!? I couldn’t understand what was going on. Took the lid off to try and cool it (I was mashing in a pot under a duvet), thought maybe it had absorbed heat from the pot or something, hey I don’t know, first time mashing. Turns out the thermometer packed in, what a time to do so! Had a spare, not as accurate though, but all good.
I had a tough time trying to get the temps down quickly after the boil! Got it down close in about 10 mins using frozen sterile bottles submerged/ice bath, but got it tough getting it down the rest of the way. Took about 30 mins total from flameout to pitch and at that it was a 74f pitch which isn't ideal, but herself needed the kitchen and was getting impatient!
Next problem was that I only hit an og of 1.037 which is far too light for my liking so I dumped in about 200-300g of brown and white sugar (boiled in water) and got it up to 1.040… it’s all I had lol.
It’s a Pale Ale. 2 kg Marris Otter, 1.5kg LME, 200g crystal, 3 hop additions over the hour boil.. magnum and cascade and I’m thinking of dry hopping with some more cascade.
Can’t wait to taste it, wort tasted great! Fermenting away happily after about 15 hours. Will the sugar have much impact on the balance? I’m guessing there’s a chance of fruity esters after the high temp pitch, but I’ll just give it a bit more time to clean itself up, hopefully that does the trick. Also, is it ok to prime this with plane table sugar?
I’ve done about a dozen extract beers so far. I got my doctorate the other day (not in home brewing) and decided I was going to do a partial mash celebratory brew… any apt name ideas would be welcomed btw. The whole brew took about 3 and a half to 4 hours! Didn’t expect it to take so long.
Good fun but it wasn’t plain sailing. I hit a mash temp of 152f and it stayed there. But during the mash I checked the thermometer and it read 195f ?!? I couldn’t understand what was going on. Took the lid off to try and cool it (I was mashing in a pot under a duvet), thought maybe it had absorbed heat from the pot or something, hey I don’t know, first time mashing. Turns out the thermometer packed in, what a time to do so! Had a spare, not as accurate though, but all good.
I had a tough time trying to get the temps down quickly after the boil! Got it down close in about 10 mins using frozen sterile bottles submerged/ice bath, but got it tough getting it down the rest of the way. Took about 30 mins total from flameout to pitch and at that it was a 74f pitch which isn't ideal, but herself needed the kitchen and was getting impatient!
Next problem was that I only hit an og of 1.037 which is far too light for my liking so I dumped in about 200-300g of brown and white sugar (boiled in water) and got it up to 1.040… it’s all I had lol.
It’s a Pale Ale. 2 kg Marris Otter, 1.5kg LME, 200g crystal, 3 hop additions over the hour boil.. magnum and cascade and I’m thinking of dry hopping with some more cascade.
Can’t wait to taste it, wort tasted great! Fermenting away happily after about 15 hours. Will the sugar have much impact on the balance? I’m guessing there’s a chance of fruity esters after the high temp pitch, but I’ll just give it a bit more time to clean itself up, hopefully that does the trick. Also, is it ok to prime this with plane table sugar?