Super-genius or dumb idea?

[Dunkel]

I was thinking of a way to make extract brewing as simple as possible for kit brewers, who probably don't have things like large stockpots or immersion chillers. So what's wrong with the following plan, making an 11.5 litre volume with nothing larger than a standard 2.5 litre saucepan :-

1) Bring 1.5 litres water to 70 C on the stove top
2) Add crushed speciality grain (about 500 gm, depending on beer style) in muslin bag
3) Steep grain for 30 mins
4) Remove grain bag and drain on top of sieve into another pot
5) Add water to make 2 litres, bring to boil
6) Add 60 min hops and drainings from 4)
7) Add 15 min hops
8 ) Add 5 min hops
9) Remove pot from heat at 0 mins
10) Put 3 litres cold water in sanitized fermenter
11) Add 1.5 kg tin/pouch of LME to fermenter
12) Strain pot through sieve (presuming the hops were loose) into other sanitized pot
13) Use hot hop tea to rinse out LME tin/pouch and add to fermenter
14) Top up fermenter to 11.5 litres and add yeast

So no need for any large pots or cooling equipment. What could possibly go wrong? 

[DEMPSEY]

Given the understanding that large breweries top up their fermenter's I don't see why not. Only issue I see is the possibility of poor quality cold water being used i.e. is it hygienic 

[Parky]

I'm sure you'll get no end of 'helpful suggestions' on this one, just thought I'd drop my 2 cents in right away 

My first cent - I tend to leave the addition of any steeping grains until the last 10 mins of the boil to avoid creating harsh flavours, esp. with darker grains. Even adding the wort from steeping directly to the FV worked fine for me in the past.

My second cent - You'll need a touch more than 2 litres for three hop additions. When I'm using a French press to create hop extract I typically get 700ml from a litre of water. This is just down to soakage by the hops, the boil will also cause evaporation (Up to 20% typically on my system).

A cent I borrowed from a money lender - I find LME easier to dissolve in hot water, maybe putting warm water into the FV (as in point 10) may help dissolve the extract easier.

Other than that it all sounds groovy 

[beerfly]

thats basically what my extract batchs were like.

• Pot was in or around 5L
• Steeped grains between 60 - 70c
• After 30mins remove grains keeping as much liquid in pot as possible
• Add dme/lme while bringing to boil for me it was 3 - 4kg, be careful of scorching, also be very wary of boil over during the hot break due to high sugar concentration.
• Boil for 60 mins adding hops as required. i topped it 2 -3 times as required too due to evaporation
• When finished pour into fermenter and top up to desired level with tap water, for me it was 20L

adding 15L -18L of cold water to about 5L of boiling/very hot liquid generally gets you down to pitiching tempertures, you can also cool it in a water bath to drop the temp too.
having 3 - 4 kg of extract in 5L of water gives you a very high sg which will affect hop utilisation i.e. you will need to use slightly more hops then you would on a 20L boil

[Boycott]

Ive tried it but you still lose 2/3L with an hour boil so my beer turned out terrible. Had to keep topping up with water as it was all boiling off

[Pheeel]

I wouldn't bother with anything less than a 10L kettle for this

[dcalnan]

From what I've read it's always best to boil as big as volume as possible, you don't have as efficient hop extraction when have a lower volume. And the lower volume can also caramelise the wort more, but since you're leaving the extract till after the boil, this might not affect it as much.

[Dunkel]

Yep, agree with everybody. I had a look around my kitchen yesterday, and the biggest "normal" size saucepan was 2.5 litres. Perhaps I'm trying to be too clever here, and should just suggest to wannabe extractors that they buy a 5-10 litre pot.

[Garry]

Do you need to boil at all? You can get bitterness from steeping alone, you just need more hops. Have a look at the Brewers Choice DME kits. Example here.

You can also get hopped DME?

[Pheeel]

I'd still boil even if it was only for 10 minutes

[Parky]

Perhaps I'm trying to be too clever here, and should just suggest to wannabe extractors that they buy a 5-10 litre pot.

I actually think the idea has merit, just needs to be tested in practice to iron out any issues and refine the process a little bit.

I've a 15L FV begging to be filled up, so will give it a whirl at the weekend and post results here. I'll make a witbier, as the technique might lend itself best to lower IBU brews (weissbier, English bitter, Irish red ale, etc.), and as others here have said a 60 min boil may not be required - maybe more hops, or a shorter boil - let's see!

[Parky]

Well, the brew is done using a slight variation on the method above, and is chugging away nicely in its new home under the stairs. The whole process was very straight forward and it was all over in an hour and a half, including cleanup.

I did use wheat DME instead of LME, as I couldn't source any liquid extract in time for brew day. However, I think LME might actually be less fuss overall and I will be giving it a go at another time.

As this was very much a first bash at the technique above there was something of a learning curve involved, and I've made some notes and comments that might help improve the process below -



The recipe used here is a simple hefeweissen, as I thought it was well suited to the low IBUs obtained from a short boil. I think this recipe will work well by itself, but will most likely be adding some lemon or lime peel to this one when fermentation has completed.

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L):           14.0
Total Hops (g):           24
Original Gravity (OG):    1.048
Final Gravity (FG):       1.011 (est.)
Alcohol by Volume (ABV):  4.9 %
Colour (EBC): 12.4
Bitterness (IBU):         15.2   (est. Tinseth)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 70
Boil Time (Minutes):      30

Malt Bill
----------------
1.5 kg Munton's Wheat DME (93.75%)
0.1kg Carared (6.25)

Hop Bill
----------------
8.0 g Magnam Pellet (10.7% Alpha) @ 30 Minutes [12.48 IBU]
8.0 g Hellertau Mittlefreuh Pellet (3% Alpha) @ 10 Minutes [1.72 IBU]
8.0 g Hellertau Mittlefreuh Pellet (3% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes [0.95 IBU]

Misc Bill
----------------
100g Maltodextrin @ 10 minutes
0.5 g Yeast Nutrient @ 10 Minutes

Yeast
----------------
6.0g Safbrew T-58 yeast


Walkthrough

1. Placed 5L bottled water in fridge to chill in advance (this will help cool to wort to pitching temperature later).



2. Weighed out crushed steeping grains, hop additions and misc. additions into separate bowls.

3. Using two pots from a standard domestic set (2.5L and 1.5L), I added 1.5L to one pot (for the hop boil) and 750ml to the other (for steeping grains).

4. When the water in the steeping grains pot reached 70oC I removed both pots from the heat.



5. Added steeping grains (in muslin bag) to steeping grains pot, covered, and started timer for 30 mins.

6. Added 100g of DME to hop pot (now off the heat) ensuring it was well mixed. (Note: 100g of DME in 1.5L water will create a wort of approx. 1.025 SG; 100ml of LME will provide a similar gravity, approx. 1.021).



7. Returned hop pot to the heat and brought to a rolling boil.

8. Wort will foam very quickly at this point, watch carefully and remove from heat when wort boils.



9. Added bittering hop addition and turned down heat to a simmer (Note: Watch the wort doesn't boil over at this point. Keep stirring gently until wort settles into rolling simmer).

10. Covered hop pot with lid to limit evaporation and started another timer for 30 minutes.



11. With 10 minutes left on the hop boil I added the 10 minute additions, increased heat slightly and covered with pot lid.

12. Rehyrated yeast in 150mls water at 27oC and covered with cling film.



13. After 30 mins of soaking, removed steeping grains from pot and used strainer to let bag drain.



14. Added 5 minute hop addition and stirred in well.



15. Attached sanitised hop bag to fermentation vessel and poured hop wort through it at flameout.



16. Added wort from steeping grains to hop wort in fermentation vessel and topped up to 5L with water (The additional water is to facilitate dissolving the DME, perhaps with LME the hot wort may be enough to dissolve the malt).

17. Added the remaining wheat DME slowly and stirred to dissolve, making sure to avoid any lumps.

18. Once the DME was fully dissolved I topped up the fermentation vessel to 14L. This included added the 5L of bottled water that had been chilled earlier.

19. Once fermentation vessel had been topped up the temperature read 20oC, which is ideal for the yeast being used here.



20. Gravity reading of the wort came out as 1.048

21. Yeast was pitched into fermentation vessel and mixed.

22. Placed lid on fermentation vessel and moved to area that had an ambient temp of 18oC

Additional Notes:

1. I was surprised at how straightforward the brewday went, biggest issue here was around the creation of hopped wort at such a small volume.
2. Wort foamed very quickly when brought to the boil, need to watch carefully and remove from heat as soon as it boils.
3. I was surprised that simmering the wort (at same setting used to simmer rice), kept the temp at 85-90oC. This is well within the range for isomerisation, and although the isomerisation rate may not be as efficient as wort boiling at 100oC, simmering is far more manageable in terms of evaporation rates and control of foaming.
4. Strictly speaking the IBU's calculated in the recipe above do not apply, as they were calculated using standard brewing software, and do not account for the lower temperature of the 'boil'. However, I'm satisfied that simmering rather than boiling produces enough bittering potential to achieve the desired IBUs, and would be easy manageable for a longer boil.

[Will_D]

Excellent article and great photos.

[Greg2013]

Kudos on the thread Dunkel,has given me food for thought for keeping my hand in brewing on a smaller scale(smaller but more often i am thinking),the biggest pot i have is about 8 litres to the brim,i wonder what could i get away with using that as in volumes etc like you have done there ?

Anyway keep us updated on any further brews using this method,one thing i like about using the liquid extract is if you want an extra kick you can always sub an on special kit tin instead.

[Dunkel]

Well done Parky.

I'll be trying a version of this tomorrow with LME, wheat malt and flaked wheat - I'll let you know how I get on.