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First Extract Brew - HBC APA Kit with whole Chinook additions

Started by ferg, July 29, 2013, 07:32:30 AM

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ferg

Hello all, did my first extract yesterday! was a bit of stress but very enjoyable really.. all those hops! yumm...

I had Crystal Malt (which I forgot to weigh, if anyone knows how much comes in HBC APA kit let me know!), Magnum pellet 50g Cascade pellet 25g Cascade whole 15g and Chinook 60g

The only major mistake I can remember was after sparging my grains I really gave them a really strong squeeze!! Only did I read after that this has released a lot of tannins from the grains. This might account for why it's so dark, it's looking more like a an dark amber ale than pale!! Its actually looking and smelling quite like 5AM Saint! you'll see the colour in the photos below.

Caught one or two boilovers just before they got mad during the boil, which was okay but I got distracted doing other things and missed some of my hop additions by a few minutes... mostly trying to keep all the walls from bleeding condensation so badly! it'll be right under the hood of the cooker next time!

Had issues with the chilling as I have no immersion WC, I boiled 23 litres, lost about 4/5 and added in cold water to replace, and got the fermenter in to tightly packed ice bath but the temp still didnt drop enough to pitch yeast until 6.30 this morning from having finished the boil at 6pm last night! so some chance of infection and off flavours :/ the yeast is in now anyway and it's all sealed up and getting working, saw the first bubble form before I snapped on the lid. Phew!

Oh and cheers to Shane from NHC stand in Trinity on Saturday for the advice and encouragement!

Grains – crystal malt (unkown amount, whatever comes with hbc ipa extract kit
Steeping Grains – Steep at 150F / 66C, 30 min.
Find other ingredients and their uses at:
Yeast – Safale 05 dry sachet
Hops -
Type Magnum pellet
Amount 50g
AA
Boil Time 60
Type Chinook whole
Amount 20g
AA
Boil Time 15
Type Chinook whole
Amount 40g
AA
Boil Time 5
Type Cascade pellet
Amount 25g 
AA
Boil Time 5
Type Cascade whole
Amount 15g
AA
Boil Time 0

Original Gravity 1.051
Volume 22l

pics: http://imgur.com/a/0kLSD

johnrm

Good man ferg, great post!
You could move it to a bath to cool the next time maybe.
Welcome to the NHC.

ferg

Forgot to say there was 3kg of dme gone in there too.. in case anyone thought I performed a miracle of getting 1.051 og from 1 small bag of steeped crystal malt!

I still have another 20g of Chinook which is in a lunchbox in the fridge. I'm considering dry hopping with. Do you guys think I should? As you can see from the pic after I had a huge amount left in the boiler after that hop bomb at the end of the brew. I also have 100g bag of cascade unopened but I think I'll keep that for my next beer