Evenin all,
I had my first go at doing an extract kit over the weekend. The kit I chose was the HBC Extract Red and I also added some extra hops.
The first mistake I made was not checking the size of my stock pot, silly mistake, but I just used my two biggest pots instead.
These are the steps I took:
1 - Place grains in Muslin Bag
2 - Bring 2ltr Water to 70deg in a pot
3 - Add Muslin Bag to to 2ltr and steep at 67degrees for 30mins.
4 - While steeping, start heating 2 x 6ltrs of water to boiling temperature.
5 - At the end of the steep add the steep water to both pots of 6ltr water.
6 - Let the muslin bag sit in a colander over one of the 6ltrs.
7 - Run 2ltrs of water at 80deg from kettle through the Muslin Bag over the other 6ltrs.
8 - Add 1 can of LME to each 6ltr pot.
9 - When they start boiling, add the kit hops to each pot. (Lucky I had spare muslin bags to divide up the hops into 2 batches)
10 - 45 mins later add the whirfloc and 70gr Perle (half a tablet and 35gr perle to each pot)
11 - Fll the sink with cold water
12 - After 1hr boil, put pots, one after the other, into the sink and keep filling and emptying sink with cold water to reduce temp to close to 30deg.
13 - Transfer to FV and top up to 23 Litres
14 - Check Gravity
15 - Pitch Yeast
Overall I found it more time consuming than kits, obviously, but a lot more enjoyable. The smell that filled my place was amazing, even the missus was commenting on it from the sitting room. Its bubbling away there nicely now in the FV and the smell coming from the airlock is amazing compared to when I did any kits. I'm glad I did this before properly getting into all grain as I'm still gathering the equipment to step up anyway.
Thanks for reading.
Pics to follow.
fair play to you, I would wonder if half a tab in just 6 litres may be a bit much whirl but other then that it seems good. Heatons tend to do 15 - 20 litre pots for decent money so try pick up one of those maybe. I would generally steep my grains in 3 litres of water but thats just me. Onwards and upwards brother.
PS - if you have a spare fermenter then making a kettle could be a good way to go
Well done. The smell from that red ale is fairly delicious. I still think you should try making yourself an electric boiler from a couple of argos kettles and a fermenter. It won't go to waste when you move on to all grain. This is a good discussion with some good links http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.com/forum/index.php/topic,6309.0.html
Good stuff Fishjam. What was your OG?
cheers lads,
with regards to a boiler I have acquired a 50ltr metal vessel ( ;) )that I've attached two earthed argos kettle elements to.
I have a bag on order from CustomBIAB. Stainless steel ballvalve and bazooka on order too. I'm in the process of buying a sight glass also.
So the wheels are definitely turning.
OG was 1042.
Airlock still popping away nicely this evening.
Nice
Great stuff
- nice pics as well.
Quote from: Partridge9 on May 07, 2014, 10:30:10 PM
Great stuff
- nice pics as well.
Maybe even up the right way?? ;)
Quote from: Will_D on May 08, 2014, 12:47:32 PM
Quote from: Partridge9 on May 07, 2014, 10:30:10 PM
Great stuff
- nice pics as well.
Maybe even up the right way?? ;)
I know - its my feckin iPhone! Dont know what way the orientation etc. is on it.
If I do any proper reviews I'll get out the DSLR for some proper shots, promise . . . .
Quote from: fishjam45 on May 08, 2014, 10:53:44 PM
Quote from: Will_D on May 08, 2014, 12:47:32 PM
Quote from: Partridge9 on May 07, 2014, 10:30:10 PM
Great stuff
- nice pics as well.
Maybe even up the right way?? ;)
I know - its my feckin iPhone! Dont know what way the orientation etc. is on it.
If I do any proper reviews I'll get out the DSLR for some proper shots, promise . . . .
IPhone captures the photos in landscape by default as they expect the user to use the camera on its side. If you rotate the iphone/camera to take a portrait photo it marks the exif meta data of the pictures with a rotate 90 degrees clockwise. Its own products read this and apply the rotation so that when they are displayed they appear as portrait. Unfortunately other programs that display the pictures don't know about this slight of hand and just display the photo in landscape mode. Try turning your head 90 degrees to the left or if your looking at the photos on a laptop/tablet rotate it instead :)
Shanna
about videos, but still relevant:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOqTLB6hKIs
There's 20s, ffwd, 5s, stop, of my life I'll never get back.
thanks Shanna, will give it a go the next time I'm posting more pics.
thanks again for the grain too, Bastereaud loves it!!!!!
Quote from: fishjam45 on May 12, 2014, 08:45:23 PM
thanks Shanna, will give it a go the next time I'm posting more pics.
thanks again for the grain too, Bastereaud loves it!!!!!
Glad to hear the grain is not going to waste. I guess the rats in South Dublin are loosing out as previously the grain was going into landfill :). If somehow we could exchange a few buckets of aged manure next time i bring the grain around. Would use it on my hop plants.
Shanna
The poor rats . . . :D
I'll mention it to the brother in law about the manure, cheers Shanna.
Took a reading tonight - 1.008
Its been in the FV since Saturday 3rd May.
A lot of gunk came out when I took a sample, very cloudy as you can see from the photo.
What temp is it at? Move it somewhere cooler and a lot of that will drop out. Are you going to stick it in a secondary for a while? Don't worry about the stuff in suspension mine was the same
Hi Chris!
Its currently at 22 degrees, theres nowhere else thats gonna be much cooler where I live because its so well insulated - 1st World Problems and all that . . .
If it'll help I'll pop her into secondary? One concern would be that if I leave it too long before bottling will I have issues with carbing it? I'll be using carb drops.
When you stick it in the secondary put it in the coolest place possible. A week will do. Then bottle away :-) I feel it will be great. There will be no prob with carbonation. I had an APA in the secondary for two months and it made no difference
Cheers Chris - I will put it in secondary over the weekend and leave it there for a week, in the coolest place I can find. (I'll be moving the thermometer around the house so ;) )
I hope it'll be great!
I did taste it earlier and all I can say is that, obviously, its very young. I can taste the extra hops that I added coming through most of all.
Quote from: fishjam45 on May 15, 2014, 10:18:58 PM
One concern would be that if I leave it too long before bottling will I have issues with carbing it? I'll be using carb drops.
Don't worry, you could leave it in secondary for months and it will still carb :)
Really? Sweet!
I thought that if there was no yeast left (hope I used the right term) that the it wouldnt carb in the bottle?
I put a basement in the house when I was building it constant 14 deg winter or summer. Selling this year to move back to city, will miss my basement.
Quote from: Chris on May 15, 2014, 10:46:59 PM
I put a basement in the house when I was building it constant 14 deg winter or summer. Selling this year to move back to city, will miss my basement.
How much ya selling for? Fancy movin to Bray?
:) :) :) :) :)
You'd be mad to move here, there's nothing for miles but my basement. That's why I'm moving back to the city.
Quote from: fishjam45 on May 15, 2014, 10:45:32 PM
Really? Sweet!
I thought that if there was no yeast left (hope I used the right term) that the it wouldnt carb in the bottle?
There will always be some yeast left in suspension. Even if you use finings, there will probably be enough yeast left to bottle condition.
Transferred to secondary tonight, it was much clearer than I thought last night. Maybe there was just a lot of crud sitting in the tap when I took a sample.
Quote from: Garry on May 16, 2014, 04:30:10 PM
Quote from: fishjam45 on May 15, 2014, 10:45:32 PM
Really? Sweet!
I thought that if there was no yeast left (hope I used the right term) that the it wouldnt carb in the bottle?
There will always be some yeast left in suspension. Even if you use finings, there will probably be enough yeast left to bottle condition.
Grand , one less thing to worry about so. I had a problem carbing a cider recently and thought that there was no yeast left especially after I recarbed all the bottles with carb drops with no luck.
Usually carbonation problems are temperature related. Just keep the bottles at 19'C - 21'C for 2 weeks min. Also check your bottle caps, they might be leaking.
That's a cool looking thermometer you have 8)
Thanks again Garry . . . The thermometer was bought from either mothercare or boots, its meant for testing the ear and forehead temp of the little ones. When its not being used for them I leave it sitting on top of FV's.
So I'll leave her in secondary for a week then bottle.
I think it's time someone approached mothercare to be an affiliate :P
Quote from: fishjam45 on May 16, 2014, 10:49:39 PM.
So I'll leave her in secondary for a week then bottle.
thats perfect, if you can find a cool spot for the week that will help with your final clarity, also remember when you move your secondary to the area you are going to bottle in, leave for a couple of hours to settle before you bottle or preferably move it the night before.
thanks again Chris. I went around the house with the babys thermometer and theres no real difference in temperature anywhere so I had to leave it in its original place.
Bottled it tonight!
Using secondary really makes a difference to clarity. I know you are not meant to, but I used 2 clear bottles amongst all the brown ones so I could see the colouring properly.
It looks pretty good and it also tastes pretty damn good too.
All in all I'm happy woth my first extract attempt, just hope the bottle carb up now.
Woohoo well done, next batch on straight away.