National Homebrew Club Ireland

Brewing Discussions => All Grain Brewing => Topic started by: nordic man on February 11, 2014, 07:52:33 PM

Title: Brewing a american brown ale
Post by: nordic man on February 11, 2014, 07:52:33 PM
Hi all,

I'm brewing an american brown ale and wonder if I should use spray malt medium or spraymalt light for this brew?
Title: Re: Brewing a american brown ale
Post by: delzep on February 11, 2014, 08:37:03 PM
Probably doesn't matter. I used to use light (and extra light) in stouts
Title: Re: Brewing a american brown ale
Post by: ColinC on February 11, 2014, 09:02:44 PM
Made an extract American Brown Ale recently with 2 cans of light LME and it was a bit thin in body. Was only thinking that next time I'll use half medium DME & half light DME. See how that is. I've been underwhelmedwith LME so far so not going to bother with it any more & just stick to DME.

Made some amber ales with medium DME before& they were great.
Title: Re: Brewing a american brown ale
Post by: nordic man on February 11, 2014, 09:49:40 PM
Just in case here, I am about to put in the hops, few minutes till boiling. It says on the labels, 0 minutes, 15 minutes and 60 minutes. Does it mean I put in the 0 minutes at the very start of the boil? or should the 60 minutes go in first? Got the set from Thehomebrewcompany.
Title: Re: Brewing a american brown ale
Post by: irish_goat on February 11, 2014, 09:53:38 PM
60 mins go in first, then you count down.
Title: Re: Brewing a american brown ale
Post by: nordic man on February 11, 2014, 10:22:15 PM
Hmm, I might have a bit to little liquid in my pot... would that be a proplem? might be around 25 liter, insted of 26.... Should I add some boiling water? its been boiling for 25 minutes.
Title: Re: Brewing a american brown ale
Post by: irish_goat on February 11, 2014, 10:25:13 PM
You'll be expecting to lose 3-4 litres by boiling it anyway. Does it say on the instructions how much should be going into the fermenter?

A litre here or there won't make a massive amount of difference anyway.  :)
Title: Re: Brewing a american brown ale
Post by: nordic man on February 11, 2014, 10:40:30 PM
It says on their website that it will make 23 liter. Would it be ok to adjust when its in the fermenter?
Title: Re: Brewing a american brown ale
Post by: irish_goat on February 11, 2014, 11:03:34 PM
You can wait til the end of the boil and always top up with a little water if you're below the mark but if you started with 26 you'll probably be near spot on.
Title: Re: Brewing a american brown ale
Post by: Ciderhead on February 11, 2014, 11:27:30 PM
Couple of litres either way is not worth losing sleep over.


Title: Re: Brewing a american brown ale
Post by: Garry on February 11, 2014, 11:44:54 PM
I'm going doing this kit soon but I'll be using LME. I wouldn't mind swaping a few bottles with you when we're done to compare the difference?
Title: Re: Brewing a american brown ale
Post by: nordic man on February 12, 2014, 12:13:09 AM
Sounds good Garry, my first extract brew, so.... not sure if it's done correct. But of course we can swap a few bottles:-)

Was only 19 liter when I poured it to the fermenter.... and OG was 1063... so I topped it up til 22,5 and ended up with OG 1051. So not sure if this will be right. Will probably be excellent:-)

Anyway, good stuff to have gone through the prosess. A bit more controlled next time:-)
Title: Re: Brewing a american brown ale
Post by: delzep on February 12, 2014, 12:57:08 PM
Should be fine. You more or less did a partial boil which a lot of people do