Finlandia Ale

[googoomuck]

Hey guys, just put on a Finlandia Ale kit. I used the kit can a 1.5kg can of LME and as a bit of an experiment I also bought 500g of cara Amber malt, I steeped 200g of this last night an added it to the brew. Going to dry hop it with summit (because I have some left over and I love them) the smell from the steeping grains was great and when it was coming to the boil it smelled even better. OG was around 1035, don't know if that's good or bad?! When the liquid from the grain was coming to the boil I noticed some clumps on top, they disappeared pretty quick, I assume they won't have a negative effect I the beer?!

[mr hoppy]

Assuming that's the hops rather than steeping grains mixed into it that's hot break - coagulated protein. It's totally normal when boiling wort made with grain. It's a good thing as it precipitates protein - promoting clarity and stability in the finished product.

[googoomuck]

No hops were added to boil, I'm going to dry hop it later on. So that's what hot break is Grains were steeped in a muslin bag, dunked a few times and removed before the boil.

[LordEoin]

All good, but you shouldn't steep the grains in boiling water as it'll bring out some other stuff that you don't want.
15-20 minutes at about 65C seems to work best, then bring the resulting hop tea to the boil.
1.035 is grand, it'll probably end up somewhere around 4% before priming.

[googoomuck]

Sorry didn't make myself clear there, I steeped the grains over night in 2l of cold water, dunked a few times then brought the liquid to the boil minus the grain bag. 4% cool, looking forward to supping this, the house still smells like a mug of ovaltine this morning

[LordEoin]

my mistake, didn't read it properly.
You going to dryhop it also?

[googoomuck]

No worries. Yeah am thinking 25-30g of summit.