My first extract brew

[Padraich]

Afternoon all.

So, I've done a fair few kits, hacked them and now I'm taking the next baby step by getting two cans of LME to use as the basis of my own brew.

I have a few questions - I'm going to use Minch Irish Pale Ale malt & some dark crystal.
Q: am I ok to steep these overnight in cold water in a hop bag to get flavour and starch (for %ABV) our of them; or do I need to boil/soak in hot water?

I'm using two Muntons LME cans - one hopped and one marris otter.
Q: Will a 30mins boil with the grain water and hops added at various times work, or do I need longer boiling?

All input is gladly received... hopefully I won't botch it

Thanks all.

[Bubbles]

It's ok to steep the crystal, but not the pale malt. It needs to be mashed.

By the way, starch will not contribute alcohol. Starch needs to be converted to sugar for the yeast to consume and produce alcohol.

I'm not sure either why you want to soak grain overnight in cold water. Crystal malt steeped in 70c water will give the required result.

[Pheeel]

So you're doing a partial mash. What type of beer are you brewing

1. You want to mash the grain at the right temperature to extract the sugar. 30 minutes should be sufficient for the small amount of grain
2. It depends how bitter you want the beer as you won't get the 60 minutes hop bitterness but I'm no expert. I've never used hopped extract so I don't know what effect it'll have

I did a partial mash on a lager the other day and I mashed for 30 and boiled for 60 (then topped up the water)

[Chris]

Only boil the unhopped extract as if you boil the hopped extract it will boil off the hop extract that has been added.
I know I said extract a lot but I think you get what I'm saying.

Do the boil with the unhopped extract and any hop additions and add the hopped extract at the end.

[Padraich]

I'm planning on an IPA - I seem to be doing a lot of them lately...

Thanks for all the input.

What I'm getting is that my grains need to mash for 30mins @ ~70deg followed by a 60min boil with hops to extract max bittering from the hops; or a 30min boil to extract reduced bittering.  So a total of 90 or 60 mins before dryhopping and putting the wort in my fv?

Will this all work ok if I have the grains in a muslin bag?

[molc]

Dry hopping usually happens after primary fermentation, otherwise a lot of the aroma is driven off by the co2 produced as well as the active effects of the fermentation on the hop oils.

Otherwise, basically yes. Steep grains for 30mins, which in your case will also mini mash your pale ale and convert the starches to sugars. I'd suggest you go closer to 66/67 so as to get more fermentable sugars from the pale malt as well.
Do the 60 min boil with your bittering hops then, adding your prehopped can at 30 or even 15 mins before timeout. Flavour hops at 15 and aroma hops at flameout. Then cool as usual, pitch your yeast and begging the frustrating wait.

If you've hacked kits, there's very little difference except the longer boil time and not a lot to go wrong.

[Padraich]

Thanks all. I think the wisdom of crowds saved me from messing up a big batch of ingredients.

I'm not going to get to it now until next weekend at the earliest, but I'll keep you all in the loop and let you know how it goes - and if it's any good will keep some for the next Midlands Brewers meetup.