Well, first off a big thank you to the site and the Home Brew Company, as i won this kit in the recent competition.
This is the first Extract brew that i have done so i was a little unsure of what to expect. As others have mentioned on opening the box, the first thing to note was that the instructions were sealed in with the crushed grains which meant having to open that first to see what was needed.
First mistake, give yourself plenty of time, do not start this at 8.30 in the evening.
I followed the instructions, steeping the grains in the muslin bag in 2 Litres of water at 67 degrees C for 30 mins. For this i used a pressure cooker, heated the water to 67 degrees added the grains in the bag, brought the water back up to 67degrees, put the lid on and then wrapped this up in half a dozen towels and left.
At the end of the 30 mins i poured the liquor into the boiler and rinsed the grains by placing them in a colander and pouring over water at 80 degrees C. This is where i slightly differed from the instructions as it seemed that in the first instance there was very little to pour off as the grains seemed to have absorbed most of it. So instead of rinsing with 2 litres i used about 4, giving the bag a good squeeze at the end.
I had recently purchased a buffalo boiler from a forum member, fitted with a bazooka filter which worked fantastically well. I heated the water added the Liquid Malt Extract and the liquor collected from the grains. At this point i found my second problem. This was how to know that i had a volume of 26 Litres, so i made a rough guess and kept my fingers crossed!!
The boiler got upto a nice rolling boil and i added the first hop addition which according to the website are Challenger And Fuggles, and vacuum packed flowers rather than pellets. A further 45 mins later i added the whirl floc tablet. 5 mins later the last hop addition, and then let this boil for a further 10 mins before turning off the boiler and letting it stand for 25 mins.
I transferred the liquor to the FV and found that i had 20 litres, not 23 which i can only put down to my bad guessing. Trying to cool this down quickly without an immersion chiller is a major pain. I had this sat in an ice water bath, but this took hours! The time was now 1.30am, as i was totally knackered and the wort was sealed in the FV with the air lock on, i took the executive decision that i needed sleep as it was still only down to 36 degrees and had taken ages to get to this.
Up bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning, wort now at 22 degrees 1.048-1.050. I gave it a good stir up and added the yeast (Safale US-05) 30 mins later, bubbles!!!
IT LIVES!!!!
Although i have noticed quite a large band (2 inches) of sediment at the bottom
Now lots of fingers crossed as i love stouts and porters, and apart from the problems encountered i would say that this really straight forwards. And, i will definitely do this again.
Many thanks guys.
Steve
This is the first Extract brew that i have done so i was a little unsure of what to expect. As others have mentioned on opening the box, the first thing to note was that the instructions were sealed in with the crushed grains which meant having to open that first to see what was needed.
First mistake, give yourself plenty of time, do not start this at 8.30 in the evening.
I followed the instructions, steeping the grains in the muslin bag in 2 Litres of water at 67 degrees C for 30 mins. For this i used a pressure cooker, heated the water to 67 degrees added the grains in the bag, brought the water back up to 67degrees, put the lid on and then wrapped this up in half a dozen towels and left.
At the end of the 30 mins i poured the liquor into the boiler and rinsed the grains by placing them in a colander and pouring over water at 80 degrees C. This is where i slightly differed from the instructions as it seemed that in the first instance there was very little to pour off as the grains seemed to have absorbed most of it. So instead of rinsing with 2 litres i used about 4, giving the bag a good squeeze at the end.
I had recently purchased a buffalo boiler from a forum member, fitted with a bazooka filter which worked fantastically well. I heated the water added the Liquid Malt Extract and the liquor collected from the grains. At this point i found my second problem. This was how to know that i had a volume of 26 Litres, so i made a rough guess and kept my fingers crossed!!
The boiler got upto a nice rolling boil and i added the first hop addition which according to the website are Challenger And Fuggles, and vacuum packed flowers rather than pellets. A further 45 mins later i added the whirl floc tablet. 5 mins later the last hop addition, and then let this boil for a further 10 mins before turning off the boiler and letting it stand for 25 mins.
I transferred the liquor to the FV and found that i had 20 litres, not 23 which i can only put down to my bad guessing. Trying to cool this down quickly without an immersion chiller is a major pain. I had this sat in an ice water bath, but this took hours! The time was now 1.30am, as i was totally knackered and the wort was sealed in the FV with the air lock on, i took the executive decision that i needed sleep as it was still only down to 36 degrees and had taken ages to get to this.
Up bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning, wort now at 22 degrees 1.048-1.050. I gave it a good stir up and added the yeast (Safale US-05) 30 mins later, bubbles!!!
IT LIVES!!!!
Although i have noticed quite a large band (2 inches) of sediment at the bottom
Now lots of fingers crossed as i love stouts and porters, and apart from the problems encountered i would say that this really straight forwards. And, i will definitely do this again.
Many thanks guys.
Steve
