HBC Full Extract Irish Red Ale

This is the kit that I won in the recent raffle (thanks).

So this is the content of the kit



2 cans of Liquid Extract
1 bag of mixed grains (type not specified)
1 bag of hops marked 60 min (variety not specified but HBC website suggests Mt Hood)
1 packet of Safale US-05 yeast
1 whirlfloc tablet
1 muslin bag
Instruction Sheet



So, initial thoughts...

• As others have said, putting the other bags inside the grain bag saves packaging but it does make a bit of a mess when getting the bits out.
• All these HBC Extract Kits seem to come with US-05 yeast. Maybe the yeast supplied should be a bit more tailored to the beer style or maybe give the buyer a choice of yeast like some other extract kit suppliers (e.g. Brew UK).
• I would like more information on hop varieties, gain types, AA etc. as I like to note everything down (but maybe that's just me).
• The instructions are a bit basic but no problem for me as extract + grains is my preferred brewing style at the moment (but I know I'll have to go AG soon ).
• I'm looking forward to trying this beer as it's different to my usual mega hopped American IPAs that I normally brew. This one only has about 38g of bittering hops and no other additions so it will be different.

OK, so lets do this. I noticed that the other reviews of the HBC extract kits were done as full volume boils using boilers. I tend to do a partial boil as I've only got a 21 litre pot and our kitchen hob isn't very good so I prefer to get a good boil with a smaller volume. I'll go through the process in a bit of detail here as anyone with a small pot wanting to move on from kits could use this method as you can get off with boiling as little as 6-8 litres of wort so no huge pan required.

First thing was to add the muslin bag to my collection of dry hopping bags as I've got a grain bag and sweep up the spillled grain caused by unpacking the kit

So kettle on, grain in bag and about 2-3 litres of water in the pot at 70C. Dump the grain bag in the water and lid on.



This is going to sit for 30 min with the occasional "teabag dunk" motion. I'm also occasionally checking the temperature and adding a bit of heat to keep the temp around the 67C mark.

Not much to do for 30 min so have a beer (home brew American Wheat in this case)



And at the same time, the fermentation bin, paddle, glass thermometer, paint straining bag and turkey baster are soaking in VWP. I use Star San for bottling and general sterilising but like VWP for this job (note the Dr Nefario gloves for working with this stuff)



Also while I'm waiting, I'm sitting the first can of extract in some hot water to soften it. This is my first time using liquid extract as I generally use dried as you can use an exact quantity and it's a bit cheaper.



OK. Timer has gone for the 30 mins. Sparge time with a second pot, a colander and 2 kettles (about 3 litres) of water at about 80C. And give the bag a squeeze. I'd like to do this over the big pan to save washing another pan but the colander falls into the big pot :x. I need to get a wider colander.



The runnings go back in the big pot along with the first can of extract which is rinsed out with a can full of hot water. This is where I burned myself on the hot can :rofl:.

Hob on full power and wait ages for this liquid to get to a rolling boil.

Hooray! We are boiling, so add the hops and start the 60 min timer



This is where this kit gets a bit boring. There is only the 1 hop addition at 60 min. I'm used to watching the timer and throwing various amounts of different hops in at different times but this one just needs to boil. So I'm having another beer at this point. It would be a great first extract kit though as there is very little to go wrong here.

But this is the partial boil method so there is a couple of things to do. When the boil started, I was also sitting the second can of extract in hot water.

With 20 min to go in the boil, I bung in the second can of extract, again rinsed out with a can of hot water (but I didn't burn myself this time )

With 15 min to go, the whirlfloc tablet gets added. I've never used finings before so I'm interested to see what this does.

Timer goes for the 60 min. Flame out. The pot gets stuck in the sink with a running cold tap to chill it (I've not got round to building my immersion chiller yet).



BUT there are 2 more advantages to the partial boil method here..

1. We are only chilling 6-8 litres of liquid rather than 23.
2. We are going to add cold water before we pitch the yeast so we only need to get the wort down to 30 odd degrees.

While the wort is cooling, I've rinsed the fermentation bin and the other bits and bobs.

So we have cooled the wort, so dump it into the bin though the paint straining bag



Now we top up to 23 litres (ish) with cold Edinburgh tap water. The best buy I ever made was blue food grade hose (available by the metre from Amazon). It fits hozelock connectors and I use it for topping up, filling buckets etc.



Check temperature is correct for pitching, aerate the wort like mad with the paddle and pitch the yeast. Then give the yeast a good stir.

Job done!



Hopefully you weren't too bored with that but I thought this kit was a good chance to cover the partial boil extract plus grains method.

In conclusion, I'm looking forward to trying the finished product in a few weeks as it's a different style for me. As I said, I thought it was a bit boring to make but that's probably as I'm used to this style of brewing and used to working a bit harder.

Excellent review. I look forward to seeing the end product.

This would make a good sticky under a heading of "How to do a partial boil extract brew."

Thanks Clibit - I thought I would do a fairly detailed write-up as I've not seen too much detail on the site about this method.

I have to confess that I actually brewed this last week - the delay in posting the review was due to problems with my PC.

A week in, and the fermentation is complete and the krausen is starting to clear. I'll be leaving it the full 2 weeks in the FV to let the yeasties clear things up. So next week, this should be ready to be racked, batch primed and bottled.

Hopefully we will get a first taste test in a few weeks.

With the 21 litre pan, I'm tempted to try a smallish AG batch soon to see how that goes - but I need to replenish the stocks a bit first.

Bounce said:

With the 21 litre pan, I'm tempted to try a smallish AG batch soon to see how that goes - but I need to replenish the stocks a bit first.

Click to expand...

Do it. You know you want to. Being tempted is no use at all unless you give in.

:twisted:

You'll easily manage with a fine big pot like that. Wish I'd got something that size rather than a daft little 12l one.

OK,
This was bottled on Friday. Batch primed with 115g of brewing sugar (it was going to be 110g but my hand slipped :)). It has a nice red colour in the bottle.

Now sitting in the warm to carb up. I'll report back in a few weeks when I crack one open.

OK,
First bottle opened.

Clear as a bell. Very red in colour (you can see that when you hold it up to the light). Bit lacking in head (I may have under carbed it) but it kind of suits the style.

Lovely taste with a nice sweetish finish. No hop aroma as was to be expected with only one hop addition for bittering.

No "twang" as is to be expected with an extract plus grains brew.

A really enjoyable pint and a real change from the hop bomb IPAs I tend to drink. Looking forward to having the rest of these. I'll send some samples out to some of my "testers"for further opinions.

Bottom line - nice pint and would recommend.

Thanks again for the prize - much appreciated.

Glad it turn out well. A photo of the finished product will be nice

Sounds great, I like red ales. Hoppy ones too.

As requested, here's a photo of the finished article


Plus one with a strong light behind to show the distinct red colour

The bottom one is Vimto. I'm not falling for that.

A fantastic review, thanks for taking the time, and congratulations on a cracking pint!

Looks a nice pint