Extract Kit brewing

[damienair]

Hello all,
I have been brewing kits for over a year now with very good success so far. I’ve done a good few from Mangrove Jacks Craft series, some premium two can kits and a couple of kits from the Bruphoria range from The Homebrew Company. I have a Muntons Midas Touch in my FV at the minute which I will bottle at the weekend. I’m then going to pimp up a Coopers Canadian Blonde Ale. That will be my 17th kit.
I’m looking at buying a couple more kits and have been looking over the past few evenings at Extract Kits. Looks like a very manageable step up and looks interesting. I’ve watched a few videos and read some instructions online. I only have a 9 litre stock pot at home. Would that work or will I need to buy a 15 litre stock pot? For any of you who have in the past or currently do Extract Brewing do you have any recommendations or advice? I have just a basic set up, 2 brewing buckets and the usual basic bits and bobs.
Many thanks,

Damien

 

[jof]

You could have a look at doing a partial mash if you want to go further.
That's how I used to brew.
Stock pot with some malt & all hops for boil & sparge, then make up the missing malt with extract (I used spraymalt - dried powdered rather than lme when I did it)

 

[damienair]

Yes that’s it. Partial mash. Kit comes with 3Kg of LME, grains, hops and yeast. Would my 9 litre stock pot be OK to use?

 

[jof]

Ah, I see where you are coming from if it's the same as this:. Extract kit with a twist!! Help!!

Wait for others to confirm, but you have a couple of options. They might not turn out exactly as the kit intended but should still give drinkable beer.
Note that my extract brewing was done with dried malt extract, not LME

Simplest option would be to do a mash & boil using the crystal and hops (you could do this in a normal large saucepan but remember to strain off the grains before the boil). Once finished, pour the lme into your brewing bucket like you do with a kit beer, rinsing cans with hot water. Then add the wort you made from a pan (wait for it to settle & pour it through a sieve so your beer won't be full of debris). Top up with cold water (again, like kit brewing) and add yeast.

Or, using your bigger pan, do the mash with the grains in just enough liquid. Remove spent grain. Add 1 can of lme & rinse so your pan is like 3/4 full & use that for the boil. Then add the second can into the brewing bucket at the end like a kit. I think this will give you a slightly darker beer as I find boiling malt extract darkens it slightly.

 

[jof]

Just measured my old stock pot.
Its something like 12l and I would fill it to 10l.
But I would mash & boil up to 1.5kg of malt as well as other grains in there.
So my brews would end up 1/2 all grain, topped up with extract.

If you want to try all grain later, your pan should be fine for small tester batches before you invest in more expensive kit. (It might even save cash if your method leads you to require a £100 boiler rather than a £400 all in one system )

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/have-a-go-at-simple-ag.51779/

 

[Sandimas]

You can probably do this in a 9L pot but a 15L will be much better. They're cheap enough on eBay.

I haven't done these particular ones but I have done lots of the BrewUK ones in the past, I'm guessing the process is the same: steep the grains in hot water for 30mins, strain into your pot, top up to about 13L adding in the LME (stir well to stop it sticking to the bottom), bring to the boil then add the hops at the various intervals, and at the end strain the liquid into your FV and top up to volume with cold water.

The term partial-mash is a bit misleading: mashing is a very specific process, using to extract sugar from the base malt. In these kits the base malt is substituted by the LME, the grains you have are adjunct grains that don't need temperature-specific mashing, they just need a steep in hot water.

 

[damienair]

You can probably do this in a 9L pot but a 15L will be much better. They're cheap enough on eBay.

I haven't done these particular ones but I have done lots of the BrewUK ones in the past, I'm guessing the process is the same: steep the grains in hot water for 30mins, strain into your pot, top up to about 13L adding in the LME (stir well to stop it sticking to the bottom), bring to the boil then add the hops at the various intervals, and at the end strain the liquid into your FV and top up to volume with cold water.

The term partial-mash is a bit misleading: mashing is a very specific process, using to extract sugar from the base malt. In these kits the base malt is substituted by the LME, the grains you have are adjunct grains that don't need temperature-specific mashing, they just need a steep in hot water.

Thank you so much for your advice. Apologies for the late reply. The Homebrew Company have a 20 litre pot which is not too expensive. My wife already throws her eyes up to heaven when she sees me making up or bottling a kit. The sight of my standing on a chair whilst stirring a 20 litre stock pot on top of the cooker would really throw her over the edge. I’ll keep my eye out for a 15 litre pot.

 

[damienair]

Just measured my old stock pot.
Its something like 12l and I would fill it to 10l.
But I would mash & boil up to 1.5kg of malt as well as other grains in there.
So my brews would end up 1/2 all grain, topped up with extract.

If you want to try all grain later, your pan should be fine for small tester batches before you invest in more expensive kit. (It might even save cash if your method leads you to require a £100 boiler rather than a £400 all in one system )

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/have-a-go-at-simple-ag.51779/

Thank you so much for your advice. Sorry for not thanking you sooner. I’ll give it a try with my 9 litre pot and if it works out I might have a look out for a 15 litre pot. The Homebrew Company have a Citra IPA extract kit which I’ll try out. I might also get the Mangrove Jacks single Hop Citra IPA and compare the two. Thanks again for your advice and your reply.

 

[jof]

If it fits in your 9l pot, stick with it for a while.
It will give you a good enough idea if you want to jump to trying all grain brew in a bag (~£100 kit) and might save you investing in a stock pot that only gets used a couple of times.

Thats where my journey currently is.
As I like bottle conditioning my beer (& bottles are a good way of portion control) I don't think I'm headed for kegs & all in one systems.

 

[damienair]

If it fits in your 9l pot, stick with it for a while.
It will give you a good enough idea if you want to jump to trying all grain brew in a bag (~£100 kit) and might save you investing in a stock pot that only gets used a couple of times.

Thats where my journey currently is.
As I like bottle conditioning my beer (& bottles are a good way of portion control) I don't think I'm headed for kegs & all in one systems.

Yes same for me. I have a good bottle collection now, enough for 5 full brews and I could almost reach a 6th but then again there are always enough bottles left in rotation by the time that brew comes around. I like to pull a few from the garage for the fridge at the weekends. I certainly don’t think I will be going into kegs or all in one systems either. I’ll keep it simple. Cheers again for your advice. I was looking alright at BIAB set ups, but baby steps for now, I’ll try a few Extract Kits.

 

[damienair]

Thanks everyone for your advice. I took the plunge in the end. I bought a Muntons Hazy IPA and a HBC Full Extract Citra Pale Ale. The Hazy iPA is 2 weeks in the bottles and will be going down to the garage tomorrow to condition.
I put the Full Extract Kit on yesterday evening. I really enjoyed the process and the 9 litre stock pot did the job just fine. I steeped the grains for 30 mins at 67 degrees C in 2 litres of water, then rinsed the grains with 2 litres of water at 80 degrees C. Added one of the cans of LME, topped up with water and brought it to a boil. Then added hops at 60, 30 and 0 mins. Whirlfloc tablet was added at 15 mins. I then cooled the wort to 50 degrees and then added it to the FV, added the 2nd LME can and topped it up with cold water to 23 litres. Took a sample OG = 1.040 and pitched yeast at 22 degrees. It’s bubbling away. Looking forward to trying it out.

 

[G-Town Brewer]

I got a 20l stock pot from Amazon for doing part grain and smaller batches of BIAB all grain. I think it cost around £20 and was a good investment. It's large enough to do the Dark Rock part grain kits, but I also use brewing software to scale down extract brews aiming for a FV volume of 12l. Also do 12l AG recipes in it comfortably using BIAB. This week I did a 23l partial mash recipe, using a Coopers kit and 1.8Kg grain for extra fermentables It's really versatile and well worth the £20 and you'll be able mash some grain as well as steep them.

 

[clib]

Thanks everyone for your advice. I took the plunge in the end. I bought a Muntons Hazy IPA and a HBC Full Extract Citra Pale Ale. The Hazy iPA is 2 weeks in the bottles and will be going down to the garage tomorrow to condition.
I put the Full Extract Kit on yesterday evening. I really enjoyed the process and the 9 litre stock pot did the job just fine. I steeped the grains for 30 mins at 67 degrees C in 2 litres of water, then rinsed the grains with 2 litres of water at 80 degrees C. Added one of the cans of LME, topped up with water and brought it to a boil. Then added hops at 60, 30 and 0 mins. Whirlfloc tablet was added at 15 mins. I then cooled the wort to 50 degrees and then added it to the FV, added the 2nd LME can and topped it up with cold water to 23 litres. Took a sample OG = 1.040 and pitched yeast at 22 degrees. It’s bubbling away. Looking forward to trying it out.

Nice one. You can make excellent beer with the kits that include steeping grains and hops.

Partial mash is another step, where you replace some of the extract with base malt. Which reduces the cost, for one thing. The grain for an all grain brew can be under a fiver in some cases. I do all grain batches of around 15L on my cooker in a 19L pan. If I want 20+ litres I can add malt extract. Or expand into another pan!

 

[Sandimas]

Partial mash is another step, where you replace some of the extract with base malt. Which reduces the cost, for one thing. The grain for an all grain brew can be under a fiver in some cases. I do all grain batches of around 15L on my cooker in a 19L pan. If I want 20+ litres I can add malt extract. Or expand into another pan!

That's what I do.

Thanks to your excellent advice a few years ago, when I was 100% Extract brewer, I has a go at your "have a go at AG" thread. But after the first one it seemed a lot of effort for a 5L brew so I doubled it up and added a bit, I can just about squeeze a 12L AG brew out of my setup. But then I started sizing my recipes to take 1kg of DME in addition to the AG ingredients, so I can now do 20/21L brews with the same setup.

People ask why I don't go fully AG, but I kinda like my setup and it produces the results I need.

 

[clib]

That's what I do.

Thanks to your excellent advice a few years ago, when I was 100% Extract brewer, I has a go at your "have a go at AG" thread. But after the first one it seemed a lot of effort for a 5L brew so I doubled it up and added a bit, I can just about squeeze a 12L AG brew out of my setup. But then I started sizing my recipes to take 1kg of DME in addition to the AG ingredients, so I can now do 20/21L brews with the same setup.

People ask why I don't go fully AG, but I kinda like my setup and it produces the results I need.

Absolutely. It keeps the equipment, and life, simple. Glad it worked out for you.

 

[jof]

That's what I do.

Thanks to your excellent advice a few years ago, when I was 100% Extract brewer, I has a go at your "have a go at AG" thread. But after the first one it seemed a lot of effort for a 5L brew so I doubled it up and added a bit, I can just about squeeze a 12L AG brew out of my setup. But then I started sizing my recipes to take 1kg of DME in addition to the AG ingredients, so I can now do 20/21L brews with the same setup.

People ask why I don't go fully AG, but I kinda like my setup and it produces the results I need.

This is how I brewed for many years before my Mrs got me a full sized boiler for my birthday last year.

 

[damienair]

Thanks again everyone for your advice. The full extract Citra Pale Ale turned out fantastic and is one of the best kits I’ve done so far. I made up my second full extract kit yesterday. It’s a Dick Dastardly Dunkel Hefeweizen. Looking forward to trying it out. I’m a full extract brewer now. Nicer than a premium kit and half the price.