Help with brewing first extract & grain kit

[Gggsss]

Hi All

I have just received delivery of the following kit but unsure how to produce the initial wort.
NEIPA Extract Brewing Kit - Get Er Brewed

It is a kit containing :
2 x 1.5kg LME
Flaked Oats 150g (Steep)
Flaked Torrified Wheat 150g (Steep)
Muslin bag to steep grains

Hops (Each in an A4 sized tea bag)
Aurora 15g at 60 minutes
Citra 20g at 15 minutes
Galaxy 20g at 15 minutes
Mosaic 20g at 15 minutes

Lalbrew New England Dried Yeast 25g

I have a 16l stock pot.

Basically what do I do???? And any tips?? I have a rough idea but don't know water volume for steeping/boiling etc.

How much water to grains for steeping?

Do I use as much water as possible for the boil and add both LME pots for the 60 min boil??

Will be topping it up with bottled water & sticking it in to a 25l plastic fermentation bucket at about 21-22l (kit advises 23l).

If all goes well I will do a few extract/grain steeps and move on to BIAB.

A billion thanks in advance.

 

[Sandimas]

How much water to grains for steeping?

- 4 or 5 litres should do, for about 30 minutes.

Do I use as much water as possible for the boil and add both LME pots for the 60 min boil??

- Yes, as much water as possible, if you have a 16L pot use about 14L. Just add one of the LMEs at the start and the other at the end of the boil, be VERY careful not to let it drop to the bottom and burn, stir it well.

.

 

[terrym]

I am surprised you have been supplied with torrified wheat and oats 'for steeping'. These grains need mashing with a diastatic base malt to convert the starch to fermentable sugars . If you steep them and then add any liquor arising to your wort you will, in my view, end up with a starch haze. Standard grade LME supplied to brewers nowadays does not contain diastase so that is no use to you. Steeping grains are grains where the starches have been converted to sugars usually by kilning, typically crystal malt. So my recommendation is don't use these grains, save them for an AG boil when you can mash them with the base malt
Next, my guess is that your kit is intended to have a full volume boil . However you only have a 16 litre pot, which probably has a max capacity of 14 litres, and if you use all of your hops the utilisation will be down if your boil uses all the LME. So my suggestion is to use half of the LME in the boil and add the other half direct to the FV which will increase the utilisation. Next do not dissolve the LME in your water in the stock pot whilst it is on the heat. Heat the water take the pot off the heat and then dissolve all of the LME. And if you have any undissolved LME on the inside bottom of the pot when you return the pot to the heat it is likely to burn.
For the hops just add them in accord with the timings. Aurora go in first at 60mins, the rest at 15 minutes. I also suggest you top up your pot with boiling water to offset the evaporation losses and keep the boil volume close to where you started.
Finally unless your tap water does not taste or smell very nice, or is chlorine laden, there is in my view no need to use bottled water, Tap water from the mains tap is fine.
And you might find this useful
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/a-simple-guide-to-extract-brewing.75501/PS. If you are really new to all of this a good book is very useful. Greg Hughes Home Brew Beers and Graham Wheeler Brew Your Own British ale are well thought of.
As is John Palmer How to Brew an online copy being here
http://howtobrew.com/

 

[Gggsss]

Cheers lads (terrym - thanks for the links). I really appreciate it. I don't want to nause this up....

So general rule, main boil use as much as the pot will handle and only add half the LME (taking care not to burn). I assume this can be translated to DME equivalent?

As for steeping grains what is the general rule of thumb - liter water to kg grain?

Also is it worth throwing the hop tea bags in the FV with the wort? Will it maximize the hops? If they do get chucked in will this restrict yeast activity (yeast getting caught in the bags)?

terrym - If you don't mind me hassling you, what grains do you suggest for steeping for a NEIPA (extract brew)?

 

[Gggsss]

Bump

Sorry to hassle everyone.

I just really need to know the water volume to grain weight ratio for steeping. I have read lots of conflicting info online ranging from 2 litres of water per kilo of grain up to 8 litres of water per kilo of grain..... Just need to know moving forward.

If anyone wants to advise on the other loose ends then I would really appreciate it, but not essential.

A million thanks in advance beer monsters....

Ta

 

[starseeker]

3L per kg is what i use with good results .

 

[Obadiah Boondoggle]

Cheers lads (terrym - thanks for the links). I really appreciate it. I don't want to nause this up....

So general rule, main boil use as much as the pot will handle and only add half the LME (taking care not to burn). I assume this can be translated to DME equivalent?

As for steeping grains what is the general rule of thumb - liter water to kg grain?

Also is it worth throwing the hop tea bags in the FV with the wort? Will it maximize the hops? If they do get chucked in will this restrict yeast activity (yeast getting caught in the bags)?

terrym - If you don't mind me hassling you, what grains do you suggest for steeping for a NEIPA (extract brew)?

Throwing the hop tea bags into the FV will achieve nothing in my view. Don't think it will hamper yeast activity

The hops you put in at the beginning of the boil are to create bitterness, they need to boil for 60/90 minutes to bitter properly.

The later hops boil for a shorter period to create flavour, again they need to boil for a while to do this

Throwing hops in at end boil can enhance aroma but that is not part of your recipe I believe

Putting them in the FV will just increase the detritus in the bottom of your FV when you finish fermenting

 

[Gggsss]

cheers for the replies both....

Stars-3L per kilo ratio. I will apply to my next. Literally had no idea...