Homebrew Company Full Extract Pamela Anderson Ale

[damienair]

I forgot to write this review up. This was my 22nd brew and my 3rd attempt at a Full Extract Kit, the previous two were a Citra IPA and a Dunkel Hefeweizen both of which turned out great.

Brew started on 23/10/22. I steeped the grains (Crystal Malt and Honey Malt) for 30 mins in 3.5 litres of water at 67C. I rinsed the grains with 3 litres of water at 80C. Brought the wort up to a rolling boil and added the hops as instructed at 60 mins, 15 mins, whirlfloc tablet added at 15 mins and last hop addition at 1 minute left on the boil. Hops were Target and Hull Melon. I then added 3 Kg of Medium Spray malt, mixed with a whisk until mixed fully with no lumps, and then cooled the wort. Following cooling I poured the wort into a fermentation bucket via a filter to catch all hops and particles. The wort was topped up to 23 litres using both cold and hot water to get a full volume temperature of 22C. OG = 1.046 Added Yeast which was Mangrove Jacks Belgian Ale yeast M41. Final gravity reading on 13/11/22 was 1.004 giving an ABV of 5.5%. Beer was bottled on 13/11/22 using 120g of brewing sugar mixed with 400ml of boiled water and added to a bottling bucket for batch priming. Beer was transferred to the bottling bucket and given a very gentle stir. I had a yield of 39 x 500ml bottles. Bottles were left back up into airing cupboard to go through secondary fermentation. 25/11/22 bottles were moved down to the garage so as to condition. First bottle was opened on the 16th of December 2022.

This turned out to be a lovely beer. Really nice and very refreshing. It was called a Pamela Anderson Ale as it was meant to have hints of Melons. Sorry ladies, not my idea. It absolutely has a hint of melon and is improving as time goes by. I have 20 pints left and I am saving the rest for a few weeks to see how it matures. Another great Full Extract Kit from the Homebrew Company. Big thumbs up from me.

 

[BobShandy]

Thanks for the write up, and congratulations on a great brew. I am a novice. I have a few questions to clarify if I understood your post. You have given me some ideas which will improve my own brews.

Do you have a 30 liter tank? I guessed this from you mentioning a total volume of about 23 liters.

Was this a part grain, part malt extract brew? You mention steeping your grains for 30 minutes, then rinsing them. How many KG were the grains?

You added the medium spray malt after boiling the wort/hops? So this malt extract just needs to be mixed into the water and have yeast added?

It was a smart idea to have hot and cold sterile water ready to take the whole volume down to pitching temperature.

I have been doing all grain brews. I still have enough for 3 more of these brews. I think I have been boiling too much water, which obviously slows everything down on my gas stove. I wonder how little water I can get away with (5KG of grains), when adding sterile water at the end.

Very interesting that you added the sugar water into the bottling bucket and mixed it with the beer before bottling. I am coming to the end of a batch of beer and I was just going to add granulated sugar to each bottle. Your method is more consistent. But I'm going to siphon straight from my tank into the bottles, hoping to disturb the mix as little as possible.

Did you measure the gravity of the beer for successive days, find it was the same, and then decide to bottle? or have you just figured out that 3 weeks is about right, with no need for further fuss? I was going to leave this batch for a month, with the last couple of days in a cold garage, to settle the yeast to the bottom, as I want to harvest that yeast for the next batch.

 

[damienair]

Thanks for the write up, and congratulations on a great brew. I am a novice. I have a few questions to clarify if I understood your post. You have given me some ideas which will improve my own brews.

Do you have a 30 liter tank? I guessed this from you mentioning a total volume of about 23 liters.

Was this a part grain, part malt extract brew? You mention steeping your grains for 30 minutes, then rinsing them. How many KG were the grains?

You added the medium spray malt after boiling the wort/hops? So this malt extract just needs to be mixed into the water and have yeast added?

It was a smart idea to have hot and cold sterile water ready to take the whole volume down to pitching temperature.

I have been doing all grain brews. I still have enough for 3 more of these brews. I think I have been boiling too much water, which obviously slows everything down on my gas stove. I wonder how little water I can get away with (5KG of grains), when adding sterile water at the end.

Very interesting that you added the sugar water into the bottling bucket and mixed it with the beer before bottling. I am coming to the end of a batch of beer and I was just going to add granulated sugar to each bottle. Your method is more consistent. But I'm going to siphon straight from my tank into the bottles, hoping to disturb the mix as little as possible.

Did you measure the gravity of the beer for successive days, find it was the same, and then decide to bottle? or have you just figured out that 3 weeks is about right, with no need for further fuss? I was going to leave this batch for a month, with the last couple of days in a cold garage, to settle the yeast to the bottom, as I want to harvest that yeast for the next batch.

The kit comes with crushed grains, and 3Kg of dry malt extract or liquid malt extract, unfortunately I did not weigh the grains before making up the beer. But I have a Wheat beer here which I’ll be doing next. The grain for the Hefeweizen weigh 240g. I’ll steep them in a hop sock for 30 min in 4-5 litres then rinse the grains with 3-4 litres of water and then bring the wort up to a rolling boil and add hops at intervals.
I have 2 x 30 litre brewing buckets both with taps. I prefer to transfer the beer off the yeast before bottling into my second fermentation bucket. I can then add the sugar to prime the beer before bottling. I get very consistent carbonation across the batch of 40 pints.
I add the LME or DME to the wort at the end of the boil, and mix it in using a whisk. I then add it to the brewing bucket via a strainer to remove the hop particles. After that I add cold water to bring it up to 23 litres.
Towards the end of the 2 weeks I usually push down on the lid of the brewing bucket to create bubbling in the airlock until the level equalises. If there is no movement after a couple of days to the level of the airlock I know that fermentation has stopped and I bottle.
The full extract kits are very different from all grain brewing and I can manage it on the stove with a 9 litre stock pot.