Extract Brewing Method

1. Add the Malt Extract and Sugar

Once your water is up to about 50C, add the malt extract (either liquid or dried) and sugar (they will dissolve more easily in hot water). Make sure the extract and sugar are fully dissolved in the wort by stirring with a brewing paddle or a spoon.

pouring malt extract into boiler adding brewing sugar to boiler

Standing the tin of extract in a dish of hot water for 10 minutes will help reduce its viscosity and make it easier to pour out. Flush out the can with hot water as well to get every last bit of it out into the boiler (you can re-circulate water from the boiler as shown).

rinsing malt extract can empty malt extract can

2. Steep the Speciality Grains (if using)

Put your grains into a suitable grain bag, and raise the temperature of your sweet liquor to about 65C. Add the bag containing your grains.

adding speciality grains to boiler soaking speciality grains in hot wort

Allow the temperature to continue rising until the liqour is about to come to the boil, then remove the bag containing the grains; you can gently squeeze the bag to help it to drain. The grains should be in there for at least 15 minutes; if your boiler gets up to the boil too quickly, either adjust the heat (if possible) or switch the element off to allow the grains to steep for the required time. Some people advise leaving the grains in for the entire boil, but others suggest this can cause off-flavours - since the vast majority of the useful sugar and flavour compounds in the grains can be leached out in 15 minutes or so, taking them out is the safe option.

squeezing speciality grains removing speciality grains from boiler

3. Boiling with the Hops

From this stage, you can refer to the 'boiling' section of the all grain method pages: - everything is the same from here on in. Up to this point, equipment does not need to be sterilised, but should obviously be clean.

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