1st extract brew, a little help if you wouldn't mind?

[Knotty47]

Hi everyone, after making 2 kits up (coopers lager - very bland and a muntons pilsner kit, just bottled over a week but I had to have a sneaky swig and it very pleaseant) I want to have a go at extract brewing. After reading DaaBs 'how to' guide I've got one or two questions- I very much doubt its DaaBs guide rather my stupidity, but well!

This is the receipe I've found and would like to have a go at,

19l brew

1kg light DME
1.5kg wheat LME (brupak)
900g wild honey
Wyeast 3942 belgian wheat
1oz Hallertauer boiling
1/2oz hallertauer flavour
1/2oz hallertauer aroma
11/2oz coriander seeds
1/2oz dried orange peel

After reading the guide I think this isn't that far away from a kit based brew. As I have read it, it is just a case of boiling the extracts in 2 gallons of treated water (using campden tablets) and at timed intervals adding the hops and flavouring ingridents. Then I need to cool the wort to 20 degrees (this is where I become unstuck), In DaaBs guide this is done by a fancy looking machine, which I don't own one of. Is it possible to cool the wort by adding cold treated water or am I over simplifying it a bit? As usual I've commited to things before doing the reading Any help would be very much welcomed.

Cheers alex

P.S please point out anything else I'm making a pigs ear of!

[Dennis King]

I used to do it by putting the f/v in a bath of cold water.

[SiHoltye]

Don't sweat about it first time out but it is usual to quickly chill your wort down to pitching temps, and there are benefits for doing this. However the cold bath o/nite, or leave it outside shouldn't hurt. What might hurt is if you didn't wait 'til the pitching was correct. I've been tempted in the past to chuck the yeast in at around 30degs C thinking it'll keep falling to 20ish. It didn't but rather fermented at higher temps (27-30) producing off flavours and not attenuating fully. It was rubbish for this reason and I would never do it again .

[Knotty47]

Thanks Daabs, that is the device i was on about! For my first attempt I'll chill the wort in a bath and invest in a proper 'fancy machine' for my next one. Does the fancy machine have a name or is it DIY?

Cheers again, Alex

[macleanb]

Its called an Immersion Chiller (IC), we made one this weekend.

viewtopic.php?t=14255

You can probably get better prices, but we bought 10mm copper tube from HomeBase (we bought 20m, but you only need 10m = £20) A couple of Jubilee clips, and a couple of female Hozelock connectors (If you are happy to solder you can add a 10mm-15mm enlarger on the end of tube and then use the hozelock male tap connectors)

viewtopic.php?t=14050

we just bought a couple of male to male connectors to hook up.

It took probably 1/2 an hour. We used Ians garden sprayer as the main former, and a wine bottle to for the tighter curves. Be real careful with the tight bends, this tube will fold in on itself PDQ if you dont use some form of former...

Get someone to help - its a little awkward on your own.

[Knotty47]

Thanks for that macleanb, I'll try get round to having a go at making one next weekend - then spend the rest of the weekend either explaining to the missus that its a new 'super important part that every homebrewer must have' cue tantrum from me that would make any 6 year old jealous or in A&E copper pipe protruding where it shouldn't be protruding!

Would anyone change anything on the brew list or has anyone tried something similiar and what did you think?

cheers Alex

[macleanb]

I should point out that this was an IC for my brew buddy Ian. I bought mine from Jo at Leyland HBS for a very resonable £29.99 (including tubes but not connects) If you are ordering stuff anyway (to cover the P&P), and you want to avoid the small risk of folding the tube it seems a very reasobale price...

[Knotty47]

Phew me and DIY don't really mix, I've found out now that I live 5 minutes away from brupak so i might try them first.

I can't believe it's taken me 6 weeks to notice that brupak are in huddersfield - I actually live in the 'colne valley' and I even contemplated buying the kit

thanks again, Alex

[ashbyp]

if you do drop by Brupaks, would be interesting to find out how muchthey charge for a 1.5kg tin of pale malt extract.

it's pretty expensive from the home brew shops.

[Knotty47]

I'll check it out when I go down, could well be next week now though

[Aleman]

if you do drop by Brupaks, would be interesting to find out how muchthey charge for a 1.5kg tin of pale malt extract.

it's pretty expensive from the home brew shops.

They don't sell direct to brewers. . . . only via a retailer

[Knotty47]

yeah they sell to a shop called arora on the same industrial estate, so I'm hoping they stock everything

[Knotty47]

finally went down to brupak/arora, checked some prices the LME range from 6 to 8-95. Although some were half price. The arora shop does stock all brupak and wyeast products. The back of the shop actually joins on to the brupak factory. The only thing I couldn't see was the IC, but I could of over looked it. I was like a child in a toy shop.

[ashbyp]

Same price as all the homebrew shops then. Thanks for reporting back.