A first attempt newbie question

[mikul101]

I am going to do my first extract brew this weekend using Graham Wheelers recipe for Courage Best Bitter. The wife was attracted by the toffee notes description. I've got all the ingrediants

I am aiming to do the 19 litres recipe.

My question is how much water do I need to boil and steep grains in?
The recipe also requires adding sugar and Irish moss, so a litre for the sugar and a small amount for the Irish Moss

The recipe states

total liquor (litres) 26.2
mash liquor (litres) 7.2

however this is for all grain.

The recipe also says to use Post-boil hops, when do I put these in, whilst the wort is cooling or into the fermenting bin, also how long do I put them in for?

[hootbah]

A would generally steep and boil with the total amount of water/brewing liquor required for the recipe with more liquor for topping up. For a 19l recipe I would create 23l of brewing liquor and have 18l or so in the mash bin with the rest in a separate hot water tank, ready to add when needed. You will loose some through the grains/adjuncts and through evaporation.

You also need to take into account the volume that will be used up by the LME or DME (I've never used dry before).

I think that boiling all the liquor will help with avoiding infections in the beer.

I hope that this helps and good luck.

[mikul101]

Thanks hootbah.

I ended up starting with 19 litres in the boiler, adding a litre with the sugar half way through the boil and had to top up with 3 litres at the end.

My only mistake was to cover my boiler with the lid which resulted in the boiler boiling over. I did not lose much liquid but I did lose some hop material. This was at the start of the boil, so I added some more hops and everything else seems to have progressed okay. It is currently fermenting and smells lovely.

I added the final hops when the wort had cooled to 80 deg C as directed when re-reading the book..

I quite like the smell of boiling hops.

[hootbah]

I'm glad to hear that everything went well.

I've lost count of the number of times the wort has boiled over or very nearly boiled over. It's just one of those things you have to get used to. Never turn your back when it's boiling. Especially when the rugby is on.