AG to Extract Sanity Check

[darrenclark]

I've done a lot of winemaking and silly brews (banana beer springs to mind) and I've also done a few kits years back and had great fun and success with them. I really fancy attempting an extract brew and as I love Waggledance I thought I'd have a wee go at that one.

I found what looks like an excellent recipe at http://www.berriman.co.uk/hobbies/brewing/060506.shtml but it's an all-grain one. I've had a good look around and done my best to convert it to extract but would very much appreciate a sanity check from those with more knowledge than I. To this end I have the following questions:

• I'm not after perfection by any means but does this seem a reasonable conversion?

  Code: Select all

  Ingredients
  -----------
  Malt:        500g light spraymalt (0.65 conversion factor)
  Palm Sugar:  25g (I don't have any honey)
  Water:       2L
  Hopping:     90 min 10g Fuggles
               90 min 10g EK Goldings
               15 min 1g Irish Moss
  Yeast:       1 pack Gervin ale yeast
  
  Method
  ------
  Boil malt, sugar, water for 90 mins with hops.  Add moss in 15 mins from end of boil.  Make up to 4.5L with cold water.  Looking for OG to be about 1.040..1.046 to get about 4.5% ABV at the end.  Pitch started yeast.  Ferment until get a gravity reading the same for two days and then bottle.  Bottles will be primed to allow secondary fermentation.

• Should I reduce the amount of spraymalt to be proportionate to the boil volume and add the rest after boiling? Ie 2L of water and 500g * (2 / 4.5).
• Ninety minutes seems like a long time to be boiling hops for. Admittedly this would be my first extract brew but I don't want a super hoppy taste and I'm concerned that it'd be quite bitter after so long. Should I reduce the boil time for the hops?

Any help is much appreciated.

All the best.

[WishboneBrewery]

it will be as bitter as a bitter thing fresh from bitterness school with a degree in bitterness... (A real IPA)
And about 9.9% alcohol, your yeast Might struggle?!

maybe, using a full volume boil:

Code: Select all

5L is a Demijohn!

Fermentable	Colour	lb: oz	Grams	Ratio
Dried Malt Extract Pale	10 EBC	1 lbs. 1.6 oz	500 grams	95.2%
Sugar, Household White	0 EBC	0 lbs. 0.9 oz	25 grams	4.8%

 
Hop Variety	Type	Alpha	Time	lb: oz	grams	Ratio
Fuggle	Whole	4.9 %	15 mins	0 lbs. 0.4 oz	10 grams	62.5%
East Kent Golding	Whole	5.8 %	60 mins	0 lbs. 0.2 oz	6 grams	37.5%

 
Final Volume:	5	Litres
Original Gravity:	1.037	
Final Gravity:	1.007	
Alcohol Content:	3.9%	ABV
Total Liquor:	8.5	Litres
Mash Liquor:	0	Litres
Mash Efficiency:	75	%
Bitterness:	30.744545451675	EBU
Colour:	10	EBC

[OldSpeckledBadger]

I'm assuming that you don't have the capacity to boil the full 4.5 litres in which case, yes, don't put all the spraymalt in the boil otherwise the gravity will be too high and you won't get very good hop utilisation. Also steep the crystal malt at around 65C for 30 minutes and then remove it before adding the spraymalt and bringing the wort to the boil.

[darrenclark]

@OldSpeckledBadger:
Well it's not so much that I can't boil 5L of liquid as my stock pot can do 8L (if filled to the brim) so I could do it in a oner. I was just concerned that it would be difficult to cool 5L of very hot liquid easily so I was going to use cold water to top up the hot and get it to temperature quicker. If boiling all the volume in one go is easier then I'm quite happy to do it that way.

@pdtnc:
9.9% ABV - Ahh, I don't think I was clear enough. I was going to boil in 2L of water and add another 3L at the end so total volume for that malt/hop load would be 5L. I basically took one-fifth of the original recipe's hops as that's the ratio of volume. I notice that your version has 8.5L total liquor, is the increased volume due to the the liquid-engorged hops?

Thank you both for your kind replies.

All the best.

[WishboneBrewery]

@pdtnc:
9.9% ABV - Ahh, I don't think I was clear enough. I was going to boil in 2L of water and add another 3L at the end so total volume for that malt/hop load would be 5L. I basically took one-fifth of the original recipe's hops as that's the ratio of volume. I notice that your version has 8.5L total liquor, is the increased volume due to the the liquid-engorged hops?

Ahh, yes I did notice the letting down bit and though OSB above would chip in

The 8.5L is due to evaporation and Hop losses

[OldSpeckledBadger]

@OldSpeckledBadger:
Well it's not so much that I can't boil 5L of liquid as my stock pot can do 8L (if filled to the brim) so I could do it in a oner. I was just concerned that it would be difficult to cool 5L of very hot liquid easily so I was going to use cold water to top up the hot and get it to temperature quicker. If boiling all the volume in one go is easier then I'm quite happy to do it that way.

5 litres isn't that difficult to cool. A sink full of ice cold water will get the temperature down quite quickly. Perhaps you should have a practice run with just boiling water beforehand so that you can decide which way suits you best. I wouldn't worry too much about water lost to the hops. For 20g hops this will be something like 300ml and you can always top-up to target volume if you're a bit under.

[darrenclark]

Many thanks to you both. I'm going to get everything sterilized after work tonight and I'll have a crack at it then. Thanks a lot for you help!

All the best.

[darrenclark]

I did my brew tonight and all went according to plan. Just pitched the yeast and gravity is 1.044 when adjusted for temperature.

Thanks once again for the help!

All the best.

[trucker5774]

Hi Darren , I can't add anything to the usual 2 suspects Hope it went well. I did an extract Old Peculiar a few weeks back. It turned out pretty good. It's like a beer version of dandelion and burdock!