extract brewing research

[sam c]

just doing a little research into extract brewing at the moment and have a couple of questions if thats ok.
if i was to boil my ingredience in a large pan rather than buying a boiller how much water do i need to boil the hops and malt extract in? is it ok to boil them in say 2 gallons of water and then sparge and add the rest of the water to the fv and mix it together to areate and then pitch the yeast when coooled to the correct temp?

also if i was also using crystal malt when would this be added? and if i buy it crushed do i have to do anything to it before adding it to the water?

[pjbiker]

Hi Sam,
Click extract and then technique at the top for a comprehensive description.
Short answer, steep the crystal malt first at 70-80degrees, then add malt extract and follow boil/hop addition instructions. I believe you can split the boil into two batches if using a small volume pan, or just add boiled water to make up volume at the end. The former is preferable though.

[sam c]

thnka for that reply. i did have a read through the extract guide on here but it doesn't reallly talk about boiling the hops in a pan. only talks about boiling them in a 5 gallon boiler, however a book i have says that you can do it like this, however i wanted to know if this is still done and if it will produce a good brew?

[pjbiker]

Hi Sam,
As a first time extract brewer myself, I don't have experience of the 2 stage, pan boil. I would expect that you should separate the hops proportionately between the two boils rather than put all in the first and none in the second. It's all about the alpha acid concentrations apparently.

In the absence of a proper hop strainer in our first brew, my grain and hops were all added in bags made from my wife's tights. Its not yet apparent whether this was detrimental or beneficial to the flavour