Step by Step First Extract Brew

[WeegieBlue]

I have been dabbling in Jim's Beer kit and reading everyone else's comments, but i figured why not dive in.
I haven't done what you guys did, i have instead jumped right in with both feet.
a first extract brew and skipped the kits. Started with a recipe i found on another forum called crushed toad ale which mixes two kinds of malts, and kinda deviates from the normal but i have a tendency to jump in with two feet.
The good news is that it is bubbling away happily in the corner (much to my cat's confusion).

My biggest problem i think will be bottling. I don't really want a second bucket just second fermentation or for bottling right now. How did you guys get along with that? I also don't have a spout attached to my bucket, hoping to siphon. I have bits (a hose and a from the starter kit... but i don't know if that will be enough.

Getting enough bottles also has me worried. but one thing at a time!

Hi LunaKat

Well done on the extract brew! Sounds like it's all going to plan.

I bottled my first beer directly from the fermentor but it had a tap so was really easy. The syphon might give you a bit of grief as you'll need to make sure you don't pick up any slurry or you'll have a load of sediment in the bottom of your bottles. I'd recommend picking up another FV with a tap (you'll get one for a tenner) as it really does make things easier - you can just syphon the whole lot into the 2ndry FV, and then you could leave for a few days to clear and bottle, or add your priming sugars and bottle straight away.

Do you have a home brew shop near you? My LHBS sells 12 500ml glass bottles for £3 which is superb, so I just get some of those when running low. Failing that, just nip to your local supermarket and buy some of their cheapest fizzy pop, empty the bottles, clean them, and hey presto - bottles with caps!

I checked that link and this http://morebeer.com/themes/morewinepro/ ... rewing.pdf gives a great step by step process!

Could you post your recipe and method if you get chance too please?

[badgerdan]

A tap would be great but my LHBS only had one's without, however I just use a syphon and that works well. It tends to float to the side wall so is always above the sedimant, higher than where the tap would be so that causes no problems.
The thing I don't like about it is it's an extra long thing to steralise everytime, and the clip doesn't stop the flow quick enough so topping up bottles is a little annoying and can sometimes get a little messy from drips.

All in all it's fine; doesn't bother me enough to go out and search for a tapped one, I'll just get one next time I'm ready for a second bin for more brews.

Bottle wise, I just kept all the ones I'd bought previously instead of recycling them and also fished out the decent non reusable ones that had been thrown away in the open glass bin at our supermarket (made sure not many people were around when I took them out, look a bit weird) Just scrubbed them in and out with soap and a bottle brush, then put in the dishwasher then steralised Took a while as I'd done enough for two batchs in one go but now everytime I use one I swill it out and leave it to be used again.

[Waffty]

Gave my Dudley beer a quick gravity check and it's 'cooking' nicely i.e OG 1046 & down to 1016 in a little over 4 day (& still going).

The colour wasn't what I was expecting, as Beersmith had the SRM at 9.8 as being more of a brown tint but in reality (& confirmed by Palmers book), is more of 'straw' yellow, so I may well add 10g or so of Chocolate grains, to darken this down to around a SRM of 12 to 15 for the next brew.

My initial taste test was a little disappointing as with a IBU of 30, it wasn't as bitter as what I'm used too (but not knowing what my IBU's my favourite brews are, is understandable) but after a couple of sips, the taste was actually quite pleasant at this early stage. Plus whilst it wasn't my plan to create a lightly bittered, floral, malty Blonde bitter, it's actually quite nice.

Given that this is my working progress brew, I may even play around with dry hopping.

In short, Extract brewing rocks, as even making the mistakes I've made on my first brew, I'm still happy with it, you know why? Because it's all mine

[RichardG]

Well played Sir! Splendid result. Altimately I'd like to be able to go AG. But it's going to be a goodly long while (for many reasons) before I can do so. In the meantime I'm really enjoying this extract brewing malarky, and I have to admit, I can see myself sticking with it. We'll see.

[RichardG]

Hi there fellow extractors! Thought I'd share this with you. I raised a query re the head formed on my fermenting brew. The details are here;

http://jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopi ... =3&t=20488

Anyway, I checked again today (as usual ) and, being somewhat paranoid about my first extract brew, decided I had to check it. So I took a sample to test the PG. It's standing very nicely at 1.012 after 7 days (started this last Friday). I always leave my brews at least 10 days, and ideally 2 weeks and am usually reluctant to touch them due to the infection risk. So I'm not touching it again as it's clearly fine. Hopefully over the next week it'll drop another couple of points; I'd like it to get to 1.009 as that'll give me an ABV of 3.8%. Lastly, big up to boingy who, as ever, was spot on with his response!

[LunaKat]

The recipe i am currently using is from Brew Your Own, which i found through a circuitous route...
Frosty Toad British Ale
Author: Lee Kraemer & Michael Vitez
Issue: June 1997
http://www.byo.com/component/resource/a ... ritish-ale
But i haven't any of the fancy gadgets to check to make sure its coming along the way its meant to...
I also don't have a brew store near me, (One of the things that London seems to be short on) But i am heading up to Manchester soon, and i believe there is a shop there... i just hope i can track it down.
i didn't here any gurgles today, but it may also be because i wasn't listening hard enough...
I am collecting bottles of old magners from my local, unfortunately its a cross between them remembering not to throw em out, and the fact that its not really magners season.

[RichardG]

I know what you mean about the bottles. I've got something like 120+ Bulmers bottles from my local. But the big majority I got during the summer months. They don't seem to sell any of it now.

[Tim74]

It's great to see others doing extract brews; I started brewing at Christmas with kits, but wanted to be able to make pretty much any beer (as long as I have the recipe), so I started extract brewing a week ago today. All of the info came from Chris x-1's posts in his previous incarnation as Daab; the first brew was Old peculier. I had a few hiccups along the way, the biggest was trying to boil the full 25 litres with a single element boiler. It just didn't really get going. I also managed to read my recipe wrong and added only 40 grams of Fuggles instead of 60 grams. I spotted this yesterday, so I added 20 grams in a muslin bag to the fv yesterday. I don't know enough about it all to know whether or not dry hopping the brew will add anything that might otherwise have been missing, but I figured it couldn't hurt.

I did another brew last Thursday, a Fullers ESB extract. This was an 18 litre brew and is looking great at the moment. Last night I did another Old Peculier, this time boiling 12 litres and topping up. It's all so addictive...

[boingy]

Dry hopping will add aroma and flavour but not bitterness.
You may want to remove the hops after a week or so. Too much dry hopping can be overpowering but taste the beer daily (I realise this is a real chore....) and make a judgement.

[Tim74]

Dry hopping will add aroma and flavour but not bitterness.
You may want to remove the hops after a week or so. Too much dry hopping can be overpowering but taste the beer daily (I realise this is a real chore....) and make a judgement.

Hello boingy, so it sounds like I may end up with a beer a little different from Old Peculier then. I've been tasting it every day, and as you said it is an awful chore, and already it seems much richer than the real thing. I bought a couple of bottles of Old Peculier to remind myself of the taste (generally I don't like bottled ales) and my brew has a lot more taste. It's a shame none of the local pubs serve Old Peculier; I guess it would be more of a fair comparison to mine. I think it's going to be tasty whatever it turns out like.

[Waffty]

Got my bitterness calculations slightly wrong on my first extact brew, which while ok, wasn't too my liking. So given it was my first attempt, I thought I'd have a 'play'.

So rather than settle on my lightly bittered (& lightly coloured for that) brew, I steeped a few grams of chocolate malt, added some DME & boiled in a few more hops, added a little more DME (to make up to my priming amount). Boiled the lot, let it cool & added it into my keg. I then racked my brew into it & am keeping my fingers crossed

I also put some into a 2l pop bottle, which I have to say has primed will & has taken on a nice colour. I had an initial taste of the brew after it's been in the keg for a few days & it's not too bad, understandably 'green' in flavour but plenty in there, to suggest it could make a good brew

Anyways, I'd be interested in your views on 'changing' the inital flavour/bitterness etc, after fermentation, as I've also got another customised kit on the go that I've dry hopped, which like said above does add a nice flavour, aroma & if you mix your hops (aroma & bitterness), with a high alpha hop, then an element of bitterness.

[Waffty]

Had another play this weekend, my Dudley bitter seems to be doing ok, after I added my 'flavour/colour' pack (i.e steeped grains, boiled hops & DME). It does taste a little yeasty but I guess it's still secondary fermenting (given the addition of DME). I also added some dry hops to up the aroma a little, as it smelt a little flat but all in all, it's kinda going in the right direction.

I've moved the corny into a cool place now, to drop the temp & help it clear/condtion, so fingers crossed.

The Nelsons revenge kit I dry hopped, has improved 10 fold, so I'm deffo a fan of dry hopping, as it does add a very nice fresh aroma to the beer.

I also had another go at boiling up my stock pot after my last disappointment, this time, I put in 12 litres of water & kicked it off, with nothing in the oven (last time, the Sunday roast was in there) & more importantly, with a lid on. A little after 35 minutes the pot was boiling away nicely at 102 degrees c, so I turned off the burner and removed the lid for 10 minutes & cranked it up again, without the lid & bish bosh, it carried on boiling away. So my issue was either heat loss or not enough power on the burner, due to the main oven being on.

So for this week, I've just bought a hole cutter as my next plan is to fit my ball valve etc, as wrestling with a stock pot of boiling water, isn't my idea of fun. I also won the DIY wort cooler off Ebay today, so with a bit of luck, I'll be having another go this weekend or next (good job, as my colne bitter is just running out).

I do like extract brewing, so much so, bought another 4 bags of Muntons DME from my local & at £2.95 per bag (500g) & £1.50 to £1.95 per 100g of hops, it has to be the cheapest place around.

Happy days.

[Guzluka]

Alright guys, just been reading all of your posts. I went straight for an extract brew using john palmers guide step by step, fermented for two weeks, bottled for two weeks and tasted last friday. Used an american cincinatti pale ale recipe from john palmers site. Didnt taste two hot and after a pint and a half I had to go out for beer. Have been told to leave it to mature for a while as it had an estery/fruity taste to it.

Seems like there's a lot of technical terms and vast ranges of experience on here and other sites so would be nice to compare ideas for relative new comers. I again struggled with getting a big pot, so decided to boil twice. This took ages and I was scared of over exposing the wort, wasnt aware of hydrometer levels/usage at the time but do have one now, so was unable to find out og and fg!!! The hop times used during boiling (used finishing and bittering hops) may have not been as long as they should have. Apart from this I pitched the yeast and fermentation seemed to go well, was bubbling nicely, did leave the hops in but told this is ok?

Bottling posed its problems, do have a bottling bucket but the siphon pipe the brewing company I ordered stuff from was tiny and this made it timely and difficult. Left it for a further two weeks and tried friday, it looks great, really well carbonated good colour but just not enjoyable, just not right. I am hoping it will mature. The main thing im worried about is whether the temperature was too high, did drop to 12oc and up to 24oc at times because of the cold whether and heating issues, did average 20oc id say though. How have you combated these problems? Was thinking of maybe a heating mat or attachment?

p.s Stockpots 7 litre, 10 pound from wilkos, was thinking of buying another, distributing half the ingredients into each pot and doing a double boil for a 20 litre batch, what do you think? Dont know whether I can justify buying a big boiler at the minute!!! Anyway am loving the brewing, enjoying learning and would change things for my next batch, great to find a beginners post. Am a bit worried on the ale I brewed but as I read friday on a site, you can either cry in your beer or learn from your mistakes!!!

[RichardG]

Hiya chaps. Apologies for my absence over the last few weeks. Due to 'technical problems' (either being cut-off by BT, then the ISP losing our interweb connection as a result!) we've been off-line for some 3 weeks now. Anyway, I got my 2nd brew bottled nicely a week or so ago. Obviously very earlier days, but the small sample I tasted having check the FG was very encouraging. OG was 1038, FG 101, which gives a very reasonable 3.6% abv.

[Waffty]

Ok, my first extact brew finally ended up down the drain , as being a perfectionist, it didn't tick any of the boxes I was looking for . It's not all doom and gloom, as the lessons learned were deffo worth a few bags of DME/Hops etc.

Moving forward, I'm going to use my bigger stock pot, which I'm in the process of converting + I've finished a wort chiller & bought a whole host of new ingrediants + got Graham's new book & a license for BeerSmith.

So if you're interested in extract brewing, keep an eye on this post, as my next entry will cover my stock pot conversion, wort cooler & all the steps I'm going to take on my next brew (a London Pride clone).