Request for a simple one hop brew recipe

[xpers]

I have done some beer kits and I am interested in trying some simple low quantity extract brewing. I don't want to have to buy several different types of hops to start with so are there any simple one hop recipes also using spray malt to get me started??

I'd only be looking to brew 5 litre batches until I get the hang of things and decided what I like. Also I only have a 7 litre stock pot to boil things.

Any suitable recipes and brief instructions would be greatly received.

[OldSpeckledBadger]

Here's a very simple bitter using just Fuggles hops.

Brew length 10 litres
OG 1.040
FG 1.009
ABV 4%
Bitterness 32 EBU

Ingredients:

1Kg Light Spraymalt
110g Crystal Malt
88g Brewers Sugar (or household sugar)
27g Fuggles hops

Method:

Steep the Crystal Malt in a few litres of water at 65C for about 30 minutes. You'll find it easier if you put the Crystal Malt in a grain bag/muslin bag. You'll probably find you need to give a quick burst of heat every 10 minutes to keep the temperature at around 65C. Remove Crystal Malt after steeping is complete.

Top up the volume to about 6 litres[1] and add one bag of spraymalt.

Bring to a vigorous boil. Add the hops and boil for about 50 minutes. At the end of the boil add the sugar.

Cool the wort to around 40C and strain into FV. Add the rest of the spraymalt and make up volume to 10 litres. The temperature of the wort should end up at under 30C. Pitch yeast.

You use Goldings instead of Fuggles if you like. Just change the quantity to 23g to get the same bitterness.

[1] This is a bit of a guess. You need to allow loss to the hops, which will be around 0.4 litres plus evaporation loss. The idea is to end up with about 5 litres.

[robharper]

Hi Badger,

Is there a typo on some of the quantities, there? That doesn't look like enough fermentables to get 10 litres up to 1040.

(Of course, I could be misunderstanding something along the way here!)

[robharper]

(Of course, I could be misunderstanding something along the way here!)

...and yes, I was! I was getting my litres and gallons mixed up here. Sorry to cast nasturtiums.

[OldSpeckledBadger]

Hi Badger,

Is there a typo on some of the quantities, there? That doesn't look like enough fermentables to get 10 litres up to 1040.

It's correct according to Beer Engine.

[robharper]

Yeah, sorry, Badger, I was having a bad attack of the dumb.

[KevP]

"Hats off to Harper!"

Sorry I've been itching to get that in for ages (those of a certain age will understand)

[robharper]

"Hats off to Harper!"

Heh! But I'm Rob not Roy, and not nearly as talented a musician. I did see Roy Harper live once, about 20 years ago. Top performer -- pity I didn't see him (or Zeppelin for that matter) in his heyday.

[garwatts]

"Hats off to Harper!"

Sorry I've been itching to get that in for ages (those of a certain age will understand)

I always thought kit was 'Hats of to Larry, it may seem cruel' etc

[xpers]

Here's a very simple bitter using just Fuggles hops.

Brew length 10 litres
OG 1.040
FG 1.009
ABV 4%
Bitterness 32 EBU

Ingredients:

1Kg Light Spraymalt
110g Crystal Malt
88g Brewers Sugar (or household sugar)
27g Fuggles hops

Method:

Steep the Crystal Malt in a few litres of water at 65C for about 30 minutes. You'll find it easier if you put the Crystal Malt in a grain bag/muslin bag. You'll probably find you need to give a quick burst of heat every 10 minutes to keep the temperature at around 65C. Remove Crystal Malt after steeping is complete.

Top up the volume to about 6 litres[1] and add one bag of spraymalt.

Bring to a vigorous boil. Add the hops and boil for about 50 minutes. At the end of the boil add the sugar.

Cool the wort to around 40C and strain into FV. Add the rest of the spraymalt and make up volume to 10 litres. The temperature of the wort should end up at under 30C. Pitch yeast.

You use Goldings instead of Fuggles if you like. Just change the quantity to 23g to get the same bitterness.

[1] This is a bit of a guess. You need to allow loss to the hops, which will be around 0.4 litres plus evaporation loss. The idea is to end up with about 5 litres.

Thanks very much for this OldSpeckledBadger I'll give it whirl. I do have a query though. You said:

[1] This is a bit of a guess. You need to allow loss to the hops, which will be around 0.4 litres plus evaporation loss. The idea is to end up with about 5 litres.

I am unsure about the last bit of only ending up with 5 litres when you say to make it up with 10 litres. Are you saying that you will lose around 400ml per litre? Can you clarify this for me?

Also have you done this recipe?

[OldSpeckledBadger]

I am unsure about the last bit of only ending up with 5 litres when you say to make it up with 10 litres. Are you saying that you will lose around 400ml per litre? Can you clarify this for me?

You make it up to 10 litres not with 10 litres. What you're doing, because of the restriction of your stockpot's capacity, is making a smaller, more bitter brew and then diluting it to the target volume at the end. We don't add all of the DME at the start of the boil because that would result in a very high SG which would seriously affect hop utilisation.

As for losses, the 400ml is the amount of water which will be absorbed by the hops. You'll need to measure your evaporation losses yourself. Put a known quantity of water in your stockpot and boil it vigorously for 30 minutes. Then cool it and measure how much you have left. The difference will be your evaporation loss in 30 minutes so you can easily work out what it would be for any given boil time.

Also have you done this recipe?

Just bottled a batch yesterday. All I can say is that I like it

[robharper]

Thanks for the recipe, Badger, I picked up the the ingredients that I didn't have today and have just pitched the yeast. I rounded the sugar up to 100g and used Goldings hops, but otherwise, as per your recipe. I was delighted to get an O.G. of 1.042 (I actually have just short of 10 litres of wort) and the sample I took out tasted pretty good -- for a bitter wort!

So, here goes with my first extract brew. If this turns out OK I'll do a few similar ones and experiment with changes to the ingredients. Looking forward to it.

[OldSpeckledBadger]

Glad to hear you like it IMHO the beauty of these really simple recipes is that they're easy to tweak to your liking as there's so few variables.

[robharper]

Day 3 and we're down to 1.014 and it doesn't taste too bad. Good bitter taste. Hopefully the SG will drop a little more, but if not, I think we could still be onto a winner here.

[OldSpeckledBadger]

1.014 on day three sounds good to me. It should go down to around 1.009 in a few more days. As usual wait until the gravity is the same two days running before bottling or kegging.