Brew UK Forum | Extract Brewing
Start me Extract Brewing!
Distinct lack of posts in this topic...
Thinking of stepping up to this from kits, but struggling to find much good info about whats involved. The Summer Ale recipe pack caught my eye - Nath is that your review on it? Does the pack come with instructions? Am I going to need any extra kit to do it?
Planning - To make more beer
Responses
Posted 2 years ago by Moderator
Aye, you'd be right there stu it is my review! Its an awsome pint and you dont really need anything special to get it sorted.
So basically you will need all your normal kit plus a large pan to boil water in and a strainer to make sure when you tip the wort in no bits n bobs go in with it. Thats all you need extra!
Its a great experience and will (inevitably) bring you down the path of All grain..... unless you go all grain and skip extract! (go on you know you want to! Mwa hahahahaha)
If you go here - http://www.brewuk.co.uk/store/index.php/recipes-summer-ale it will tell you what you need and take you through the process of creating Summer ale (I didnt use bottled water).
Hope this helps
Ta,
Nath
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
Posted 2 years ago by Admin
Hi Stu,
Extract brewing is a step up from kits and a step closer to all grain. The only kit you need is a pan big enough to boil (with head space) at least 6 litres of water and a strainer.
Basically instead of being a pre hopped kit, you are using malt extract and boiling with hops. Once you've done that its exactly the same as a kit. Ie ferment for a week etc.
In my opinion the beer is more tasty as you get the fresh hops taste. You also have more opportunity to tinker with it without the extra time and equipment needed for All grain. Its quite an expensive method of brewing though as malt extract isn't cheap.
I would STRONGLY recommend you investigate all grain brewing though as it really isn't that much more complicated and the results are amazing. Its also quite a bit cheaper for the ingredients although you need more equipment. The beers produced are honestly better than you can buy and a fraction of the price.
I brewed using the extract method for quite a while before stepping up to All grain as I really wanted to make beers from fresh ingredients instead of relying on kits.
The Summer ale recipe pack is the base recipe that I used, changing hops, adding extra malt etc to create new beers. The instructions are in the recipe.
I think its a great beer and lots of my friend agreed as do many customers.
Sorry for the lack of posts in this area but most people swiftly move onto All grain so I think that's why.
Hope this helps and any questions fire away.
Cheers
Greg
Fermenting:
Conditioning:Pale with Styrians
Drinking:Cascade Pale Ale, Summer Lightning
Posted 2 years ago by Member
Cheers chaps. Certainly helps.
Helps push me down the AG path that is...
Come on then, what do I need to get started on AG? The wife's out of town at the end of Feb, so could be an ideal opportunity to make a mess in the kitchen.
In terms of large pots and pans, I have none. So if I'm putting together a shopping list I'd like to grab the lot at once.
How do I know what hops and other ingredients to buy? Do I need this beersmith software I keep hearing about?
When I do it, I promise to take lots of pics and stick them up to help the next noob when their time comes
Posted 2 years ago by Moderator
Righty ho mister!
Take a peek here - http://www.brewuk.co.uk/forum/topic/first-ag-221109 - its my first ag. The first pic shows a basic setup. Boiler (I made that one!) on the worktop, mash tun in the middle and a fv at the bottom.
With AG you need a mash tun. You fill the mash tun with the right amount of hot water and then plonk your grain in and put the top on, making sure the temp of the water is around 66c. Leave for 90mins and then "wash" the grains with more heated water to get the lovely sugary wort out(this is used in place of sugar or malt extract).
Once you have enough put the wort into the boiler. So for extract you needed a big pan (enough to hold 8ltr) AG you need a boiler that can hold the whole amount of liqour, so say 28ltrs for a 23ltr brew (normal size).
Bring to the boil and start adding hops. The first ones you add are called bittering hops which are boiled 60min to 90mins to extract their bitterness. Along the way you can add more hops to add flavour and aroma. Usually 15min for flaver flave and 5 mins for aroma (these are just guidelines and people do loads a different times depending on what they want/like). After the boil let the hops settle for 30 mins.
Then get that liquid into a fv and cool it then add yeast as per norm!
Thats ag in a nutshell, very basic nutshell but you know its the general jist of things. It takes 4-6 hours but you can always do other stuff while the grain is mashing, play xbox while the boilers boiling etc.
Cool.
Nath
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
Posted 2 years ago by Member
Now that's what I'm talking about. In a language I can actually understand. Nice one.
So what's the deal with ingredients then?
Posted 2 years ago by Member
Hi Stu and welcome to the world of all grain :o)
You'll love it and as both Nath & Greg have said, you are able to create exactly what you want, the possibilities (and variables) are endless. When I started all grain I 'made-do' with a lot of my equipment and even borrowed some. It's not ideal, so if you are able, get the proper stuff :o) There are plenty of 'original' recipes on the net and a huge amount of clone recipes too if you're wanting to copy your favourite brews.
Good luck!
(with grateful thanks to the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and slightly adapted)
Posted 2 years ago by Admin
Hi Stu,
As far as ingredients go you need:
Grains for flavour and to give you fermentable sugars (barley/wheat/maize/oats) are the main ones used in beer production. Most beers are mainly Pale malted barley Maris Otter being one of the most popular as it produces great tasting beers. Sometimes other grains are added in smaller quantities to give flavour and colour. Stout for instance would be around 90% Pale Malt with the other 10% being Black malts to give it the dark colour. Black/Chocolate malts are still malted barley but they have been dried at much higher temperatures which roasts them and gives them deep colour and flavour. You then get malts in between (crystal/amber/brown) which have been dried at lower temps. You would still normally have mostly Pale malt as this one give you the most sugars. The more malt the higher the starting gravity and therefore the higher the possible ABV. Colour is usually measured in EBC (European Brew Conversion) which is a unit, the higher the darker.
Hops are added to give bitterness/flavour and aroma. They also protect the beer from bacteria keeping it fresh for longer. As Nath said these are usually added a different times throughout the boil to get different attributes. Ones added at the beginning give most of the bitterness, then later additions for flavour and aroma. How much and when depends on the style of beer you are trying to create/recipe. There are loads of different hops all giving slightly different things. Beers range from using a single hop throughout to many different ones at different times. Bitterness is measured in IBU (Internation Bitterness Units) the higher the more bitter. Most ales range from mid 20 - 80.
Yeast is added to ferment the sugars to alcohol and this is also a huge definer of flavour. Again there are loads of different ones to choose from.
So you can see they combinations are endless and this is what makes all grain brewing so much fun. You can basically create any type of beer you like and they taste great.
Yes it's more effort but its definately worth it and you feel an amazing sense of achievement when you sample the results of what you have made from scratch.
My advice would be do some reading (there a loads of good books) then get stuck in. Follow a recipe for you first attempt and I would probably go for a Pale Ale (100% Maris Otter) with a couple of hops and a S04 yeast. You can then go on from there with different hops and yeasts.
Investing in some software is a must if you want to create your own recipes as it will not only give you a record of what you created but also calculate all the amounts of everything you need to get the bitterness, colour and ABV you are looking for. Beer Smith is great but can seem a little complicated to start with. Graham Wheelers Beer engine is also good (and free to download) although its a lot more basic when you get more into things.
Don't get too hung up on the science as you will confuse yourself. Just get stuck in and learn from your mistakes. You will end up with beer at the end and it will taste good so long as you don't get an infection or go for some crazy recipe which is never going to work.
There are quite a few All grain brewers on this forum so shout away for advice.
Hope this helps, trying to be as informative as possible whilst still making sense which is not always easy, especially on Sunday Morn.
Greg
Fermenting:
Conditioning:Pale with Styrians
Drinking:Cascade Pale Ale, Summer Lightning
Posted 2 years ago by Moderator
Mornin' Tony!
Ingredients are as follows :-
Malt, hops, water, yeast.
Sorted!
Saying that look at the ingredients part of the shop to see the amount of hps and grains available and remember nothing is set in stone. Why not add some cherrys, chocolate, elderflower, hell even the leftover turnips from your vegie patch!
Id probably start without the latter though!
You will find that after the inital cost of the boiler and mash tun its uber cheap to make quality beer. Like £12ish a barrel load (may even be cheaper)! And then you always have left overs so next brewday why not use em up in a funky new recipe. If you get beersmith (trial is free for 21 days and tbh its only about £15) or beer engine (google it as its free) you could make up a recipe and post it here for some helpful hints (not from me as im fairly new to this!)
Saying that, what ever you make is bound to be drinkable if you stick within a specic range. The good thing about beersmith is you can choose a type of beer you want to create like an american ipa or a stout and it will give you the number range, then all you have to do is tweak the recipe to match that range.
Like tony says there are loadsa' recipes on the net and a good few on here to get you started.
Edit - ha! posted within a minute of eachother greg!
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
Posted 2 years ago by Admin
Morning Nath. I'll answer the bit about lagering later as I need to remember what I did and why as it was ages ago.
Fermenting:
Conditioning:Pale with Styrians
Drinking:Cascade Pale Ale, Summer Lightning
Posted 2 years ago by Moderator
No probs greg, I trawlled t' net last night while my other half was watching some poo about vampire kids that was not the lost boys. I rekon I may have it sorted, will put up a couple of processes later to have a chin wag.
Ta,
Nath
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
Posted 2 years ago by Member
I've just done the summer ale kit as my second venture in the brewing world. I have to admit it looks very good. Slightly stronger than the advertised abv. Mine came in at 4.7% apparently it should be 4% but i am not splitting hairs over .7%.
Nath.. as you've done it before be honest how does it taste? Is it worth doing again?
Posted 2 years ago by Moderator
Yep, if I didt go ag its a definate keeper. One of my work friends said (and I quote) "That's one of the nicest beers I had had in ages, better than any **** in the shops"
I cried when I drank all of it. Though that may be because I drank 10 pints of it in a row to finish it off....Sometimes I er.... get kinda....emotional!
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
Posted 2 years ago by Member
lol may i salute you in your fine drinking skills...
I must admit I was rather proud of my first ever brew. I took some in for a work friend and he said and i quote "Wow that was even better than Guiness" " I let my family try some and they want you to do some more" What bigger compliment do you need?
Quick question... how long did you leave your version in the secondary fermentation stage before drinking? Mine has been there since 1st Feb and i am already getting itchy fingers to try some.
Posted 2 years ago by Moderator
second fermenting?
I primary fermented for about 6 days (till it reached gravity then stuck in a barrel for about 3-4 days warm conditioning, then into 13c storage where I just basically drank it! I found that it was very drinkable from the start, got at its best after 3 weeks though.
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
Posted 2 years ago by Member
'Sometimes I er.... get kinda....emotional!'
:o)
Outstanding!
(with grateful thanks to the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and slightly adapted)
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Nath, couple more questions if I may? Are you using two boilers, or just one? I take it your sparging from your boiler into the mashtun, and then this is going into just a regular bucket? Does that mean you transfer back into the boiler once you've sparged?
Last one (for now...) how do you find that home made boiler? I've got a spare bucket that I could butcher with some kettle elements, but am weighing up the expense vs not killing myself. Appreciate any thoughts
I'm getting there. Its not "if" its "when"...
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
Yep 1 boiler only so your right on that one.
I have found my boiler to be most excellent dude (bill and ted. Sweet). You must make sure the bucket is made of the "right stuff", it has to be polypropolene ( see here - http://www.brewuk.co.uk/store/index.php/containers/fermenters/brupaks-30-fermentation-vessel.html ).
Im no electrician and I had no problem with making it ( and I seriously bodge everything!) and so far, after 4-5 uses there has been no leaks/fires/electrical hazards. All good
I will post a how to up, but I have been a lil strapped for time. May be able to do it some time in the week but all in all Im very happy, it was fun making it and cheaper than many other options.
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
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