by coaster » Wednesday Oct 26, 2011 5:45 pm
Hi Eamon,
Well, I think everyone else has covered off your questions - thanks Oliver, Bullfrog and Earle. I'm relatively new to this too, so since posting my recipe I've tweaked it a bit. I put the grains into a 3 litre pot, pour 2 lots of just boiled water from a 1 litre jug over it, I find that the mash starts out at about 80 deg and after 20 minutes is down to about 70 (so avoiding the tannins that the other posters quite rightly warn against). I then strain it into a 9 litre pot, wash out the spent grains with another 2 litres of boiled water, and add the dry malt. I then bring it to a boil, boil for 15 minutes, add the first lot of hops and the (crushed) Whirlfloc tablet, boil for another 10 minutes, add the second lot of hops, boil for another 5 minutes, then switch off and let cool. I then put it in the brew bin, add the sugar and kit malt, stir them to dissolve and make up 20 litres with cold water. I presume the kit has adequate bittering, so really just add my hops for flavour and aroma. I've got a similar recipe for Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (using a kit as the base) and a Knappstein lager (made with straight malt extract) using Nelson Sauvin hops, which I can post if you're interested.
Good luck with the Monteiths!
Cheers,
Coaster