Hey guys. New to brewing. On my second brew. Just doing a Coopers Pilsener to standard recipe while I find my feet.
Noticed that the LDM is really clumpy almost like big clumps of dry dirt that don't seem to break apart easily. Will this dissolve as fermentation takes place or have I screwed it completely?
Sorry if this is a faq, I couldn't find any mention of this situation with malt and I'd appreciate any feedback.
LDM is clumpy?
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Allnewtome
- Posts: 20
- Joined: Monday Apr 16, 2007 9:15 pm
- Location: Melbourne, Victoria
it should've all dissolved by the end. a tip though - sugar-based substances have a tendency to absorb water from the air. this is why a lollipop will get sticky if it's left lying around, and why sugar will clump together if left unlidded. the same applies for malt extract, it will clump together if it's left unsealed.
but yeah - dissolve it in hot water. if you're doing a boil with additional hops etc add an amount of the malt in similar proportions to what your full wort will be - eg, if you're doing an 18L brew with 3kg total malt, for 3 litres of water you'd add 500gm of malt, thus keeping it in proportion. this is apparently important for accurate hop utilisation calculations
but i digress, you're doing a Coopers Pilsener to standard recipe as you mentioned lol. yeah, the malt should dissolve fine hehe. but use some hot water next time.
but yeah - dissolve it in hot water. if you're doing a boil with additional hops etc add an amount of the malt in similar proportions to what your full wort will be - eg, if you're doing an 18L brew with 3kg total malt, for 3 litres of water you'd add 500gm of malt, thus keeping it in proportion. this is apparently important for accurate hop utilisation calculations
but i digress, you're doing a Coopers Pilsener to standard recipe as you mentioned lol. yeah, the malt should dissolve fine hehe. but use some hot water next time.
To dissolve your LDM, bring about 500ml - 1L to the boil on the stovetop. Once it has dissolved, add water and proceed as necessary.
Not sure as the reason why, but with less water it dissolves more quickly.
The Pilsener kit is quite good.
Also an important point re hop utilisation - keep the same SG in the stove boil as the estimated OG of the beer. The BrewCraft calculator comes in handy for this...of course KEG is just showing off with his fancy no-calculator arithmatic
Not sure as the reason why, but with less water it dissolves more quickly.
The Pilsener kit is quite good.
Also an important point re hop utilisation - keep the same SG in the stove boil as the estimated OG of the beer. The BrewCraft calculator comes in handy for this...of course KEG is just showing off with his fancy no-calculator arithmatic
Coopers.
As the name suggests, hop utilisation refers to how much of the hops potential is realised in the brewing process.
A higher gravity boil will mean less hop utilisation - meaning you will have comparitively less bitterness to a lower gravity boil with all other things being equal.
This is important because the utilisation is dramtically affected by gravity and this means '15g Goldings' is not always the same thing.
A higher gravity boil will mean less hop utilisation - meaning you will have comparitively less bitterness to a lower gravity boil with all other things being equal.
This is important because the utilisation is dramtically affected by gravity and this means '15g Goldings' is not always the same thing.
Coopers.
You're better of with more. Sort of. Really, it's the concentration of the malt that's important. The less malt in the water, the higher the hop utilisation.
http://www.realbeer.com/hops/FAQ.html#units
Generally recipes, especially all-grain recipes, are formulated with a full-volume boil in mind. If you do a smaller boil, you can either increase the amount of hops you use, or decrease the amount of malt you have in there, and add the rest at the end of the boil.
http://www.realbeer.com/hops/FAQ.html#units
Generally recipes, especially all-grain recipes, are formulated with a full-volume boil in mind. If you do a smaller boil, you can either increase the amount of hops you use, or decrease the amount of malt you have in there, and add the rest at the end of the boil.
w00t!
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Trough Lolly
- Posts: 1647
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....and further to rwh's sage advice, this is why I advocate mixing in the kit of concentrate AFTER the boil has finished. You get much better hop utilisation in a lower gravity boil. I used to do an 8L boil with crystal, carapils, and hops...tossing in the kit at flameout, stirring through gently and off to the fermenter with the lot.
You only need to mix the concentrate through the small volume of wort after the boil ends and you don't want the boil to knock out the volatile aroma and flavour compounds in the kit.
Cheers,
TL
You only need to mix the concentrate through the small volume of wort after the boil ends and you don't want the boil to knock out the volatile aroma and flavour compounds in the kit.
Cheers,
TL
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sonictruth
- Posts: 107
- Joined: Wednesday Feb 28, 2007 1:22 pm
so does all this hop utilisation stuff only matter if your using hops for bitterness or does it matter for flavouring/aroma hops too? i've just started to do boils and i usually steep my specialty grains and add that too my 1.5kg tin off unhopped malt and do a half hour boil. i add my flavouring hops at later stages, relying on the bitterness from the kit, which i add after the boil.
is my percentage of malt in the boil going to affect the hop flavours?
is my percentage of malt in the boil going to affect the hop flavours?