My first go at Extract brewing

[dragonphoenix73]

Hi all,

I'm putting together a recipe for my next batch, and I'm gonna give extract brewing a go. My aim is for an Amber ale, more like Mtn Goat's Hightail ale than JS AMber....

3Kg Light Malt Extract (syrup)
1Kg Crystal Malt grain (60L) (steeped, mashed, etc)
Wyeast Thames Valley Ale (1275) liquid yeast
30g Cascade hops (60 mins)
20g Cascade hops (45 mins)
10g Cascade hops (30 mins)
10g Goldings hops (5-10 mins)

Any suggestions, criticisms, inane roaring laughter?

[lethaldog]

Damn thats alot of crystal malt and it will be very sweet so you might want to look at upping the hops a bit or dropping some of the crystal and using a little base malt in a mini mash

[timmy]

leigh's right....

I'd drop the crystal down to at 250g max....

[KEG]

yep. i got two lines into the recipe and said "whoa!"

what volume are you making this to? you might like to add a very small amount (e.g 50-80g) of chocolate malt, or 100-150g of carared, or a 150-200g of caramunich (all personal preferences re. the amounts). it comes down to the sort of flavour profile you're after.

[Chris]

Ah yeah- ditto on the crystal, though I'd go 300g and up the bittering hops.

Make your life easier and use amber ME if you can. Otherwise, you should add some darker grains (in smallish amounts), otherwise your amber ale will actually be a pale ale. As you've written your recipe, it will not be amber.

And I recon 45g of bittering.

[warra48]

I agree with all of the earlier posts.
I have made a similar brew in the past, using 1 pale and 1 amber can. That gives you plenty of colour towards an amber ale.

[dragonphoenix73]

Thanks guys,

I actually put that recipe together using promash.... perhaps I'm not using it properly, or maybe the profiles of the ingredients in the databases are incorrect?

My thought on the crystal also was... whoaahhh! - but like I said I was putting it all together using the software.

I will alter accordingly, and get back with a revised recipe....

cheers again!

[dragonphoenix73]

OK, how does this sound?

3kg Amber LME (coopers or morgans)
300g Crystal malt (75L)
45g Cascade hops @ 60mins
20g Cascade hops @ 30mins
15g Cascade hops @ 15mins
10g EK Goldings hops @ 10mins
Wyeast Thames Valley Yeast (1275)

In regards to the flavour:
I want some malty, and a rounded (not over-powering) bitterness.

In regards to bitterness:
I'm wanting to get the bittering with the cascade, and the aroma with the goldings.

Any further thoughts? Has anyone ever used the Wyeast Thames Valley yeast? Any suggestions for yeast also welcome.

Don't know why my Promash calculations were what they were - I think because I was basing the recipe on the American Amber Ale style - seeing that there isn't an AMber thats more like Hightail or JS in there.

Thanks for the help thus far.

[Kevnlis]

That yeast is just what your after IMHO.

I would dry hop the Goldings or if you can't do that add it at flame out. I would also probably double the addition to make it 20g.

Also I would split the 30 minute addition into the 60 and 20 minute additions as follows:

50g Cascade @ 60min
30g Cascade @ 20 min
10g Goldings Dry Hopped

Depending on your boil this could be too much or too little bitterness. What are your plans for the boil?

[JubJub]

I did an AG a few months back with 250g crystal. Turned out very amber. My personal preference is not to use it at all. But if you must, I'd go about 100g.

Jub

[dragonphoenix73]

Hey Kevnlis,

Regarding the hops:

How about this?

40g Cascade @ 60mins
10g Goldings @ 10mins

That should give me an IBU of 34 (or thereabouts)..... not too bitter... I am after a malty flavour, moreso than a hoppy flavour....

[Kevnlis]

That would get you where you want to be I think.

[dragonphoenix73]

Cheers Kev,

In regards to your previous question, I will be boiling for an hour... that should be ok, yeah?

[Kevnlis]

Yes but what I meant was the volume and amount of fermentables in it. Are you boiling the entire wort?

[dragonphoenix73]

Woops, sorry...

OK, well I guess I would be steeping the grains, rinsing them, etc; then boiling that wort for an hour alongside the 2 LME cans.

And if I'm boiling hops for an hour, I guess I would put those ones in too...

Am I on the right track?

[Kevnlis]

I am not sure I understand what you mean. So I will put it this way.

What is the largest volume of water you are able to boil in one go (the biggest stockpot you own)?

[earle]

I think what Kev is getting at is the amount of fermentables that you put in your boil of a certain size affect the bitterness you extract from your hops.

Check out this link for a recent discussion on the topic, rwh explains it well.

http://www.homebrewandbeer.com/forum/vi ... 45&start=0

So when I use a calculator such as beersmith to work out my hop utilization I set my boil size to 23L and tick the boxes so all my fermentables are added at the beginning of the boil. This allows me to work out how much bitterness I will be extracting from the hops. I then do a quick calculation as explained by rwh to scale my boil back to about 6L but keeping the malt concentration the same.

[dragonphoenix73]

Thanks earle (and rwh and kevnlis and rohanbutler....)

OK..

SO the largest pot I have is a 10L stockpot, so if I go for boiling in 6L, that would mean I need to separately boil the hops with about 26% of my fermentables.

I'm assuming here that fermentables in this case is my grain-wort and my LME. So, I'll be wanting to boil my hops in ~1 quarter of that total.... thats easy when working with LME (that's 750g of 3kg)... but how do I work out the grain-wort?

My brain is hurting here..... perhaps I need to start from scratch.... back to the old drawing board!

[James L]

i personally wouldnt worry about including that is the crystal grain wont increase the ammount of fermentables...

so just go the 750g in 6L....

I actually tend to only boil 500g in 4L (less water to cool down at the end), and you still have the same ratio....

[James L]

steep the grain, remove grain and put grain water in pot, add 500g malt, top volume up to 4L, boil, add hops at required intervals, at flameout or 2 minutes before boil end add the rest of the malt.

Cool in sink full of cold/icy water, pour into fermenter with 5L of water already in it, top up to 23L , check temp. add yeast... bingo bango...