Steeping malt, boiling hops and getting a little serious about my beer

[Slurtis Staggersalot]

I've got some honey malt (cracked grain) that I'd like to add to a real ale can with 500g of LDM and 1kg of Dex. I'm also thinking that I'll try my hand at steeping some hops to go along with it. I've got Amerillo, Cascade, Northern brewer, fuggles, and Goldings on hand. I just ordered some more varieties that should be here Tuesday.

 

So, from what I've read here I get the impression that a coffee press is the bees knees for steeping malt. I have one so I think that I'll use it, but I'm not sure how long I should steep for or how much malt to use. Suggestions from someone who has done this would be awesome. I've got some bags for boiling the hops any suggestions on how long to boil, what quantity and which hops I should try out would be great too. Thanks in advance guys![happy]

[Greg]

I havent used a coffee press, but would think it would work well. What i do is chuck the grains in a pot of water thats at around 65-70 degrees celcius. So what i do i put about 2 litres of water in the pot, bring to the boil. Then take the pot off the stove and add the grain loose (you could use a bag of some kind, so it looks like a tea bag). By the time i stir the crap out of the grains the temp is around where i want it. I dont measure the temp, i just kind of guess. I usually add anywhere between 100 - 200 grams to my special beers, depending on the type of grain and the style. I havent used Honey malt before, but would guess its like a caramal malt with a hint of honey flavour. Maybe start with 100grams of the grain, steeped for 30 mintues. Then after that, strain into another pot (at least 9 lites, 11 would be better) and add a few more litres of water to bring pre boil volume to around 6 litres. Then add half of the LDM and bring to the boil. Im loving English flavours at the moment, probably because im drinking the English bitter. So i would add Goldings as a aroma and flavoring addition. Because of the sweetness of the grain and the real ale tin being quite bitter, i would do a short boil of 10 mins. Add say 20grams of Goldings @ 10 mintues. Then at completion of the boil add the rest of the LDM and dextrose. Stain into the FV with the real ale tin. Then maybe, dry hop 20g of Goldings at 3 days. I dont know how it would turn out, but i think it is worth a try.

[Slurtis Staggersalot]

Nice post Greg, that's the kind of info I'm after[cool] I'm going to go bottle of some sparkling ale and soak my fermenter so that I can get started on another brew! Cheers!

[Kearnage]

Is it critical to make sure your boil is at a SG around 1040 - 1050 to effectively extract hop bitterness, flavour and aroma?

I have to admit I have just boiled my hops in water so far...

 

Dan

 

[Greg]

You do get better efficieny out of your hops at 1040 than what you would with water or a higher gravity. But, with small batches, ie 23 litres, its not that significant anyway. Just means you have to use more hops to get the same amount of bitterness, flavour and aroma. Ive boiled hops with just water before and havent found that many differences to doing it with malt to get 1040. I say, play aroud with it and do what works for you. [cool]

[Squishy]

I usually mix in my fermentables (BE! or BE2 etc) Bring the water to the boil then add the hops...... Usually works for me[joyful]

[Slurtis Staggersalot]

I got my hops order today! So in addition to what I had on hand in the OP I also have the following;

 

-Sterling, fresh hops

-Mt. Hood, Fresh hops

-Golding, Fresh hops

-Chinook, Fresh hops

-Hallertau, pellets

-Willamette, Pellets

-Saaz (US), Pellets

Chocolate malt, that will definitely get used with the can of stout I bought the other day[happy]

 

Given the new inventory does anyone have any new suggestions? I plan to put this batch down this weekend.

[Kearnage]

I used Willamette to make an Abita Turbodog-ish brew. My new favourite hop. Superb aroma and flavour. The beer is less than two weeks in bottle, but initial taste test suggests I have a winner!

 

Dan

Turbodog

[Greg]

Use the Chinook or Willamette as an alternative to Goldings as these would go very well with the Real Ale tin i reckon. The other varieties i would use in lagers or pilsners.If you use Chinnook, dont use a lot, say 10-15grams as this is a high alpha hop and the Real Ale tin is already quite bitter. I think this is starting to look like an English style Ale if you use Willamette, goldings or fuggles, which would be very tasty. If you use Chinook you would be more along the lines of an American Pale Ale.

[Slurtis Staggersalot]

If the Canadian readers in this forum are curious about where I'm getting my hops from check out this site Hop Dawgs as for the hops I think I'll try the Willamette and see how it goes.

[Slurtis Staggersalot]

One thing I forgot to mention is that I've never done this before. So far all I've done with my hops is dry hopping. I think that tomorrow I'll try to do some searching on the subject before I make my first attempt. I'll post up how it went afterwords, and of course any new input before then is greatly appreciated... I wonder where Muddy and PB2 have gotten to?[pinched]

[PB2]

Hey Slurtis, there is a slighlty tongue in cheek but reasonably infomative thread about hopping here

 

Why not try the Willamette (15g) as flavour hops and the Chinook (30g) as aroma hops.

[Slurtis Staggersalot]

Thanks PB2, I forgot about that thread [innocent] It helped me decide which hops to buy first, and got me started on dry hopping. I've got a real ale sitting in the beer room right now that I dry hopped with 25g of cascade flowers [happy] Today I'm going to take it one step further and do a boil with honey malt 150g and the Willamette pellets 15g. I think I'll throw in some chinook 15g at flame out and steep for 30 minutes as per your suggestion.

 

What is the easiest way to strain my pot of goop into the FV when I'm done steeping? Should I transfer to my coffee press, or go downtown and buy a big screen thingy?

[Slurtis Staggersalot]

I found Luke's post on the coffee press method[happy]

 

I just roll the grain in a zip-lock bag with a rolling pin until it's cracked open and put it in a big coffee plunger jug and fill it with about 70deg C water and let it sit for about 20 mins.

Then I push down the plunger and pour the liquid into a big saucepan. Then I re-wet the grain in the jug with hot water straight from the tap and repeat until I get about 3lts of wort in the pan.

I then add the dry malt,extra hops and boil it for about 10 mins and stir in the kit when I turn off the flame.

Cool it down in the sink with the lid on and you'll be sweet!

 

This is how I'm going to steep my honey malt, I'll put the hops in a bag so that I don't have to bother with straining the boil into the FV should work out nice! I'll post up after I'm done to report how the process went [ninja]

[Slurtis Staggersalot]

The recipe is:

1.7kg real ale

500g LDM

1.1kg Dextrose

15g Willamette boiled 15 minutes

15g Willamette at flame out

cooled and steeped with hops bag left in for 1hr

mixed up in the FV as usual

pitched yeast @ 25 deg C

OG 1050

smelled amazing!

 

The hydrometer sample tastes great, just a tiny bit bitter. I think I'll reduce the priming sugar to about 140g when I bottle this batch off[happy]

[John]

Slurtis - sounds like a tasty brew.

 

+1 for Luke's method - I would be worried about boiling whole grains - it is possible for the tannins to be extracted from the husk and add too much "tarness"

[Slurtis Staggersalot]

It's fermenting well, there's already at least 3cm of foam on the surface so the yeast is doing it's job nicely. I decided not to dry hop with chinook this time because I wanted to see what the Willamette brings to the flavor party on it's own. Next time I might drop some chinook in there too for a comparison. I'm really looking forward to this one[happy]

[Greg]

sounds tasty. let me know how it turns out. so you didnt use the honey malt this time? Dont worry about the bitterness, it will mellow out pretty quickly.

[Slurtis Staggersalot]

sounds tasty. let me know how it turns out. so you didnt use the honey malt this time? Dont worry about the bitterness' date=' it will mellow out pretty quickly.[/quote']

 

Oops! I missed an ingredient on my list, thanks for pointing it out Greg. I used 150g of honey malt steeped in the coffee press as per Luke's post. I'm really looking forward to getting this one bottle conditioning but I'm not going to rush it to that stage. I'm not too worried about the bitterness as I like a beer that has some bitterness. speaking of which I need to get started on putting down a batch of English bitter soon. It's another candidate on my list for the honey malt. I think I might just do a simple tried tested true recipe with it this time until I see how the honey malted Real Ale turns out... Or maybe I'll try using honey as one of my fermentables with the EB and see how that goes [cool]

[Luke]

Hey Slurtis,

Good to see the coffee plunger method has had some success![cool] You'll find your beer will have that nice grainy freshness (that's what I call it) that you don't get with kits alone.

[Slurtis Staggersalot]

Thanks for the idea Luke! It worked well for me, and was a good way to kill an afternoon making beer. My plunger only holds a liter before the grain is added, so it took awhile to get the required amount of wort to do my boil. I'll post up in this thread when tasting day happens in a month or so [cool]

[Slurtis Staggersalot]

Mmmmmmm very tasty [love] I think next time I have a go at this recipe I'll double up the amount of honey malt [happy]

[brianc6]

i usually steep mine in a converted cooler with a ball valve connected to it leave it sit for an hour at 67c drain through a muslin cloth into brew pot boil for an hour adding hops @ different intervals has made nice additions to my brews cheers for the idea of cracking grains in zip bag with rolling pin [biggrin]