Phil Mud Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 Hi Guys, I'm going to have a crack at the following extract with steeped grains recipe tomorrow: Batch Size: 5.00 gal Boil Size: 2.43 gal Boil Time: 60 Minutes Ingredients: ------------ 6 lbs 1.5 oz Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) 13.1 oz Lyle's Golden Syrup (0.0 SRM) 9.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) 2.40 oz Northern Brewer [8.50%] (60 min) Hops 42.1 IBU 0.80 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (15 min) Hops 4.1 IBU 0.53 oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (5 min) Hops 1.1 IBU 2.9 oz Dememera Sugar I have a couple of questions concerning quantities, and how precise I need to be. First of all, the malt extract works out to be roughly 2.8kgs. I have two 1.5 kilo tins of malt, should I omit the superfluous 200grams of extract or just use both tins? Will the extra sugar make much difference? Secondly, The specialty grain: My local HBS sells the grain I need in 300gram bags - will it make much difference to my finished product to also steep the additional 50 grams? It's easy enough to be accurate, just unsure if the flavour will be significantly affected if I just use up all of these ingredients. I am using a Danstar Nottingham Yeast (and plan on making a starter)if this makes any difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 I had a pint of this stuff on the weekend just to try it out, rather enjoyed it so wouldn't mind trying to make something in that style at some stage, could probably find most of those ingredients here too. Cheers, Kelsey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Phil, you could always use the additional malt & grains and increase the volume from 19 litres to 21 litres. But you would also have to adjust (ie. increase) your hop additions to reach the same IBU. Buut then you could store the additional ingredients and stick to the recipe. This may be the easier option. Its hard enough trying to convert imperial measurements let alone scale them up. [pinched] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mud Posted January 10, 2012 Author Share Posted January 10, 2012 Hi Hairy, I actually put the recipe into www.hopville.com - you enter the ingredients in imperial, but once you upload it, it has an option to view in metric - pretty cool recipe database too! I put these metric quantities into excel and wrote a very quick formula for 21 L, so I am going to follow this suggestion. Hope it works out well - OSH is a top drop! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mud Posted January 10, 2012 Author Share Posted January 10, 2012 Well, I put this one in the fermenter - everything seemed to go well, cooled the wort inside 30 mins and pitched the yeast at about 20C. The wort prior to pitching has an SG of 1.062 which was about 0.010 above where I thought it'd be (going off the hopville.com prediction) - I'm hoping the yeast copes OK with that, I used 1 X rehydrated sachet of Nottingham Ale yeast - should I have used two? Should I take any precautions to aid a thorough fermentation, or shoukd I wait and see how it goes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 I think Nottingham is a 12g packet so you should be OK with that, assuming it was fairly fresh. You can use this tool to check in future: Pitching Calculator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mud Posted January 11, 2012 Author Share Posted January 11, 2012 Thanks Hairy - I did find that calculator (after I pitched!) - said 1 pack of Nottingham Ale yeast should be cool, but it only just meets the cell count. I did another SG reading this morning and it read 0.0020 lower so i think it's fermenting - no krausen to speak of yet, but I'll wait a few days before I panic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mud Posted January 12, 2012 Author Share Posted January 12, 2012 OK, so this is now fermenting nicely - big foamy Krausen and from a SG reading I couldn't help doing I estimate that it's more than half way through its attenuation phase. What does concern me though is the amount of sediment in suspension in the brew. The hydrometer tube is like pea soup, some of it's hops, but most of it is what I believe to be cold break material. This is only brew #2 and the last one (K&K cerveza)had no additional hops and no cold break. However is surprises me that after over 48 hours of sitting still the cold break hasn't dropped out of suspension. I plan on using some finings a few days before bottling, is it likely this will clear up the beer or should I have done something to avoid it earlier in the process? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Patience grasshopper [rightful] It's only been two days. It should look like the wort is in turmoil with bits floating everywhere. It all sounds fine. It will settle in time and clear up. Giving it an extra week after fermentation will help it clear up further and allow the yeast to clean up after themselves. Do you have a fridge? If you do, crash chill for 2-3 days before bottling. You will get clear beer with no need to use finings. Even without crash chilling, you should get clear beer. I have never used finings and I have no plans to. I don't see the need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mud Posted January 13, 2012 Author Share Posted January 13, 2012 Thanks Hairy, I read up a bit on cold break and sediment last night - is it true to say that the activity of the yeast while fermenting keeps the trub in suspension? I don't have a fridge (no room), so I might use the finings to gain a bit of extra clarity. I was also considering racking to a cube after a week, but I read some threads on HBT last night that make me think I'll just leave it in the primary for at least 2 weeks, maybe a month. The sample I drew for the SG reading tasted great BTW, possibly too much bittering hops (Beersmith says 50.8 IBU), but I'll know for next time - Thanks for the advice!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 I read up a bit on cold break and sediment last night - is it true to say that the activity of the yeast while fermenting keeps the trub in suspension? No. Well..... not a great deal to mention any way. The trub will fall to the bottom even when the yeast is still munching away. I don't have a fridge (no room), so I might use the finings to gain a bit of extra clarity. I use Gelatin. It's about the cheapest fining around and have great success. Nevertheless, time and temperature will work just as good. All finings do is speed up the process of what will naturally happen in time anyway. Boil some water and pour 100ml into a sanitised Pyrex jug (or similar) let this cool to about 70C then add 1 teaspoon of Gelatin and stir until disolved. I then pour this into a keg and rack the beer onto it. However, if you are not kegging then pour into secondary (good chance to bulk prime now also) then rack beer onto it then bottle. I was also considering racking to a cube after a week, but I read some threads on HBT last night that make me think I'll just leave it in the primary for at least 2 weeks, maybe a month. Just leave in primary for around 2 weeks and if you are going to gelatin then do that after this timeframe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mud Posted January 13, 2012 Author Share Posted January 13, 2012 Just leave in primary for around 2 weeks and if you are going to gelatin then do that after this timeframe. Yep, this sounds like to go to me, I'm just really surprised by the amount of cold break material in the beer - if I had added part/most of the LME to the fermenter directly, presumably there would be less of this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Phil, after you did your boil and chilled it, did you strain the liquid into the FV or pour everything including the hop matter? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mud Posted January 13, 2012 Author Share Posted January 13, 2012 Paul' date=' after you did your boil and chilled it, did you strain the liquid into the FV or pour everything including the hop matter?[/quote'] No, I poured it all in (bar the last cm of hop matter) - I was going to strain it with a colander, but I used pellet hops and they seemed to disintegrate too much for that to work. I might use a pain strainer next time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 A lot of what you are seeing may be hop matter. Don't worry, it will settle out. I like to whirlpool the wort in the pot which forces all the hop matter to settle in the middle at the bottom. I also use a strainer to pour it into the FV. It is only the last bit that needs straining though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Mud Posted February 14, 2012 Author Share Posted February 14, 2012 I just thought I'd post about how this finished up. I opened a bottle after 3 weeks conditioning and while it's not that much like OSH, I'm really pleased with it. It's a little bit green still, but there are some lovely toffee tones from the golden syrup and while I'd add less bittering hops next time, there's enough of a malt backbone to prop it up. I finished at an FG 1.012, so allowing +0.5% for priming, this was 7.07% ABV! It's a reasonably clear beer, probably more so than the photo below shows, and it has a creamy head and very smooth mouth feel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 As long as it tastes good thats the main thing. It looks good though. A beer with 7% ABV will taste much better with some more time in the bottle. If it tastes good at 3 weeks then you should have a nice one on your hands there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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