Need a Kit+Extract Hefeweizen Recipe

[hirns]

Yeah mate, the more details the better, I cleaned Gympie library out of homebrew books on Wednesday!

1. I use a 28L esky converted to a mash tun.

2. I collect about 28l of wort after sparging into a 28L fermentor.

3 Drain 14l into the 19L ($19 Big W pot) and do a full boil with 1/2 of the recipie's hops on a three ring burner or BBQ side burner.

4. I heat up most of the other 14L in two smaller pots inside ready to go.

5. I whirlpool and then siphon the first 10/11l(after boil) into a 30l fermentor and place in the bath tubto chill.

6. I wash the 19l pot and then add the other heated 14l of wort and do a second boil, add hops and then drain into the re rinced and sterilised 30l fermentor.

7 I add a 2l boiled/filtered frozen ice block of ice into the fermentor to bring the volume to 22-23l.

8 Replace bath water and add new cool water and ice packs to bring to 20C.

9 I then place it in the red tub and ferment.

Sounds like a lot of work with the two boils, but once you get the routine sorted, it's not so bad. I can now drop the kids at swimming, do a full grocery shop and mow the lawn in between steps. However, I still can't wait to plumb my keggle to remove the two 60min or two 90min boils(plus the double cooling). I still enjoy it way more than any K&K for taste and enjoyment of making.

With the additional cooling time without a dedicated chiller, I've also had to delay the hop schedule 1/2 way between AG and no chill as the first beers were obviously a little too bitter, but still very drinkable.

Cheers

Hirns

[bullfrog]

I've just bought a 20l pot from BigW and a thermometer, been reading Nick_JDs threads over on AHB so I'm going to try a BIAB next.

Nowhere near an expert on brewing, but take that thread with a grain of salt. It was the inspiration for my very first AG brew, but a lot of the stuff posted in there is so beyond nonsensical that it has become somewhat of a laughing-stock. That being said, the info in the OP is more-or-less spot-on and, just using common-sense, I'm sure you'll be able to pick the good posts from the awful in the rest of the thread.

The next one will be only my 3rd brew, I just don't see the point in doing 10 K&Ks before I try an AG.

I did 1 K&K, 1 K&B then went to extract. Did 5 extract brews (whilst building my keg system) then went to AG. As you say, there's no reason repeating the simpler methods over and over if you have the desire and confidence to go into more complicated areas. At the end of the day, AG always seems very daunting to someone who's never done it before (at least it was for me) but it's overwhelmingly simple. Give it a shot; even if you think you could have done better with your first attempt, you at least know what needs to be done to get the end result and what can be done to make improvements.

I'm also looking at renovating an old fridge/freezer we've got and using it for fermenting. Are those Fridgemates easy enough to wire in for a non-sparky? Do I need to drill a hole for the sensor or just slide it past the seals?

They're not difficult to wire up. I won't publicly recommend wiring them yourself, for obvious reasons, but they're not at all difficult. I slide my probe cable in through the fridge seal. Probably more efficient ways to go about it but I'm not all too worried about my fermentation fridge's efficiency as it generally only has to keep temps of 16-18 degrees C (bit of an ale man, me) as opposed to 2-4 degrees, like a normal fridge.

Going on to providing details of steps, I BIAB, so I'll provide a contrast to Hirns' steps.

1. Top up urn with water to 25L and set temperature control to 72 degrees
2. Once at temp, remove urn lid and stir water vigorously (drops temp by a good 3 degrees.)
3. Add grain bag to urn, tip in grain and replace lid.
4. After 90 minutes, remove bag and give it a squeeze. Place it into collander (one I made myself to fit top of urn) and place collander on top of urn.
5. Crank urn thermometre up to boil whilst allowing bag to drain in collander.
6. Give bag one last squeeze when boil achieved and proceed to add hops and kettle finings at correct intervals.
7. At 15 minutes from end-of-boil, add immersion chiller. Whirlpool at flameout and turn chiller on.
8. After chilled to pitching temps, drain wort to fermenter, pitch, cover with cling wrap and put in fermenting fridge.

Brew day for me, with set-up and cleaning, generally takes about 4 hours, and as Hirns observed, one can occupy themselves with just about any other activity in between each of those stages of brewing.

[rotten]

Gday Roboscot. I never did BIAB, I did however move quickly between steps once I realised there were more besides Kits or needing lots of experience. I'm 3V & loving it. If BIAB doesn't work for ya try it on a smaller scale like Hirns, you won't be disapointed.

Hirns: ebay 30 ltr urn (mine cost $120 inc postage) best money spent so far. apart from 60 ltr ice box ebay $120 inc postage.
Cheers

[matr]

Go Biab or skip straight to AG.

BIAB is AG!!! unless it's mini BIAB (partial)..

& that's the way I'm heading!!

[SuperBroo]

Me too Mat,

1 vessel, bugger all temperature and volume stuff to worry about, less cleanup, slightly less time (from what I can gather)...

and haveing been doing AG with Urn Esky, Kettle, I allready have the gear, just need to make the bag...

cheers,
Chris