I'm thinking of getting a little bit more experimental with my brewing but am NOT yet ready for Mashing (even partial). Just wondering what quality you can do with just malt, hops and yeast? I'm really into dark beers and stouts. Any recipes you could provide without going TOTALLY over the top would really be appreciated!
You can do plenty, but to calculate the bitterness out accurately you need a program like QBrew, and your hops need to have specific Alpha Acid ratings as you'll find on the hops from Craftbrewer, not ranges like on the ones you would find in a Brewcraft store.
Extract and specialty grain is a good compromise. Palmer again has the chapter that will answer most of your questions. Also check out some of the sample recipes in there as well. Lady Liberty has become a bit of a stock ale around here.
Be sure to buy quality extract that is meant for brewing. Sanders show September#2, 2006 has some good information on extract twang.
Phil, all the info above is good. In addition the only extra bit of gear you'll need is a 15 litre pot (or larger). Can get them really cheap (like about $15 on special) from places like Red Dot when they have sales and that seems to be every month
Hop utilization is greatly governed by wort gravity. So what you do is boil half the extract in 10 to 12 litres of water and add the bittering hops as if it were almost a full boil. The last of the extract goes in towards the end, and it should be brought to boil for at least 10 to 15 minutes (as suggested by recent findings).
As Greg suggested, Palmer has some good extract recipes.
Definately worthwhile stepping up to extracts from kits.
Cheers, Ed
So the bartender says to the horse "Why the long face?"
Ed wrote:
Hop utilization is greatly governed by wort gravity. So what you do is boil half the extract in 10 to 12 litres of water and add the bittering hops as if it were almost a full boil. The last of the extract goes in towards the end, and it should be brought to boil for at least 10 to 15 minutes (as suggested by recent findings).
Top notch advice Ed. I wish someone had pointed this out to me in my extract days.
Last edited by chris. on Monday Oct 08, 2007 6:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ed wrote:
Hop utilization is greatly governed by wort gravity. So what you do is boil half the extract in 10 to 12 litres of water and add the bittering hops as if it were almost a full boil. The last of the extract goes in towards the end, and it should be brought to boil for at least 10 to 15 minutes (as suggested by recent findings).
Top notch advice Ed. I wish someone had pointed this out to me in my extract days.
I'm curious as to why? I've read Palmer but there seems to be no suggestion of this.
FYI:
I've just laid down an extract plus steeped choc malt - hopeful of resembling the Coopers Vintage.
1/ Steeped 100g choc malt (in cheesecloth) in 1L 30 min
2/ Added 7L water and 4kg LDME, 100g wheat ME and brought to boil.
3/ Added 25g POR (in cheesecloth) for 60min.
4/ Brought to ~22L, 18C and pitched 1L cultured Coopers yeast.
OG 1064
5/ After primary I'm racking into 5x 4.5L demijohns and adding various addtional hops.
Cheers
I have a drinking problem... two hands and only one mouth.
Not sure why the extra malt should be boiled at the end for at least 15 minutes, but it might have something to do with hot-break.
As for the hop utilisation, you'll find that it decreases with increased boil gravity. Have a look at the Estimating Beer Bitterness section of the Hop FAQ. The Tinseth Method is the most illuminating. Then look at the How Bitter Should it Be section. I think you'll find that the 25g of POR at that boil gravity (in the absence of the goldings I had in my recipe ) might not be enough to produce a balanced beer. But if you like it malty, there should be no problem.
Also, this IBU calculator might be useful to remove some of the drudge work.
I calculate that you had a boil gravity of approximately 1.230, and 25g of POR would probably give you an IBU of around 26.
I'll read up later but part of the plan was to make additions to the racked beer including at least one of say 5g POR boiled 60 min (others may include same addition but less boil time and combinations).
Why Goldings? Isn't Coopers a POR purist?
Cheers
I have a drinking problem... two hands and only one mouth.
Ah, I see. That should be an interesting experiment. You've done this kind of thing before, no?
As for the Goldings, I just decided to try it; it's a nice noble hop ideally suited to this style. I do know that they use only POR in their Sparkling, but I was fairly sure they use other hops in their other styles.
Yeah, I had the suspiscion that Coopers could not get the complexity with POR alone and was surprised that even the Sparkling is supposedly POR only.
As for the rack treatments, I'm doing one now with a Duvel clone - currently two weeks at ambient and I'm about to transfer to the fridge to help settle the Wyeast 1388 (which are crap at flocculation) before bottling.
I just figured it was a good way to get the most out of a single batch when you're trying to hone a recipe. It's all from the same base primary so should be fairly well controlled.
Cheers
I have a drinking problem... two hands and only one mouth.
Ed wrote:
Hop utilization is greatly governed by wort gravity. So what you do is boil half the extract in 10 to 12 litres of water and add the bittering hops as if it were almost a full boil. The last of the extract goes in towards the end, and it should be brought to boil for at least 10 to 15 minutes (as suggested by recent findings).
Top notch advice Ed. I wish someone had pointed this out to me in my extract days.
I'm curious as to why? I've read Palmer but there seems to be no suggestion of this.
FYI:
I've just laid down an extract plus steeped choc malt - hopeful of resembling the Coopers Vintage.
1/ Steeped 100g choc malt (in cheesecloth) in 1L 30 min
2/ Added 7L water and 4kg LDME, 100g wheat ME and brought to boil.
3/ Added 25g POR (in cheesecloth) for 60min.
4/ Brought to ~22L, 18C and pitched 1L cultured Coopers yeast.
OG 1064
5/ After primary I'm racking into 5x 4.5L demijohns and adding various addtional hops.
Cheers
breadnbutter, palmer makes mention of it in the liknk below. Wel worth reading and understanding.
) might not be enough to produce a balanced beer. But if you like it malty, there should be no problem.
More homework