Here's one of my earlier extract recipes. It's kind fun, although a bit on the hoppy side. Might cut back the aromatics a little...
Jupiter Ale
6lbs light malt extract
1/4 lb Chocolate malt
1/2 lb Crystal malt
1-1/2 oz Northern brewer hops(Boil
2 oz Willamette hops(dry hop/aromatic
Irish moss if you like...
Steep the grain in hot water(2 gallons works good) for 30 minutes. Remove grains(grain bag is handy). Stir in extract, and bring to boil. Add boiling hops. Boil 60 minutes.
Cool wort. Rapid cooling wil drop the trub out...
Add cool wort to carboy, top with clean water. After fermentation slows, rack to secondary carboy. Mix aromatic hops with 1/2 cup bioling water. Let cool, and add to secondary. allow 1-2 weeks for secondary fermentation and time for dry hopping.
Bottle/keg. Wait 4 weeks, and enjoy.
Note I only made this once on the stove top. After that, I used a cut up keg over a propane cajun cooker burner. Then, I did full 5gal full gravity boils.
Thanks for the recipe. I don't think I'll find it too hoppy; my definition of a proper IPA is that it set your teeth on edge. I just bought a pound each of Challenger, Northern Brewer and Fuggles, because St. Pats was selling them off.
I expect to go to all grain sometime in the not too distant future. My brewing buddy and I will eventually prod each other into it. Just need to bite the bullet and collect the equipment. He already kegs, while I still bottle, though I at least use the swing top bottles. I think my first step in the all grain direction may be buying a stainless steel turkey cooker. I know the kettle will be pretty thin guage, but I think I may have some aluminum plate I could use to set it on and spread the heat. I saw one at WalMart with a spigot. How long do you usually have to boil to concentrate the wort in a normal run?
I moved from stovetop to a turkey/cajun/jet propane burner. The first burner was only about 35,000btu. The next was 125,000 or something like that.
I used a 15gal keg with the top cut out. I got a stainless lid from Walmart, just big enough to fit inside the topp of the keg handles. A few buddies were building full grain systems, so we had a bunch of kegs cut using plams torch. Cutting them at home with a drill and Sawzall is a bear...
Once I had this, I did full gravity boils. Worked great, and got hot and boiling much faster than even a low volume high gravity boil on the stovetop. To boot, it was about a third of the parts for my eventual three tier all grain system.
Three tier gravity feed system. I use a ice chest with copper sprinlker manifolds inside for mashtun. System is on wheels. Overall height considered height of 6.5gal carboy, so after cooling I can fill direct from the boiling keg. Green container has most brewing things, like wort chiller ect.
Upper keg has valve for controlling flow to mashtun. It also has a thermometer about 1/2 way up the side.
I used my 35kbtu burner for boiling; the sweet wort is already pretty hot when it comes from the mashtun. I used the 125kbtu burner for heating water for mash and sparge.
The hokey sheet metal on the sides protects the flame on the burners, as a wind break. I usually set up in the garage to brew, but keep doors wide open to ventilate, given a couple big propane burners going.
The system is dusty, and unused for a while. I have been thinking about another brew session. I have kind of held off, since my beer fridge broke. I keg, and do not wat to bottle 10gal of beer while I have no keg fridge available [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img]
As you can see by my system, I collected as I went. I had the Sparge/mash water keg at the same time as the boiil, but did not get the whole system going till a brewing buddy prodded me.
Going full gravity boil, I tried a 5gal batch, and then a 10 gal extract batch. To cool all that, I had to have a chiller. I started kegging at that time too. 5gal is ok to bottle. 10gal is a real chore!
I usually run a 60 minute boil. Your wort should come out at the right concentration from the mashtun. That's why people Ph check the mash. If you under sparge, you don't get all the sweet stuff out. If you over sparge, you get astringent and watery at the end.
Usually, for an extract batch, I shoot for 11.5 gallons of sweet wort. A 60 minute rolling boil will run that down to 10gal. You don't want to boil much more than 60 minutes typically, as it will affect you hopping(too long a boil will overhop).
I shoot for the same with an all grain batch. Sometimes I come out wiith less, depending on how the sparge goes. A little work with the system, and tracking you pree-boil gravity and Ph will give you an idea how efficient your system is, and how you need to change the recipe to correct.
good discussion here, tractors, land, country, beer, everything I love in one place, this must be heaven.
One word of advice if you are steeping or doing specialty graining. Watch your temperatures as the enzymes for converting the maltose are deactivated at 170. So while steeping or puting grain in your boil hold the temp at 155-160 during that time.
Love the brew [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
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