Beer Forum

I need to brew a couple times this fall and with Family, Football and Vacation, I don't have a lot of time to work in a couple all-grain brew days. I was going to try to knock out a couple speciality grain batches after my daughter goes to bed at night.

Here is my problem. I have never done a full boil extract batch. I have done a ton of partial boils and partial mashes, but never a full boil. Do I just dump all of the extract in up front and hop as normal? Do I do a late addition on my extract and increase hop utilization? I have looked around Northern Brewer and some other sites and everything is set up for partial boils. Here is what I am planning on doing.

Northern Brewer AK47 PALE MILD

O.G: 1.036 READY: 4 WEEKS
--2 weeks primary, 2 weeks bottle conditioning
KIT INVENTORY:
SPECIALTY GRAIN
--0.5 lbs Simpsons Caramalt
--1 oz Fawcett Pale Chocolate
FERMENTABLES
--3 lbs Munton’s Light DME (60 min)
--1 lb corn sugar late addition (0 min)
HOPS & FLAVORINGS
--0.75 oz Kent Goldings (60 min)
--0.25 oz Kent Goldings (15 min)
YEAST
--WYEAST 1945 NB NEOBRITANNIA.Flocculation: Moderate-high. Attenuation: 72-77%. Temperature
Range: 66-74 F.
--DRY YEAST ALTERNATIVE: Windsor Ale Yeast.Optimum temperature: 64-70°F.

Put in about half your extract at the beginning and the rest at the end. You will get better hop utilization with the lower gravity during most of the boil.

Wayne

Bugeater wrote:Put in about half your extract at the beginning and the rest at the end. You will get better hop utilization with the lower gravity during most of the boil.

Wayne

+1 depending on how much hop utilization you are looking for in a pale mild. Those typically have 20-25 IBU's or so. I think if you follow the recipe given for this one you would be fine depending how old the hops you get are.

We're only talking roughly 1.036 here for a Mild, right?
I'd just throw it all in right up front. If this was a bigger beer, then I totally agree t would be worth doing the split extract method. Honestly, I don't think there's enough extract to produce the twang, and the low gravity won't in any way hurt hop extraction for this moderately hopped, balanced style.

Also, this recipe calls for 25% corn sugar in a 1.036 beer? I'd just do straight DME and skip the sugar. You'll need all the body you can get. No need to thin this one out, IMO.

my .02-

I have decided to make this one this week. Any tips from the OP or anyone else?