New Brewer Question....

[IowaCarver]

I am a brand new brewer, first batch is in the CB. I was listening to an Episode of Brew STrong I think it was about using extract kits and John Palmer was also on the show. He said worst thing you can do to an extract kit is boil the crap out of it. Of course all extract kits that are unhopped say to boil 45 min to 1 hour. I didn't quite understand what to do when you have several hop additions to do for an hour a long with a grain steep. So if you steep your specialty grains an then you bring to boil should you add just 1/3 of the liquid extract and do the hop additions per the instruction schedule and add the balance of the liquid extract with about 10 minutes left in the boil? Just curious.

thank you,
Corey

[Ozwald]

Welcome to the forum.

My advice for a steeping grain extract brew would be to do as close of a full boil as your kettle can safely handle for starters. Bring that volume of water up to the 140-160F (60-70C) range. Steep your grains there - the amount of time is escaping me, it's been a while. Remove the grains & don't squeeze the bag too hard. Stir in 1/2-3/4's of your extract while you're bringing it up to a rolling boil. Start your 60 minute timer & add your hops as needed. Add the remaining extract when your timer says 15 minutes (45 minutes after you hit a rolling boil). Timer goes off, kill the heat, chill the batch, pour it in the fermenter, aerate & pitch. (edit: and if you're not doing a full volume boil, use a separate kettle/kettles & start boiling the remaining water about 10-30 minutes (depending on volume) from the end, so that can be cooled & added to the fermenter before aerating/pitching)

Not boiling the crap out of it isn't about the length of the boil but how vigorous the boil is. As you get up in temp first you'll notice lots of small bubbles stuck to the inside of the kettle with a smooth surface. That's not a boil. A little warmer & the surface will 'smile' at you where there's almost a crease or a slight bump in the surface. That's not a boil. A little warmer than that & you'll get a gentle churning effect & noticeable surface activity. That's a soft rolling boil. As you go up from there, you'll get more and more surface activity until the point when the surface is really going nuts. That's a vigorous boil aka 'boiling the crap out of it'. All you need is a soft rolling boil or a touch more.

[IowaCarver]

Thank you Lee for the great info!!

Corey

[BDawg]

Steep your grains there - the amount of time is escaping me, it's been a while.

30-45 mins is what I always do.

I have a slightly different method for identifying when to start the boil clock-

Basically, as Oz said, it will build up a foam layer that grows and grows. I wait until this foam builds then caves in on itself. This is called "hot break". Once hot break hits, that's when I start my clock (and add hops).

Doing it this way allows me to always have a consistent starting point. I'm positive that the wort is at boiling temp, and I know that from then on, as long as I keep a consistent slow rolling boil, the volume will hit my desired level and the hop bitterness, etc, will all fall into place as designed.

(I do this for AG, too)

HTH-

[IowaCarver]

Thank you BDawg for the help!

Corey