First Batch questions

[Brew Swillis]

Sooo.....
now that I've got an extract system and ingredient kit, I'm finally gonna put the two of them together in the same room at the same time next weekend. I have B3's Brown Porter extract kit and I want to do a half batch so that I can do a full boil
(but also so I can brew again in a couple of weeks ). I picked up on another thread somewhere in here that doing a late extract addition will help reduce the 'extract twang'. I accidentally ran into another homebrewer at the airport yesterday that that suggested I only use hop pellets and only use the hopbag (I know its not necessarily germaine to a brown porter, but its a question of mine nonetheless) because the hop utilization concerns are exaggerated.

My questions are:
1) At what volume is hop utilization really a concern?
2) is there anything else that I should be checking into before jumping into this first batch?

awesome, thanks.

B

[dags]

first things first, make sure your not wearing pants. Secondly have a beer while brewing (verry important thing)

For your first batch expect everythign to take twice as long as you think it should. Also follow the instructions 100%, do this a few times before playing with it too much. On the hop utilisation you need to be aware that the gravity of the wort will effect the utilisation, that is the higher the gravity the lower your utilisation will be. Therefore the volume isnt really the most importat thing.

good luck!

[Brew Swillis]

awesome! thanks! Im the kind of guy puts a lot of pressure on himself when he wants things to turn out right. Also, because I am not anticipating brewing as often as I might like, I REALLY wanna make sure that I start off strong and improve significantly each time. I mean, who wants to waste time brewing mediocrity?? lol

Thanks Dags

[Jack]

I think if you follow the instructions and keep your set up sanitary you shouldn't have any problems. As far as the hops additions, if you are using the right measurements (cutting all the ingredients in half equally) then you should just be able to cruise right to a half batch just fine. Using a hop bag I think is just a different type of straining idea. Personally, have never used one. I just use a kitchen strainer. The only advice I would give from here is to make sure to rack the beer over to a fresh container after initial fermentation and do a proper secondary fermentation. From there you should be on easy street. Be sure to chime in and let us all know how it turned out.

Best of luck,

Jack

[BrewFrenzy]

I sampled my first late extract batch (it still needs a few more days in the bottle) and I think that method is very helpful. The caramel-like flavor I get from partial boils really, really bugs me. I really love pale ales so I'm struggling to figure a solution. I took a further step yesterday and tried my hand at Texas two-step brewing. My take:

Late extract: Promising but not a 100% solution. I'll know for sure in a few days.
Texas two-step: This might solve the problem but essentially doubled my brew time. Turned a 4 hour brew into an 8 hour brew.

Take my advice with a grain of salt. I'm still pretty new having only made about 6 brews so far, none of which been great precisely because of the partial boil problems.

In the meantime, I'm saving up for a 8 gal. kettle and propane burner.

[Brew Swillis]

I am about a week into the ferment on this badboy right now. I went ahead and went with a full batch because I stopped and realized that as a pre-made kit, the grains were all mixed together so that there was not reliable way to separate them measure them into 2 batches. I ended up adding about half of the extract up front as normal, and then the remaining at the 30 minute mark. After having sampled beer from my test measurement jar last night, I have other issues to tackle first apparently lol. It seemed tasty, but either the ferment is only half done or the yeast kicked off by now because my 1.038 OG is only down to 1.018 giving me an abv of like 2.3% instead aroundthe 5%-ish the recipes calls for....that and dropping the wort temp faster ebfore pitching are probably my 2 most immediate issues... but so far...this batch is all I needed to set the addicition!

[BOSTON BREWMAN]

What yeast are you using and at what temp?

[Mylo]

I am about a week into the ferment on this badboy right now. I went ahead and went with a full batch because I stopped and realized that as a pre-made kit, the grains were all mixed together so that there was not reliable way to separate them measure them into 2 batches. I ended up adding about half of the extract up front as normal, and then the remaining at the 30 minute mark. After having sampled beer from my test measurement jar last night, I have other issues to tackle first apparently lol. It seemed tasty, but either the ferment is only half done or the yeast kicked off by now because my 1.038 OG is only down to 1.018 giving me an abv of like 2.3% instead aroundthe 5%-ish the recipes calls for....that and dropping the wort temp faster ebfore pitching are probably my 2 most immediate issues... but so far...this batch is all I needed to set the addicition!

Yeah, that's only about 53% AA, when you should have gotten at least 70%. And, it should have been done by now. Next time, make sure you are pitching the right amount of yeast (use Jamil's calculator at mrmalty.com), and make sure you oxygenate properly. The best is an 02 bottle with a stone - but if you don't have that, then at least rock and roll the carboy for 15-20 min.

As far as your "other" problem with faster chilling - that will give you clearer beer with more hop aroma and less DMS - but that probably isn't a big issue with a porter recipe. Focus on the yeast health.


Mylo