DME

[SMbrew36]

If I'm using a DME would you recommend boiling it with the water I'm supposed to boil with my kit for half an hour? And if I'm adding g a 2.5 oz hop tea would I boil this for the last ten minutes of boil ?

[jtmwhyte]

In assuming this kit came from everwood based on your previous thread? I'm sure there would be instructions with the kit.

DME is generally boiled for either the entire time or in the last 15 minutes depending on the recipe. Are there any steeping grains in the kit?

Not sure what you mean by making hop tea. Hops go in the boil usually (never bothered to do it any other way) right in the pot.

[SMbrew36]

Hop tea, boil fir ten minutes in the gallon of boiled water your using.
Just a coopers kit with 1 KG of medium malt extract added instead of dextros. It was an Australian Pale Ale kit.
No grains yet.....but, what's a good steeping grain for ale's or pilsner beers??? And...what's the usual steep time and temp?

[Ladd]

Hey Steve, Matt here. I would wait until the last 5 minutes of the hop boil to add the DME. You only need to sterilize it, adding it sooner will reduce the hop utilization (potential bittering capability). Be careful adding it as it will foam a bit and if you are using a pot just big enough it will boil over. I would recommend using a pot about twice the size you need. When steeping grain, make sure it is crushed first. Here is a good article you should check out before jumping right in - https://byo.com/mead/item/61-6-steps-fo ... ing-grains" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

For ales the sky's the limit for steeping grains. You can steep malts like various crystal malts for sweetness/caramel/raison/plum flavors (depending on the darkness) or some roast/chocolate/caraffa for more coffee and roasty notes (or even just to darken the color). You can do various combos of steeping malts for all different kinds of flavors. For a pilsner, I wouldn't steep anything unless you wanted to do a really light caramalt or some carapils for body/head retention.

Steeping is usually done at 170°F (76.6°C) for thirty minutes.

Hope this helps!

Matt

[Ladd]

Just re-read that and saw that it is only a ten minute boil. I would go ahead and put the DME in at the start with the hops. What hops came with that kit? I'd also consider only putting in half of the hops at that point and save the other half for a dry hop addition which is just throwing them in the fermenter after the first week of fermentation has been completed. You will then get flavor from the hop boil and aroma from the dry hop addition.

Matt

[SMbrew36]

I just brewed the Coopers APA with 1 KG of medium DME instead of dextros and a half ounce cascade hop tea . I got the hops from everwood .
All the advice I can get is great Matt, especially from guys like yourself with lots of experience.
I'm just now planning out my first mini mash. I can't wait.

So far I have .5 lb of Carapils , 1.7 lb of 2 row , 2 pounds of Munich LME, 500 g of dark DME, and cascade hops.
I'd also like to grab some Irish moss, and I'm not sure what yeast to use yet...maybe us-05?

Any thoughts Matt ??

[Ladd]

The yeast choice depends heavily on what you want to make. It sounds like you are planning something along the lines of a pale ale with the ingredients you've listed above? US-05 is a great yeast and won't let you down for that. Try to keep it fermenting under 20°C for best results.

Are you adding any other fermentables to your recipe? Going with everything you've listed above you will end up with something around the 4% mark if you do a 5 gallon batch (19L). You could toss a pound of white sugar in there and that would bump it up to about 5.5% but that would thin and dry it out somewhat. Depends on how strong you are interested in having the final product.

Did you pick up any sanitizers for your equipment? Starsan (a sanitizer that you mix that doesn't need to be rinsed away) is a god send. Rinse everything that comes into contact with your brew with it to prevent any infections.

Matt

[SMbrew36]

We have been using a different sanitizer and I've been using a lot of it to ensure everything is clean a day sanitized. But we are switching to star san for its simplicity right away. Also I find with the stuff we have you can get an off taste sometimes. Thanks bud.