How to: First Extract Brew
If you have been following with us from Your First Home Brewery, you now have everything you need to brew your first batch of extract beer. While it is true that you can’t get quite the range of recipes and fine touch with your brews using extract as apposed to all-grain, the quality of extract these days allows homebrewers to make some amazing beer with the time saving ease of malt extract.
Malt extract is the reduced and refined sugars extracted from barley grain and provided in either a dry (DME – Dry Malt Extract) or liquid (LME –Liquid Malt Extract) form. Many varieties exist ranging from light, amber or dark to Belgian and Bavarian styles. You may pay more for extract than equivalent grain but you save hours of preparing and processing the grains to get the sugars out.
Below is the shopping list. Most of it is just pick up and go, but if you’ve never purchased specialty grains it could be confusing. Your local homebrew store (LHBS) should have big tubs or dispensers of specialty grains, an electronic scale to measure it out and a bucket or bag to collect it into. After you measure the grains out you will use a grain mill to crush the grains. Don’t worry about keeping them separated, they’ll all be going into the brew pot together.
Shopping List
- 6 lb. Light Malt Syrup
- 1 lb. Amber DME
- 1 lb. Crystal 40
- 1 lb. Crystal 60
- 1 oz. Chinook
- 2 oz. Cascade
- Irish Moss (optional)
- WLP001 California/Wyeas1056 American Ale
- 1 medium grain bag (cheese sock)
Preparation
Cleaning and Sanitizing
If this is your first brew your equipment is likely looking clean and new but you should still give it a nice cleaning prior to sanitization. You don’t know what kinds of contaminants your equipment could have come in contact with during shipping and storage. Get your PBW/Oxyclean/OneStep and prepare a solution according to the container. I like to put about 2.5 gallons of cleaning solution in my fermenter, clean that, then dump the solution into a plugged sinkor a Rubbermaid tub to clean the rest of the equipment. Most of the cleaners will do a pretty good job just soaking given enough time but you should help it out by scrubbing with something non-abrasive like a washcloth or sponge. It is possible to scratch plastics and give little places for bacteria to grow that are difficult to get clean.
Sanitize anything that will come in contact with your beer, paying particular attention to the fermenter. No beer will be completely free of contaminants but if you give your yeast the cleanest, healthiest environment possible you will have a better chance of getting great beer.
Ingredients
1.) Get some hot water in a bowl, sink or whatever you have to set the LME in. This will help warm it up so it will come out easier during the boil.
2.) While the LME is warming up, measure out (or eyeball) half of the Cascade and place the two halves in bowls or bags ready for the boil.
3.) If using Irish Moss, add 1tsp Irish Moss to a small bowl or shot glass. Add a tablespoon of water and allow to rehydrate.
4.) Pour the crushed grains into a grain bag and tie the bag closed.
5.) Take yeast out of fridge and let it warm up on your counter.
Brewing
1. Add 1 1/2 gallons of water to the brewing pot. Place the grain bag into the water and steep over medium heat (the water should be steamy but not boiling). During this time you should be using your thermometer to ensure the water never exceeds 170ºF. After 30 minutes remove the pot from the heat. Remove and discard the grain bag.
Note: At this point some people use extra near boiling water to rinse the grains and get the most out of them. This can be over done as excessive rinsing releases tannins into the beer giving it a grainy harsher taste than typically desired.
2. Fill the pot near to the top with tap water allowing room to ensure there will be no boil over. If you have a large enough pot bring it to about 6 gallons to allow for boil off and to end at 5 gallons. If your pot cannot hold a full 6 gallon boil that is okay. You’ll need to boil an amount of water to complement the wort and add up to 5 gallons in the fermenter. For example, I have a 4 gallon stock pot which will hold 3 gallons comfortably leaving room for the hot break to prevent boil overs. Prior to brewing I will boil 2 gallons of water and pour this into a sanitized 6.5 gallon fermenter. I’ll allow it to cool while I brew. If I’ve already sanitized a stopper and airlock I’ll use that, otherwise I’ll use a new Ziploc bag to cover the opening and prevent dust and bacteria from entering the carboy.
3. Bring the water to a boil, remove from heat, add LME (stirring continuously) and return the pot to the heat. Bring the contents of the pot, now called wort, to a boil.
4. You will now boil the wort for 60 min. At the beginning of the boil add the 1 oz. of Chinook.
5. At 30 min out add 1 oz. of Cascade.
6. At 15 min out add Irish Moss and put your wort chiller in (if you have one) at this time.
7. At 5 min out add the final 1 oz. of Cascade.
8. At the end of the boil you will need to cool the wort as quickly as possible down to between 65ºF and 75ºF. If you have a wort chiller you will have an easier quicker time of it. If you don’t, fill your sink about a quarter of the way with ice and water and place your kettle in it. Stirring will increase the rate of cooling but be sure anything that comes in contact with the wort at this time is properly sanitized and try not to aerate it.
9. Pour the chilled wort into your fermenter. Your total wort volume should now be 5 gallons.
10. Take a sample of the wort for a gravity reading. You can use a sanitized turkey baster, hose (don’t suck it out you’ll risk contamination), a sanitized cup (if you have a bucket and can dip into it).
11. Pitch the yeast! The vials can build up a little pressure so open it slowly to lose the least yeast possible.
12. Aerate! Put your top on the bucket or place a sanitized piece of aluminum foil on top of the carboy and shake vigorously for a few minutes. Your yeast need as much oxygen at this point as possible for a solid healthy fermentation.
13. Install your airlock or blowoff tube and put your fermenter into a cool dark place. Higher fermentation temperatures will increase the rate of fermentation but will also give off esters that can be unwanted and unpleasant. Also, light can damage your beer so I like to put a shirt over my carboy to block out as much as possible. In about two weeks you will have 5 gallons of beer just waiting to be bottled. Come back and check out our bottling guide when you’re ready!
