11
Yes, it is OK squeeze. In fact, you want as much extract as possible from the specialty malts.
It is a common myth that squeezing the grain bag is a bad idea due to "tannins being extracted" or similar. There is no reason for this to be true --- tannins are extracted from the grain (husk) only if the temperature during steeping/mashing is too high. And then ...
9
Even if jsolarski's hunch is incorrect (that your extra DME is for priming the bottles), and it was actually meant for the boil, the beer won't be ruined at all. You just missed the original gravity target, which means:
the beer will finish drier than it otherwise would have (lower original gravity will usually lead to lower final gravity)
the balance of ...
7
Well BIAB is all grain brewing. Not to be confused with just steeping specialty grains in extract brewing.
If you have a kettle big enough to do a full mash, doing a partial mash and extract is pointless. Unless it's a high gravity beer that would normally need a much larger mash. Basically if you're mashing at all it doesn't save time doing only partial. ...
6
The sludge is mostly coagulated proteins, hop residue. A little bit is actually good for your wort, as it provides nutrients for the yeast. Too much might give the beer some slight off flavours. If you were to let the sludge into the fermenter, it wouldn't be the end of the world, but you'll make better beer if your exclude most of it.
So, to answer your ...
6
The only way to know is to look at the OG. LME has 36 ppg and DME has about 45. In the recipe you mention, the OG is 1.038 for 5 gal. and it calls for 6 lb. of extract. Assuming LME, 36*6=216. Divide by 5 for 5 gal. and you get 43ish. That's darn close to the OG listed and DME would make the OG even higher, so that particular recipe must be for LME. ...
6
Usually the quality is not greatly different but the quantity is usually too low in my experience. Over here in the UK a 25l or 5Gal kit tends to come with 6g of yeast, where as I would often pitch 11-22g depending on the gravity.
It is probably the fact that pitching another yeast is pitching at far higher cell counts, leading to far cleaner fermentation.
...
5
Designing Great Beers has a table listing fermentability of a few brands of extract on p 15. I don't think it's permitted to reproduce it here, but if you search the book content in Amazon, search for "Malt extract test worts" - you'll get a link to table 3.1 which will take you right there. The range is from 45% to 65%.
I've not seen any tools that ...
5
(TOG - GR * (BV/FV)) / (45/FV) = lbs of DME to add pre-boil to hit target OG
TOG = Target Original Gravity in Points
GR = Gravity Reading in Points
BV = Boil Volume (This is what you are taking your reading from)
FV = Final Volume (i.e. 5 gallons)
45 = # Gravity Points you get per lb of DME per gallon
So lets say you are making a 5 gallon smash beer with ...
5
The main gain with a doing a partial or full mash is control, and getting a fresh malt/grain taste in the beer.
With extract, you get what you are given. You can alter some parameters, such as color and bitterness by blending different extracts and adding hops, but you get far more control when doing a mash. Also, you can mash ingredients that aren't ...
5
IMHO there is too much "all grain brewing tehcnique" being used in an extract brew process.
There is no particular need to steep the grains at 70C. They are providing some flavours and body to the final beer, The grains are not malted so have no diastatic power to convert starch to sugars - as standard barley malt might do. Flaked wheat might help in head ...
4
A late malt addition doesn't affect final gravity. The only difference compared to a regular addition is that a 1 hour boil alters the flavor and color of the extract to a small degree. (The wort gravity will also be different for most of the boil, affecting hop utilization, but since the recipe states a late addition, this will have been taken into account.)...
4
To find out which grains can be steeped, see Steeping Speciality Grains in John Palmer's "How to brew".
On a practical level, steeping and mashing are almost the same thing - you soak grains in water. The key differences between steeping and mashing is this:
steeped grains have most of the starches already converted (Cara/Crystal malt, highly kilned malts)...
4
BIAB IS all grain brewing. But it's not traditional multi-vessel brewing. Some batch sparge with a cooler, others fly sparge with a sprinkler, some use a bag for the whole water amount (BIAB). All-grain brewing, each of them.
As for sparging, do note that some BIAB brewers add a sparge step, where they may pour a gallon or so of hot water over the grain ...
3
Hops add bittering via isomerization. When you add the hops to the boil, the alpha acids are extracted, and eventually isomerize and provide bitter flavors. This happens with or without sugars. Ray Daniels's book Designing Great Beers has lots of useful formulae and equations, including how to calculate IBU. Basically it looks like this:
IBU = Woz * U% *...
3
Aside from the control over what is going into your finished product, one of the biggest plusses for me doing a mash is cost. I can manage 2 or 3 brew days for the cost of 1 extract. There are some expenses up front when switching to all grain, but you can easily make those losses back if you plan to continue with the hobby. Mashing does require more time ...
3
If you warm up LME it isn't that hard to pour and measure into a container.
I also recommend not opening the entire top of a can (if that's your source). I recommend warming it up and using the "church key" type opener that pokes those triangular hole into the top of the can. Just poke two holes into the top of the can on opposite sides (one to pour out and ...
3
Larger/Better homebrew shops will sell you liquid extract in take-away containers in the exact weight that you need. My local shop JUST started doing this, as its not too cheap. First time I ever saw this was on the Alton Brown 'Good Eats' episode on homebrewing.
I suspect Jamil isn't too concerned about the impracticality of the ingredients, he's just ...
3
Stovetop full boils would be pretty rough. If you can brew outside, look into a turkey fryer. They usually come with a 7-8 gallon kettle and a high-output propane burner. You can often find them on sale at outdoor centers. I paid $40 US for mine on clearance.
On to your questions.
No Vaseline please! It's almost impossible to completely clean off ...
3
Most starter kits are based on low volume boils, but boiling the entire volume of the malt extract for the full boil, this aids with proteins I believe.
The rule of thumb that a few of my friends use is never go further than doubling the volume by dilution.
So 5 litres -> 10 litres is OK.
I have other friends who use all the burners on their cooker and ...
3
I was just recently looked into this for our local club. From what I read, there were no negative effects from late extract additions. In fact, I found several articles specifically advising it. They refer to adding a small amount of extract to start (some say 15-20%, Papazian says 1lb:1gallon), but I imagine the same principles hold true for your scenario. ...
3
According to figures from the American Homebrewers Assoc. and retail groups, most homewbrewers brew with extract. All grain requires more time, equipment, and effort. Obviously, a lot of people feel it's worth it, but more people have constraints on time, money and space. For those people, extract is the only way they can brew.
3
It does not need to be 5.00000 gallons, don't worry about the small differences.
You can aerate after pitching the yeast, so long as it's immediately after; the yeast need oxygen during the lag phase, but once alcohol starts being produced, you don't want to introduce oxygen at that point.
3
Stored cool, dry and out of sunlight, DME is good for 2+ years. The main issue is with it picking up moisture, when it then becomes clumpy. But once boiled it's still good and you can use it up to 5 years in small quantities (say 1-2lb/0.5-1kg in a 5 gallon batch.)
3
I don't think you can calculate this number. They report a max extract using a standardized lab test obviously. But then the rest is subject to too many variables for there actually be something to calculate.
Its system and brewer dependent on what the ppg will be.
I think your calcs are spot on as far as getting in the ball park. Maybe assume a 5-8% ...
3
I say that it's unnecessary - the malt extract does not need to go into the fridge, since it's sterile from the producer. Also nothing can grow in the malt extract due to the high sugar content, so I'd say the chilling and reheating is just creating extra work.
Simply leave the malt extract at room temperature and pour into the pot. If you want to decrease ...
3
There is no particular reason I am aware of that normal fermentations for extract vs. all-grain brews should be different. Perhaps some examples that you've noticed might help?
Fermentation time is mostly a function of yeast health, wort oxygenation levels, yeast pitch rate, the gravity of the beer, and temperature. While extract might generally have less ...
3
It could possibly be OK, but is it worth your time to make a beer just to find out whether you've saved $9? Chuck it.
3
If you have missed adding it to the boil rather than as bottling primer, then there is a fourth option.
You could boil up the DME in about a pint of water, and then add it to the fermenter. The yeast won't care that it wasn't there initially and will happily convert it into alcohol.
The beer should be drinkable regardless, just may be slightly unbalanced,...
3
All brewing extracts were boiled wort and achieved a hot break at some point and have been reduced to the extract by a couple methods. Generally like you would thicken a sauce by simmering.
That being said at packaging they should be sanitary. However there was a recall of extracts a couple months ago, that were infected and packages started to swell.
DMS ...
3
0.004 difference is also 1 Blg difference, to say it in units I know. That's pretty big here. At the same time, it's also pretty possible your fermentation has finished.
If in doubt, I would try fast fermentation test. Take generous amount of baker's yeast, fresh. Like, 1/5 cup. Fill the rest of cup with your beer, stir, put in dry warm place and wait a day ...
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