Greetings once more,
I cooked my first all DME (Briess Golden Light extract) brew this weekend.
incidentally i received the 50 lbs of DME in a large brown paper bag and immediately transferred it into two new five gallon pails with tight lids.
the recipe - a coffee porter - called for 7 lbs. of DME. following John Palmers "How to brew" book advice i steeped my grains removed them than brought the solution to a boil and immediately turned off the flame and began stirring in the dry extract (i had almost four gallons of liquid). I used a giant wisk to break the large chunks of extract down... it took time and the stuff really added volume to my liquid raising the level a good bit. the foam (lots of it) came very near the top of my six gallon kettle. I stirred a good bit longer and the foam didn't subside so i lite the propane burner to reestablish a boil... using a large spray bottle of water i sprayed like mad on the mounting foam. i raked my spoon across the top trying to find liquid as the foam rose and spilled over the sides.
i reckon i lost about a quart of foam. then finally i saw dark liquid surface and the foam subsided.
if anybody has been thru this DME boil over dilemma maybe they have some thoughts on how to stop a boil over. i don't feel like getting an expensive larger pot at this time. maybe a larger volume of spray on water would help. it was really a very close thing and quite nerve racking.
continuing the boil things proceed well with no further incidents.
i cooled the wort with my cooler and proceeded to carboy the brew. added oxygen via bottle, shook the bejesus out of the wort and pitched Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale.
my OG was 1.076
since this is the highest OG i've ever gotten and based upon my limited but growing understanding of the fermentation process. can anyone suggest how long i should primary (usually two weeks for me) then secondary this brew? as i understand it there are three phases of fermentation Adaptive, Attenuative and Conditioning. i suppose the conditioning phase takes place in the secondary carboy. i usually transfer too the secondary after two weeks to get the brew off the trub. i made exactly 5 gallons and will transfer this into a 5 gallon glass carboy to reduce the headspace.
i've read that higher gravity beers (and i'm not suggesting that mine is especially high - tho it's the highest i've ever made) have certain inherent problems and i'm not sure what i need to be careful of. notably higher gravity beers i've read need longer conditioning time...
but how much? 4 weeks? 6 weeks?
in the carboy or in the keg/bottle
i keg all my beer in corny kegs.
but have some snap on style bottles for filling and conditioning better beers for longer periods.
thanks for bearing with this windy post and for any comments or suggestions for a beginner.
tws
I cooked my first all DME (Briess Golden Light extract) brew this weekend.
incidentally i received the 50 lbs of DME in a large brown paper bag and immediately transferred it into two new five gallon pails with tight lids.
the recipe - a coffee porter - called for 7 lbs. of DME. following John Palmers "How to brew" book advice i steeped my grains removed them than brought the solution to a boil and immediately turned off the flame and began stirring in the dry extract (i had almost four gallons of liquid). I used a giant wisk to break the large chunks of extract down... it took time and the stuff really added volume to my liquid raising the level a good bit. the foam (lots of it) came very near the top of my six gallon kettle. I stirred a good bit longer and the foam didn't subside so i lite the propane burner to reestablish a boil... using a large spray bottle of water i sprayed like mad on the mounting foam. i raked my spoon across the top trying to find liquid as the foam rose and spilled over the sides.
i reckon i lost about a quart of foam. then finally i saw dark liquid surface and the foam subsided.
if anybody has been thru this DME boil over dilemma maybe they have some thoughts on how to stop a boil over. i don't feel like getting an expensive larger pot at this time. maybe a larger volume of spray on water would help. it was really a very close thing and quite nerve racking.
continuing the boil things proceed well with no further incidents.
i cooled the wort with my cooler and proceeded to carboy the brew. added oxygen via bottle, shook the bejesus out of the wort and pitched Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale.
my OG was 1.076
since this is the highest OG i've ever gotten and based upon my limited but growing understanding of the fermentation process. can anyone suggest how long i should primary (usually two weeks for me) then secondary this brew? as i understand it there are three phases of fermentation Adaptive, Attenuative and Conditioning. i suppose the conditioning phase takes place in the secondary carboy. i usually transfer too the secondary after two weeks to get the brew off the trub. i made exactly 5 gallons and will transfer this into a 5 gallon glass carboy to reduce the headspace.
i've read that higher gravity beers (and i'm not suggesting that mine is especially high - tho it's the highest i've ever made) have certain inherent problems and i'm not sure what i need to be careful of. notably higher gravity beers i've read need longer conditioning time...
but how much? 4 weeks? 6 weeks?
in the carboy or in the keg/bottle
i keg all my beer in corny kegs.
but have some snap on style bottles for filling and conditioning better beers for longer periods.
thanks for bearing with this windy post and for any comments or suggestions for a beginner.
tws