Hi all. Going to make my first attempt at brewing a 5 gallon extract batch on Monday. The Caribou Slobber directions say to steep the grains for 20 minutes until you reach 170 degrees. Is this correct or do I get the water to 170 and then add grains? Seems to me that time to reach 170 will be different for everyone depending on external factors (ambient temp, burner BTU’s, etc.).
Also, I am planning to steep the grains in 2.5 gallons then add the remaining water (cold) to the kettle to do a full boil. Any negatives to this you can think of? Or better recommendations…
Thanks all. Looking forward to many adventures ahead.
When i do extract brewing. I steep the grains in seperate kettle. Mean while got a 4 gallon water going in my boil kettle. Indeed steep the grains in 2.5 gall water. I do add the wort into the boil kettle now got 6.5 gal wort. Reason boil off. And do end up. With 5.5 gall wort at the end of 60 min. One thing you might want to do. Do a late adition of the lme. 1/2 lme begining the other 1/2. 40 min into the boil. So your beer wont be to dark. Mailard effect
Thanks Wilco,
I think I will try your suggestion re adding the lme late in the boil. Thanks!
What do you say about steeping grains? Should I get water to 170 before adding grains or steep grains until I hit 170?
I steep grains for an extract brew for about 20 to 30 minutes at around 150°F to 160°F in 2.5 gallons. My well water has a pH of 7.4. A pH over 6.0 can extract some tannins from the grain. I do this just as a safety factor even though the the amount of grains is small and the short time in the water at high temperature may not extract any noticeable amount of tannin.
I rinse the grains with a quart of water after the steep time is over. This will get some extra color and flavor from the grains.
For most of my dark beers I add all the extract at the beginning of the boil. Doing this with the CS recipe seems to bring out more complex flavors in the finished beer.
I’m getting my brew snacks ready during the steep time. No risk of a boil over during this time with the heat off.
Frank, thank you. I do like the idea of steeping with the burner off. Hmm…choices, choices. But that’s the fun!
What do your kit instructions say about wort temperature when pitching the yeast?
Some of the online kit instructions suggest a temperature of 78°F (or lower)
78°F probably too high.
Yea, I’m thinking more like 70
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I would ask, what grains are you steeping? Very dark, roasted grains will bring flavor and the dark color… Lighter grains bring some color and flavor along with sugar… Dark, you can do as Wilco says, put in a a different pan and let it slowly warm up…no more than 165. Then towards the end of the boil, add the liquid… Light malt… Steep for 1 hour, 150* then add the boil and allow to boil an hour… Sneezles61
I will have to look and see what grains come with the CS, Not home now to check. I’m guessing darker grains are involved since CS is a pretty dark brown ale.
I use WY 1332 for Caribou Slobber. The wort is usually about 58°F when I pitch the yeast. I use a temperature controlled aquarium heater to bring the wort up to 65°F. I let the fermentation go from there uncontrolled. Usually get a 3° to 4°F temperature rise during the most active part of the fermentation when the ambient temperature is 66° to 68°F… I’ll use the aquarium heater with a STC-1000 to hold the beer at the highest temperature reached during the active fermentation. I’ll keep the beer at this temperature until it is time for bottling. Final Gravity is usually reached within two weeks. The rest of the time in the primary before bottling is to let the beer clear. Total primary time is usually three weeks or a little longer sometimes.
WY 1332 is a highly flocculant English strain. The temperature of the beer will begin dropping after active fermentation tapers off. This can cause the yeast to begin dropping out stalling the fermentation. (A porter I brewed with WY 1332 finished fermenting in the bottles. The porter dropped from 1.014 to 1.007 over the next couple of months.).
I just looked at the instructions… There is C-80, so that will bring a limited amount of sugar… I would steep in 150* water for an hour… a little less won’t hurt, then add this to the rest of the wort… Start this process first as your preping the major piece of the brew… Sneezles61
Wow, thanks for all the info guys. My first post on this forum and I’m not disappointed. Great stuff to get me started. I’m sure I’ll be back with more questions. In the mean time, I’ll let yall know how it turned out in a few weeks.
Thanks again!
I try to keep my brew times down when doing extracts, so I bring the water to about 150-155 degrees F, then drop the muslin bag with the oats in there. Then I let it steep for 20 minutes, making sure to keep the temp around 155-160 (I try to never reach 170).
After 20 minutes, you have near 2.5 gallons of wort, take the bag out and throw it away. Then just do the boil schedule as instructed in the recipe. I do partial boils for extracts, so I don’t add any more water.
Update…I’m not sure why or how but I ran into some issues that I’m hoping I’ve resolved. First, my OG was low (1.046), I think I added too much water and didn’t get the boil off I was expecting. Second, my fermentation stopped at 1.016 which I’ve heard is normal for CS but it was way too sweet in my opinion so I decided to re-pitch. I waited another 4 days, re-tested and I was able to get it down to 1.012. And most importantly, the sweetness was much less noticeable. I’m in secondary now and it definitely needs to clarify as it is very cloudy but the flavor is definitely there. Any suggestions y’all have for me? Did I mess it up by re-pitching? Tips on clarifying?
Now you can be at room temp for a few days, do re-varify your test/sample. Then cold crash to 32… Try not to disturb it… Once it looks fairly clear, prepare your bottling bucket/keg and transfer quietly… Follow the head of the brew down and no swirling the racking cane around… then go to your next routine. Sneezles61
Caribou Slobber brewed with WY 1332 should finish at 1.008. Do you have yeast at the bottom of the secondary vessel? Warm your secondary to 70°F and rouse the yeast with a long spoon. It will be less likely to aerate/oxidize the beer with a long spoon, or comparable tool, than swirling the secondary. Maybe you can restart a fermentation. Check the SG again in another week from the time the beer has warmed and the yeast roused.
Later today I’ll start a new topic on my attenuation problems with WY 1332.
