![\"eamber-ingredients\"](\"http:\/\/brewitright.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/eamber-ingredients.jpg\")
<\/a>Why not go simple again and just brew a straight-up extract beer? Using nothing but what a beginning brewer would use?\u00a0 Of course!<\/p>\nThe Recipe<\/strong><\/p>\n This is closely based off Northern Brewer’s American Amber<\/a> recipe with substitutions for stuff we had on hand.\u00a0 Instead of using two 3.15lb jugs of Amber malt extract ($10 each) we bought one 6lb jug ($18) and used a bag of DME we already had.\u00a0 For steeping grains we used some Crystal 10L we had on hand instead of the 20L from the NB recipe, and we added a bit of Thomas Fawcett amber malt because there’s a bunch lying around and we haven’t used it in a while.<\/p>\n Next, we used some Cascade leaf hops that we bought for $1\/oz a few weeks back from a guy who was selling them out of a cooler.\u00a0 He didn’t know the exact alpha acid but said it was “in the low 3s” so we guessed 3.2% and called it a day.<\/p>\n We stuck to using only tools that extract brewers would typically have on-hand, which means no pH meter, no refractometer, no counter-flow chiller, no brewing salts, no yeast nutrient, no oxygenation, and no fermentation temperature control.<\/p>\n The Brew<\/strong><\/p>\n Whenever adding extract, always turn off the heat and add it slowly, stirring constantly<\/span> to avoid scorching the extract.\u00a0 Since liquid extract is heavier than water, it will sink down to the bottom where all the heat is, caramelize, and possibly burn, making awful beer.<\/p>\n Once the boil is done the hot wort must be chilled down to yeast pitching temperature below 80\u00b0F and lower if you can.\u00a0 So grab your immersion chiller (if you have one) and hook it up to your laundry sink or garden hose and chill away.\u00a0 If you stir with a sanitized spoon it’ll chill faster and you won’t waste so much water.\u00a0 If you’re doing a partial boil, one trick is to chill down to 80\u00b0F and then top up to 5 gallons with cold water, which should bring the temperature down below 70\u00b0F.\u00a0 Then pitch your yeast.<\/p>\n After pitching make sure that the beer has cooled further down to 65\u00b0F within 8 or 12 hours by sticking it in a cool place like a basement or closet, or putting the carboy into an actively cooled fermentation chamber if you have one.\u00a0 Letting the temperature stay too high can produce off-flavors, and fermentation actually raises the temperature a few degrees.\u00a0 Keep it below 70\u00b0F; 66\u00b0F is even better.\u00a0 Of course, this all depends on your specific yeast too.<\/p>\n We didn’t bother measuring the original gravity, since malt extracts have a well-known gravity potential and we were lazy.\u00a0 The Amber malt syrup has a potential of 1.036 Points-Per-Gallon (per pound) and the dry extract has a potential of 1.043 PPG.\u00a0 This adds up to (6lbs x 36) + (1lb x 43) = 259 total gravity points.\u00a0 Divide that by 5 gallons and we get an Original Gravity of 1.052.\u00a0 The steeping grains don’t contribute enough gravity points to count.<\/p>\n The Fermentation<\/strong><\/p>\n We cheated a bit and fermented in a keg, which most extract brewers probably don’t do.\u00a0 Our keg was filled close to the top, and since we were only using what a beginning extract brewer would use, we opted to skip Fermcap S for fermentation foam control.\u00a0 This meant that we got some great blow-off after 2 days as yeast and krausen filled the air lock.\u00a0 But that’s a good sign.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We last brewed an extract beer on December 5th, 2012, an English Bitter with left-over malt syrup and some year-old Munton’s yeast.\u00a0 Since then we’ve brewed 45 all-grain batches on both our large and small electric breweries, some using up to 52lbs of grain, a hopback, fresh hops, first-wort hopping, whirlpooling, continuous hop additions, a … Continue reading Extract Throwback – American Amber<\/span> Name: American Amber (Extract)\r\nBatch size: 5 gallons\r\nExpected OG: 1.052\r\nExpected FG: 1.012\r\nExpected IBU: 30\r\n\r\n6.0 lbs Amber malt syrup (1\/2 late addition)\r\n1.0 lb Briess Golden Light dry malt extract (late addition)\r\n1.0 lb Briess C10L (steeping)\r\n0.5 lb Thomas Fawcett Amber (steeping)\r\n\r\n2.0 oz Cascade (leaf) 3.2% AA @ 60m\r\n1.0 oz Cascade (leaf) 3.2% AA @ 10m\r\n Whirlfloc @ 10m\r\n1.0 oz Cascade (leaf) 3.2% AA @ 5m\r\n\r\n1 pack Safale S-05 dry yeast<\/pre>\n
<\/a>The first step in a normal extract brewing process is to heat as much water as your stove can handle to about 150\u00b0F for steeping grains.\u00a0 If your stove can do a full boil (~6.5 gallons) then great!\u00a0 We haven’t yet found one that can, so we chose to do a partial boil of about 3 gallons.\u00a0 Once it’s at steeping temperature, put your milled grain into a grain bag and drop it in, letting it steep for about half an hour.<\/p>\n<\/a>Then pull the grain bag out, toss it into a colander, and press to get as much worty liquid out of it as you can.\u00a0 Add that back to the kettle and heat it all up to a boil.\u00a0 Once it’s boiling, add half of the malt extract, and then rest near the end just to sanitize it.\u00a0 This is done because as the extract boils it darkens, so adding the rest of the extract at the end keeps the beer within the desired color range.\u00a0 Late extract addition is more important for lighter colored beers like pilsners, lagers, and pale ales, but since we’re just following the recipe we’ll do it too.<\/p>\n<\/a>Now that the wort is boiling, add your hops according to the schedule.\u00a0 If you’re using pellet hops you’ll definitely want a hop sock<\/a>, but since we were using leaf hops we just threw them in and fished them out later with a strainer.<\/p>\n<\/a>