Beer kit experiment round 2!

I made a great batch of beer with my last beer beer kit experiment,  you can access that post here 

I had a great idea of how I could do another experiment. I have done this experiment twice now, using a different type of hop each time, both beers came out with a different taste, meaning this is a great way to experiment with different hops and make different styles of beer, and best of all its very simple.

Storing Spray Malt

I buy my malt in 3 kilograms bags from a reputable company in Ireland.  I usually mash some crystal malt and speciality grains so a full 3 kilogram bag per batch is not required, unless I want a strong beer.

I usually like a session strength beer and aim for 4 - 4.5% abv, so I find using 2.7kg is sufficient for a 5 gallon batch. Storing spray malt can be tricky though. You can also add a couple of hundred grams of sugar and save a bit of malt, but slightly boost the strength to compensate. You really won't notice any difference in body over 2 or 3 hundred grams of cane sugar.

If you are mashing crystal malt, you can also reduce the spay malt even more as the crystal malt adds fermentable sugars to the wort.

Rhubarb Wine

This is a great recipe that I have made many years in a row.

I have a couple of rhubarb plants in my garden that I use to build up my supply of rhubarb. I pick, wash, and slice the stalks through the early months of the year. It is good practice to bag them up and freeze them until there is enough (after a few crumbles) to make a decent sized batch of wine.

I am making a 4 gallon batch here.  My recipe consists of the following ingredients per gallon:

Enhancing A Tinned Beer Kit Experiment

I consider myself in the home brewing world as an extract brewer. I mainly mash crystal malt with speciality grains and use dried spray malt and hops for the boils.  This method suits me down to the ground. I get a much higher quality of beer than the kits, and the variety of recipes to choose from is far and wide. However, I do occasionally brew kits, and there is no reason why the final product has to be of bad quality. So this brings me to my next experiment.

Single Hop Citra

This is a fantastic beer!

Very simple to make, and the results come out very similar to the old favourite award winning Oakham Ales Citra beer. This is a single hop beer, using one type of hop only.

The method to make this golden zesty beer is straightforward, the ingredients are as follows. You can follow my step by step extract guide located here to make this. If you want the beer a little stringer or weaker then just adjust the level of malt accordingly.

Bulk Priming and Bottling Your Beers

So you have made your beer and it's fully fermented out. Time to bottle it up.

This can be a messy, timely process and if you don't do it correctly then you can end up with with some bottles dangerously fizzy and some flat.  The method I use for priming is a bulk prime and will give consistently even results and is a lot quicker and more efficient.

You will need a decent beer syphon tube. I use one with a tap at one end and a length of solid tube with a sediment cup at the bottom to avoid sucking up too much trub. You will also need another fermenter bucket, empty bottles and bottle caps.

I would recommend using as little chemicals as possible. Despite being better for you, it will also cost you less and you are less likely to contaminate your beer with steriliser solution.

The Basic Simple Step By Step Of How I Brew Extract Beer

This is the full step by step method that I use for making my extract beers and ales. It is incredibly simple and a time and time again proven method. This will result in a bodied beer of around 4.5% by volume.

The method I use a involves only boiling a small volume of the wort and dried extract with the hops, and then adding the remaining extract after the boil.  I make batches of 23 litres (5 UK gallons), and my boil volume is 8 litres, which is roughly a third of the full volume.  This has 2 main advantages: