I Brewed this Yesterday,added all my stuff but never so much as even got a subtle hint of "Smoke" like I had hoped.Took my Original Gravity which was 1070,put a Blow-off hose on it.Just wondered why there was not any hints of Smoke like hoped? I think advertised ABV is 6.1 on the box,but my Orginal gravity is more than on the box which I is 1064.Made a 5 gallon batch!
With an extract kit, if you got a gravity significantly higher than the recipe called for, either the kit's designer screwed up (unlikely), or one of these things happned... - You ended up with less than the intended volume of wort. - You topped off a partial boil with water, but didn't mix it thoroughly before taking the hydrometer sample. - Measurement error. I have no idea why you didn't get the smoke you wanted. BTW, hopefully the kit instructions for your "steeping" grains actually gave you the parameters for a mash, because your cherrywood smoked malt has starches and the enzynes needed to convert them to sugars/dextrins. It's not a steeping grain per se.
I went back and looked at the instructions and I did the brewing just as mentioned,it called for total of 5 gallons,1070 was my reading and it says it should be 1064 not that much less,but we stirred it a lot,or very regular but the brewing wort smelled just like all the beers we have brewed pretty much. On the Steeping the grains it says up to 6.0 gallons but at top of Instruction paper it says 5 gal batch.
The smoke will probably appear more clearly in the finished beer once all of the heavy wort aroma had been knocked down.
NeroFiddled,I just thought about that earlier,glad you mentioned that!! Thanks to VikeMan also for your response,Hope you both have a great day!! Larry
Smoke may fade with age of the malt, although I have seen conflicting reports about whether this is likely to be noticeable. If the malt is loaded to the kit crushed and it sits on the shelf, maybe it becomes more relevant but I have no idea if that would be the practice at MW/NB. FWIW, I brewed a 3 gallon smoked schwazbier with Briess cherrywood malt about 5 years ago. I submitted it to a competition and it scored mid 30s. I used 1 lb in 3 gallons, and you are using 1 lb in 5 gallons. Your level of smoke is likely to be lighter than mine. Both judges of my beer found the smoke to be too light (I thought it was perfect). If you are looking for deep smoke, you didn't use enough smoke malt, based on my experience.
Goeff Larson suggests the smoke in malt fades about 10% per year. (Uncrushed and in Alaska)?? I tend to smoke the bejesus out of my malts and hope they go farther and last longer this way. I won't use more that 20% in my bill and it's a wallop. I'll probably bottle these batches from now on. They're really tasty fresh. They're really tasty after 3 years.
You might want to test your hydrometer in distilled/RO water at the specified temperature. I found out mine reads .005 high! Now I just subtract 5 points from all of my measurements.
I'd read up on how my hydrometer was calibrated. I think most are at 59F with distilled water reading 1.000. Some are calibrated to a more modern 68F. I'd also whip up a mix of 10g:100ml of DME. This should get you close to 1.040 with most DME. If it doesn't. We've got a problem. When you calibrate a thermometer it's always with a ton of ice in water and with boiling water. You should hit 32F with the ice water. It'll take a few minutes. You should hit 212F with boiling, unless you're in Denver. More than one set point for calibration is a great thing to have. Since you're making 1.040 wort for your starters, you may as well. @Larry82052 You too, bud.
Most 5 gallon batches are 5.5 gallons in to the fermenter. That way after trub loss you have 5 gallons of finished beer. That could explain your difference.
BeerBaron I will start adding another half gallon of water,and guys I will check my reading on my Hydrometer with distilled water,thanks!! Larry
I'm not sure if I would start adding any extra water to your batches. Just use the amount the instructions call for, as you won't hit the targets if you use an amount of water other that specified. I've only brewed two extract kits in my life, but when I design my own recipes, I account for losses. That means that one batch I may aim for 5.5 gallons out of the kettle, but the next I may aim for 6 gallons to account for the absorption of a bunch of leaf hops. TL;DR: Follow the instructions carefully if you're worried about hitting their target gravities.
This. You're shooting for a gravity. You get you're volume by proper planning and knowing your system and ingredients. I don't shoot for 5.5 gallons, I shoot for a gravity and can usually get 5.5 gallons by planning.
