Preboil hop steep?

There are different methods to extract brewing. The way I did it, before moving to all-grain, was to:

1. Steep grains, then remove. (You would be adding fwh and water after this point)
2. Bring water to a boil.
3. Turn off burner (or with an electric remove from burner as well)
4. Wait 2 min, stir in LME or DME slowly while stirring
5. When it seemed all the LME or DME had dissolved return to heat.
6. When wort started to boil, add hops as scheduled.

Just to make certain, where is your water coming from?

EDIT: Also how are you cooling the wort?

 

Good point John, how are you cooling? If using ice on a full boil and no wort-chiller, you'll need at LOT of ice, probably 30-40 lbs minimum, but for a full boil, what you really need is a wort chiller.

 

Sounds like you are well on your way to brewing a first successful beer. First Wort Hopping is the least of your worries though and can be done several different ways. Essentially it is your bittering charge (if left in). Hops are put in before your wort comes to a full boil (with dubious significnt differences to just adding when the wort comes to a boil). I FWH most of my brews simply because it is easier to remember...and if you do forget, you can still add them at full-boil with very little difference. Did the recipe call for FWHing?

Good luck...cheers

 

yes it does call for fwh'ing. I suppose I could calculate the AAU difference and hop at the beginning of the boil but I've read that fwh is a good way of smoothing out the bitterness.

 

The water i'm using is from lake michigan I suppose,and has been treated. It has good flavor, no heavy metals or well water taste to it. I haven't tested the ph of the water but I might before I brew.

I wasn't planning on using a wort chiller (since I don't have one yet) but I was planning on an ice bath, and also freezing a a bunch of plastic bottles with water in them as well. Also I plan on using a yeast starter to make sure the yeast is healthy and ready to pitch.

 

Well, I guarantee they chlorinate the water then, and if they use chloramine to treat the water you'll need to add half a campden tablet to remove it.

The chlorine can be removed simply by leaving the water out over-night...without the lid to the pot on.

 

Not sure about your set up but this works well for me.

Heat water in a smaller pot on the stove 1/2 - 1 gallon of water per pound of steeping grains. When the water hits 160 pull from the burner and add steeping grains in a steeping bag. Let sit for 30 minutes.

I takes me around 20 minutes to get 5 gallons of water boiling so I start my main kettle when my steeping grains have 20 minutes left. I do leave out around 1/2 gallon of water to use to wash the steeping grains.

After 20 minutes the grains are done steeping and the rest of the water is starting to boil. Pull the steeping grains out of the small pot and rinse the bag with the left over water to get as much of flavor into the small pot (do not squeeze the bag). Add the steeped water to the main kettle. I use a strainer for this but not sure that it is necessary.

Let your main kettle come back to a boil and cut the heat. At this point I add my extract and stir until it is all the way disolved. Start the heat again and once it starts boiling I add my first hop addition and start my clock.

The majority of extract I use is DME so I add it all at the beginning. If I am using some LME I will usually add it with 20 minutes left in the boil. If this is the case I cut the heat again and pause the clock before I add it. Once it is stirred in well I start the heat again. Once it starts boiling restart the clock. If it is an all LME receipe I would probably add half at the beginning and half with 20 minutes left. The only time I will add DME later in the boil is if the receipe is too big for my kettle and I am afraid it might boil over.

 

10% bump in ibus I believe is Denny Conn's rule of thumb for first wort hops compared to 60 minute bittering addition.
http://byo.com/stories/issue/item/2958-pre-boil-hopping

 

good call on the chlorine, I'm sure that's probably in the water. I'll have to find out about the chloramine though.

 

Do you have any brewing software, yet? If you don't, that would be my first purchase (along with a wort chiller).
BTW, I've seen big differences in FWHing IBU calculations among different calculators though.

 

If you want to brew an ipa for example that has a smooth bitterness hop bursting is the way to go. A lot of ipa recipes will have you add 1 or more ounces at the beginning of the boil. With hop bursting you would add less at the beginning and a lot at the end. The apa ipa receipe is a good example of hop bursting.

http://beeradvocate.com/community/t...rfect-american-ipa-project-the-recipes.74647/

 

FWIW, Campden Tablets will remove Chlorine as well as Chloramines.

 

I'll have to look into brewing software, and I'll probably be getting a wort chiller too just not right away, probably soon though.

 

that's kind of the idea, the fwh addition for this one calls for only .75 oz at the beginning but late hop additions at 15, 10, 5 and 1 minute of the boil. Plus dry hopping after primary as well.

 

Not trying to bust your balls, but I thought you said "2 oz whole leaf" in your original post? Are you talking about the Pliny clone here or maybe your next batch? Be sure to consider your IBU to OG/GU ratio when you start formulating your own recipes. Cheers again

 

Wait for active fermentation to stop and then add the dry hops. I like to leave all of my beers in primary for 3 weeks minimum. My ipa schedule is 2 weeks in the primary. After 2 weeks add the dry hops directly to the primary for 7 days and then bottle. If I wanted to dry hop for ten days I would add them after 1 - 1/2 weeks in the primary. No secondary needed unless your primary is also used as your bottling bucket.

I expect 5-6 weeks before really starting to drink my ipas. 3 weeks primary and 2-3 weeks bottle conditioning. I will usually try one after two weeks. If I think it needs longer I'll leave it one more week at room temp. After that I try to fit as many as I can in the fridge until they are consumed. What I can't fit I try to store in the coolest area of my house.

 

I didn't create this thread, I searched for something along the lines of fwh and came up with this thread. It must've been someone else who was asking about that.

Edit: this is my first batch ever and it's not a pliny clone. That's a pretty big beer for a first brew I wouldn't try to tackle something that big right away. My brew is a apa/ipa that should end up right around 6 % or so.

 

My bad...but the gouge on FWH and IBU/ GU ratio remains the same...cheers to you, too.

 

No worries, thanks for your input though I'll have to keep in mind calculating the ibus

 

So you want him to mash the grains then?