Light Australian Ale

Light Australian Ale Mini Mash

What you need

· 1x Morgans Extra Pale Liquid Malt Extract 1.5kg

· 1.5kg Australian Pilsner malt grain

· 150g Carapils malt grain

· 300g Dextrose

· 18g Pride of Ringwood hop pellets (60 minute boil)

· 10g Hallertau hop pellets (Flavour) (15 minute boil)

· 10g Hallertau hop pellets (Aroma) (0 minute boil)

· 1x Whirlfloc tablet

· 5-10 l fridge cold water

· Sachet of Saflager S23 yeast

Equipment

· Small Esky, about 8 litre capacity

· Thermometer

· Large cooking pot (at least 10 litre capacity)

· Strainer

How to Do it

· Pre-Heat the Esky with 2 litres of boiling water for 10 minutes.

· Heat 4.5 litres of water to about 70 degrees. This is the strike water.

· Place the cracked grain in the esky and add the strike water. You are aiming for a mash temperature of 65 degrees. Add a little hot or cold water as required to achieve the desired temperature. The grain should be contained inside a mash-bag to ensure all the grain remains submerged in the water.

· Seal the Esky and mash the grain for a period of 60 minutes - that means, just let it sit in the esky for the next hour. This is a good time for a refreshing beer.

· After the hour, add 1litre of near boiling water to the esky, mix well and reseal the esky and leave for ten minutes. This is "mash-out".

· Drain contents of your esky into a large pot through a strainer. Put the mash bag in the strainer to drain.

· Return the mash bag to the Esky and add 4.5 litres of sparge water at 72-75 degrees and mix well.

· Drain the Esky into the pot through the strainer and put the mash-bag in the strainer to drain.

· Bring the liquid (wort) in the pot to boil. Keep an eye on the boil, the pot will boil over the minute you get distracted!

· When the wort begins to boil, add the Pride of Ringwood hops and start the timer; the wort needs to boil for 60 minutes.

· After 45 minutes of boiling, add the whirlfloc tablet and the first 10g of Hallertau hop pellets.

· Boil for remaining 15 minutes then remove the heat from the pot and add the final 10g of Hallertau hop pellets.

· Add the dextrose and Morgans Liquid Malt extract to the pot and mix well into the hot wort.

· Pour the contents of the pot into your fermentor and add the cold water. Top up to 22 litres. You need to get the overall temperature down to 20-25 degrees. Add refrigerated water as necessary.

· Pitch the yeast, seal the fermentor and ferment as cool as possible, ideally around 12-14 degrees.