Dennis1979

Recipes 

So far, all my brewing has been with extract and specialty grains for steeping. I have read a few posts where the idea was presented that the addition of the extract doesn’t necessarily have to be at the beginning of the boil but perhaps later, or half at the front end and half at the back end. Can you guys give some input on that?

What does boiling do to the extract? If there is no physical change to the extract during the boil then I can see where adding it late might be good from the standpoint of not overcooking it or cooking off its flavors.

Dennis

__________________
Let me eat when I'm hungry, let me drink when I'm dry
Two dollars when I'm hard up, religion when I die
The whole world is a bottle, and life is but a dram
When the bottle gets empty, Lord, it sure ain't worth a damn

reim0027

Recipes 

Adding the extract later reduces caramelization of the exctact. The goal is to have a lighter colored beer and to reduce the "extract twang". Also, having less extract during your boil will increase the hops utilization (increased isomerization of the hops leading to more bitterness). That last point may be desired, or if not desired, then corrections made to the bittering hops amount or boiling length.

__________________
"Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof." ~V

jldc

Recipes 

two reasons:

Hops usage is more efficient with less concentrated wort. This means you can use less hops and get the same bittering.

Less caramelization of the wort so it will stay a lighter color.

jmiracle

Recipes 

The only thing that needs to happen to the extract is it needs to be sanitized, boiling for 5 minutes would do that. The longer extract is boiled the darker it gets, so the late extract method is frequently recommended to get a closer-to-style color especially for lighter beers.

Apparently if the chemicals in hops are extracted in just boiling water rather than boiling wort, the taste becomes very harsh and vegetal, which is why you don't just boil hops and water for 55 minutes and add the extract in the last five. It needs some malt in there to make it taste right. Most people just split the extract in half and add half at the beginning and half in the last 15.

__________________
Primary: Hefe
Primary 2: Air
Secondary: Air
Bottled & carbing: Nothin
drinking: Poet on Payday Wee Heavy
gone but not forgotten: Wilford (Oatmeal Stout) Samhain Surprise Porter, J's Mirac-Ale (Brown Ale), Altered Beast Ale (German Alt), Chucks Not Ballys Cali Common, S'Wheat (Honey Weizen), NIHs (Numerous Identical Hefes), Wittler Farms Maple Brown, Failed Experimental Yarrow Beer, O'Mega Red (Irish Red)

Dennis1979

Recipes 

Ok, so if I do this, say add half at the beginning and half in the last 15 minutes, do I need to adjust my overall boil time for the hops? And if so, how do I figure out what the adjusted boil time should be? I know that's probably an easy adjustment for you experienced guys but I'm still a noob.

Dennis

__________________
Let me eat when I'm hungry, let me drink when I'm dry
Two dollars when I'm hard up, religion when I die
The whole world is a bottle, and life is but a dram
When the bottle gets empty, Lord, it sure ain't worth a damn

jmiracle

Recipes 

I personally don't adjust anything like that. The way I heard it explained that was nice for me was on a basic brewing radio podcast: Basic Brewing? : Home Brewing Beer Podcast and DVD - Basic Brewing Radio? 2006 It's the August 17th, 2006 one on this page, it's Chris Colby from BYO magazine talking about how you can get the best out of extract. He said basically you're making a double strength wort since you're usually boiling 2.5 gallons and adding about 2.5 gallons. So all you're doing with adding half at the beginning and half near the end is getting it pretty close to boiling the hops at the normal wort gravity. I doubt that the increase in extraction you get is going to throw your beers out of whack.

That being said if you do want to make those kind of adjustments I'm very happy with ProMash, which lets you do it under the "Hop IBUs" button by adjusting boil volume and wort gravity.

__________________
Primary: Hefe
Primary 2: Air
Secondary: Air
Bottled & carbing: Nothin
drinking: Poet on Payday Wee Heavy
gone but not forgotten: Wilford (Oatmeal Stout) Samhain Surprise Porter, J's Mirac-Ale (Brown Ale), Altered Beast Ale (German Alt), Chucks Not Ballys Cali Common, S'Wheat (Honey Weizen), NIHs (Numerous Identical Hefes), Wittler Farms Maple Brown, Failed Experimental Yarrow Beer, O'Mega Red (Irish Red)

Rhymenoceros

Recipes 

One thing I've always wondered about late extract additions: it takes a wile for my stove to get a boil going, and every one says take the kettle off the heat to add extracts, but when I do it takes a good 10 minutes to bring the water back up to boil, how do I do the timing then, stop the clock when I take it off the heat, or keep the boil time running even though its not boiling while and a bit after I add the extract?

__________________
Bass Clef Brewery

Drank: Amber Ale
Drank: Nessy's 80 Shilling Ale
Bottled: Yellow Paddle Pale ale
Bottled: Ed Wort's Apfelwein
Primary: William Henry Harrison Cider
Planning: Cheese's Vanilla Caramel Cream Ale

Bob

Recipes 

That's why I don't bother timing the late addition. Removing the pot from the boil, stirring in the extract, bringing it back to the boil, and boiling five minutes is really much ado about nothing.

If you add the remaining extract at flameout, you'll be fine. If you're not using an immersion or plate chiller, that is. By the time your ice-in-the-sink chilling method gets the wort below sanitation temperature, sufficient time will have passed to ensure sanitation has taken place.

Cheers,

Bob

__________________
http://www.reconstructinghistory.com

Nurmey

Recipes 

We recently brewed an AHS extract kit at a friend's house and the instructions were not only written for late extract addition but they had the balance added at flameout. It then said to leave the wort for 10 minutes (to sanitize malt) before chilling. We did it and it worked just fine.

__________________
Batch 1 Brewing
The American Revolution would never have happened with gun control.

Edcculus

Recipes 

Everyone is right, except prolonged boiling of wort doesn't cause caramelization. Its Maillard reactions that cause the wort to darken.