Hello! I am a long time reader and a first time poster. I do partial mash brews, and during my last brew I added my DME fairly late (at 30 min. out of a 90 min. boil). My purpose for doing late extract additions in general is to minimize Maillard reactions and get more style-appropriate colors.
I added my DME at 30 min. because my process prior to this was to add my DME as I begin my boil, take a gravity reading, do the gravity correction equation, adjust if necessary, and continue. I chose 30 min. as the time because I figured I would need that time to do my gravity correction. Sure enough, I found that trying to add pounds and pounds of DME, dissolve, take a reading, do gravity correction math, weigh more DME, etc. was too hectic to do within the last 30 min., especially while juggling late hops additions, getting everything prepped and sanitized, etc.
On to my questions!
1) Does anyone see a problem with using a gravity correction equation to calculate the total DME I would add to my brew? Basically this would mean taking a gravity reading after I'm done with my grains to see how much good stuff I got out of them, then plugging THAT number into my equation to determine 100% of the DME I would need at flameout to hit target gravity.
2) To date I've been hand-writing recipes using research on styles for grain/hops bills and OGs instead of using a program like BeerSmith. Would gravity correction be less of an issue if I just bit the bullet and got BeerSmith? I'm thinking I have to do this anyway because I can't calculate the increased hops utilization associated with late extract additions by hand...
Many thanks, and I hope to post/comment more on this wonderful forum!
I added my DME at 30 min. because my process prior to this was to add my DME as I begin my boil, take a gravity reading, do the gravity correction equation, adjust if necessary, and continue. I chose 30 min. as the time because I figured I would need that time to do my gravity correction. Sure enough, I found that trying to add pounds and pounds of DME, dissolve, take a reading, do gravity correction math, weigh more DME, etc. was too hectic to do within the last 30 min., especially while juggling late hops additions, getting everything prepped and sanitized, etc.
On to my questions!
1) Does anyone see a problem with using a gravity correction equation to calculate the total DME I would add to my brew? Basically this would mean taking a gravity reading after I'm done with my grains to see how much good stuff I got out of them, then plugging THAT number into my equation to determine 100% of the DME I would need at flameout to hit target gravity.
2) To date I've been hand-writing recipes using research on styles for grain/hops bills and OGs instead of using a program like BeerSmith. Would gravity correction be less of an issue if I just bit the bullet and got BeerSmith? I'm thinking I have to do this anyway because I can't calculate the increased hops utilization associated with late extract additions by hand...
Many thanks, and I hope to post/comment more on this wonderful forum!