added malts before bringing to boil

Hey guys, I haven't been on here in a long time. Kinda had to take a break from drinking and brewing. had a newborn daughter, work all time and those such things but im back at it now. last night i brewed a ferocious ipa kit from midwest and i steeped my grains and my steeping went great but instead of bringing to a boil after steep then pulling the pot off the eye and adding the malt extract i added it right after the steep. the way i was understanding my directions is i was to bring to a boil pull of the heat and then add. is this going to effect the taste of my beer or how my beer turns out? after this i did bring to a boil and added my bittering hops and all my hop editions throughout so that went good. just conscerned. so let me know from your guys experience if im gonna be alright or not. thanks in advance guys!

I believe turning off the heat is to avoid scorching LME which tends to sink to the bottom before it gets completely mixed in.. So, as long as it didn't get scorched, it shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks man. That reassures me. It's so stressful when you do big beers like this one and you think you've messes them up after all the time and money you've put into them.

If doing partial boils (not the full batch size) just use 1/3 to 1/2 the extract at the beginning of the boil and add the remainder during the last few minutes...just take it off the heat when adding the remainder. This wll greatly reduce the Maillard reactions which cause the darkening of wort.

yea it was 6.6lbs gold lme and 3.3lbs amber. yea my wort was rather dark. I wish they would explain those kits better and where i messed up i had no scorching but i added it all at the beggining right after the steep and before i brought it to a boil. it seemed to all dissolve well though.

It's interesting the different opinions. The two MWS kits I've done so far both say to add all LME/DME at the beginning of the boil, after steeping the grains. Next batch I'm going to mix it up a bit with some of the suggestions I've read, like add some of the LME or DME before steeping grains, then add the bulk of LME more towards the end of the boil rather than at the beginning.

I know this may sound dumb but I'm a newb what is mailard reaction?And do you think my beer may not turn out right and have off flavors?

brewtus72 said:

I know this may sound dumb but I'm a newb what is mailard reaction?And do you think my beer may not turn out right and have off flavors?

Click to expand...

In a nutshell it is responsible for browning.

For more reading: Maillard reaction

are these mailard reactions going to effect my flavors of the ipa? I stirred vigorously during all the LME addition even though i did it all at the beggining of the boil. I stirred until it came to a boil as well. Everything else went great. the beer was darker than expected. does doing this at the beggining always cause off flavors. will this be a good beer or do you think i will not get the best results because of this? i am really worried. I worked hard and took all the other steps correctly except i pitched yeast at about 75 which was a little high. i had fermentation with in 6 hour and now a 3 o'clock today today i have very vigorous fermentation. help me out guys let me know your thoughts i am stressing now lol. thanks

Here's my take...

Doing full boil on the LME/DME seems to be SOP for their kit instructions from what I've seen.

I like to think MWS knows a thing or two about brewing. Are there better ways? Maybe or maybe even perhaps. But, I can't imagine they'd be big as they are and the kits generally pretty well reviewed if their instructions were causing bad beer by boiling the LME/DME.

Does a piece of toast taste differently than the same piece of bread untoasted? Yep... Is your beer ruined? Nope... RDWHAHB...

My first batch I added all of the LME at the beginning of the boil. It was darker than I expected, but it still tasted great. Subsequent batches I have added only 1/3 of the LME at the beginning of the boil and the rest at flame out. The color was closer to what I expected, still tasted great. Try it on your next batch and see if you like the late addition method better. Seems to work well for a lot of people.

yea this is true. i have seen rave reviews on there for this beer too and everyone said they followed the directions too the T. so im thinking i will be ok. just may not be as light of an ipa as you would like but as long as it tastes good thats what matters too me. What do you think of dry hopping with all casecade instead of the hops they send for it. because i like the more fruity citrusy hop smell/taste instead of the earthy spicy hops which is the kinda hops they sent for the dry hopping?

I'd follow the recipe to the letter if it's your first time brewing this beer, but that's just me. If you decide to brew it again, then start making changes.

that's true you are probably right on that. guess go with the original this time then if i wanna try some new tricks just do it next batch.

Not sure about dry hopping with something different, but I guess if the something different has the qualities you want I'd go for it...just knowing though that you then won't have the beer you started out making.

Myself, my batch of MWS Amarillo Pale Ale should be just about done fermenting. It doesn't call for dry hopping, but I'm going to leave it sit on the cake for another week or two then dry hop it with 1/2 oz or 1 oz of Citra leaf.

yea in think dry hopping is necessary for pa and ipa's jmo. I think that is what gives them the best nose and flavor. yea i know im afraid to change it but i love cascade hops for the grapefruit and citrus so idk i may not and i may just add like a 1/2oz in with the rest of the hops. idk yet

it calls for 1oz ahatnum which is a sub for cascade and 1oz amarillo, 1oz simcoe so im going too substitute cascade for the ahatnum and amarillo and due 2oz cascade 1oz simcoe for my dry hop. i think this will yield the best flavor for me since im a big west coast ipa fan of the citrusy grapefruit flavors and smell