Adding Extract at end of the boil

I'm looking for new recipe and have looked at several styles. A couple of them said to had half or most extract at the beginning of the boil and then add the rest 30 minutes or 15 minutes from the end of the boil.

My question is why? What are the benefits of adding extract toward the end of the boil. One specific recipe was an Irish Red, the other, a stout.

lighter color, and supposedly less extract 'twang'. its supposed to improve hop utilization too, but thats kinda up for debate

As mentioned above ^^^^^ plus when I did extracts adding 1/2 near the end gave me a little more wiggle room in the pot with the hot break since some of the volume had boiled off. Cheers!!!

one of the greatest benefits to not adding all of the extract at the beginning of the boil is to retain as much of the proteins that aid in body and head. i've recently made the mistake (for me at least) of boiling all the extract for the whole hour, i had the usual hot break(s) with boil-over(s). the end product was a headless, coke/pepsi-looking, porter.
you can boil all of the extract for the duration specified if you want, late addition can be annoying when you have to wait for the wort to boil again essentially extending the 60 mins to more like 70 or 80 depending on if you add with 15 or 10 minutes left.
IMHO late addition is very worth it, every beer i've done that way has always had spectacular head retention and full body.
check out this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f37/fizzy-beer-no-head-219847/

happy brewing!!

OK, I'll try that my next brew! Thanks all!

Yep, I usually add 1/3-1/2 my extract right at the end of the boil. Never had a problem. Definitely helps with hop utilization, and color. Hadn't thought about the head retention help, but I can see how that might be.
Cheers.

I too enjoy the benefits of a late addition.

Just be sure to account for the difference in hop utilization. Utilization is dependent on the gravity of the boiling wort, so your pre-addition boil will utilize differently than your post-addition boil.

You can use some brewing software to help calculate the differences or check out some hop ultilization charts online. Palmer has a utilization formula in "How to Brew" and Papazian has a few charts in his book as well.

When adding the ME towards the end of the boil, do you add on extra time at the end since you take the pot off of the heat and it takes a minute or two to bring it back up to boil to reach 60 minutes on the boil?

nefarious_1_ said:

I too enjoy the benefits of a late addition.

Just be sure to account for the difference in hop utilization. Utilization is dependent on the gravity of the boiling wort, so your pre-addition boil will utilize differently than your post-addition boil.

You can use some brewing software to help calculate the differences or check out some hop ultilization charts online. Palmer has a utilization formula in "How to Brew" and Papazian has a few charts in his book as well.

Click to expand...

this is currently up for debate on this forum and among the 'scholars' such as Palmer, Jamil, and Papazian. it may have to do with gravity of wort but it may also have nothing to do with that and entirely have to do with boil time to get the hop oil isomerized. check this thread out: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f37/hop-utilization-vs-adding-lme-late-247665/