specialty grains and late DME addition help

Gonna brew an Aussie Ale kit that I picked up at my LHBS and after doing some reading on here I was thinking of trying something new.

5 lbs Light DME
1 lb crystal malts
3/4 oz Brewers gold bittering pellet hops
1/2 oz HallertaueG finishing whole hops
Safale US-05 dry Yeast

My usual method would be to steep the grains in a bag in 3 gal. water at ~152 for 20 min, bring to a boil add DME and add Hops per schedule using hop bag with a total boil time of 60 min.

This method has produced a good beer each time.

Now on my last batch I added ~1/2 the DME at the start and the remaining with 15 min left, followed hop schedule using hop bags. Beer is lighter in color and the sample I tried tasted great (will be kegging it Wed morning).

Now I was wondering about using less water to seep - seem that I have read that ~2 quarts per lb is the way to go. Not fully sure of the exact method of this and what the benefits are. and when is it best to add the 5lbs of light DME? Also some advocate not using hop bags as that helps?

I have been brewing for about 18 months and have made consistent extract batches but if I can step it up a notch it would be great.

For "premashed" specialty malts like crystal malt, you can steep in 2 quarts or 5 gallons, and will get the same effect, so I don't see any advantage to making it harder for yourself.

I don't use hops bags, or rather I didn't use them until I got a new system where whole hops plug up my pump. I still don't always use bags, and instead use a filtering setup in my boil kettle to catch the bigger chunks, but it doesn't matter either way. You can bag, but if you do make sure that the hops are very loose in the bag and the wort freely contacts all the hops. Use two bags if you need to (or more) so that they are not packed in a bag.

If I was making that beer, I'd steep my grains and then remove them. Bring the wort to a boil and add about half the DME. I like using about 1 pound of DME per gallon of wort boiled, more or less, and it gives great results. I don't sweat the exact amount- "about" works out fine. Then I'd add the rest of the extract at flame out and whisk it in well before chilling.

Yooper said:

For "premashed" specialty malts like crystal malt, you can steep in 2 quarts or 5 gallons, and will get the same effect, so I don't see any advantage to making it harder for yourself.

I don't use hops bags, or rather I didn't use them until I got a new system where whole hops plug up my pump. I still don't always use bags, and instead use a filtering setup in my boil kettle to catch the bigger chunks, but it doesn't matter either way. You can bag, but if you do make sure that the hops are very loose in the bag and the wort freely contacts all the hops. Use two bags if you need to (or more) so that they are not packed in a bag.

If I was making that beer, I'd steep my grains and then remove them. Bring the wort to a boil and add about half the DME. I like using about 1 pound of DME per gallon of wort boiled, more or less, and it gives great results. I don't sweat the exact amount- "about" works out fine. Then I'd add the rest of the extract at flame out and whisk it in well before chilling.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. The hop bags I have are large and the hops have plenty of room. Sounds like I have been on the right track. I'll try adding the remaining 1/2 of the DME at flame out this time.