Do pre-hopped LME kits benefit from boiling

I'm really new at this. I just put my second kit in the fermenter yesterday. I've been using Coopers pre-hopped LME kits.

The instructions for these kits say to just boil a couple litres of water, add the LME and some sugar, top off to 23 litres and away you go.

Would my beer benefit from boiling the wort before adding it to the fermenter?

chriscraig said:

I'm really new at this. I just put my second kit in the fermenter yesterday. I've been using Coopers pre-hopped LME kits.

The instructions for these kits say to just boil a couple litres of water, add the LME and some sugar, top off to 23 litres and away you go.

Would my beer benefit from boiling the wort before adding it to the fermenter?

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You could bring it to a boil and add some fresh aroma hops to make better beer, also skip the sugar and make it all fresh extract. FWIW, fresh ingredients always makes the better beer, pre-hopped extract is definately not fresh.

Keep on brewing my friends

Yeah, I did pass on the sugar and added Muntons Beer Enhancer. A mix of DME and dextrose.

We don't have much in the way of a LHBS here. Mostly we get a couple of shelves in wine stores, so it's hard to find DME. I'm in Atlantic Canada, so ordering online is expensive too.

My understanding is that the main reason we boil our wort is to sanitize it and most importantly, extract Alpha acids from hops to get their bitterness. Since your wort will already be prehopped, then you really do not need to do an extended boil.

While your risk of infection is rather low if you take the proper precautions, boiling your wort when it is all mixed would not go a miss. Even if you just bring it to a boil them flameout.

I'd say boil it for maybe 15 minutes just to stave off infection. Although snipper is right, the risk is pretty low. By the way, if you've never used one of these kits before, you will want to pre-warm the can in a pot of warm water before you pour the extract. It will make your life a lot easier when you try to pour out the extract.

JJL said:

I'd say boil it for maybe 15 minutes just to stave off infection. Although snipper is right, the risk is pretty low. By the way, if you've never used one of these kits before, you will want to pre-warm the can in a pot of warm water before you pour the extract. It will make your life a lot easier when you try to pour out the extract.

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Yes. I read about that before I started my first kit. It would have been a real pain to scrape out all the extract with a spoon.

Am I wrong in thinking that boiling pre-hopped extract would completely change the hop profile eliminating all the flavor and aroma hopping?

Yep, I mean nope, your not wrong. There is no need to boil the wort. Just boil a gallon of water, add the dex and the dme. Fill your carboy with 4 gallons of water either filtered or pre-boiled and cooled to room temp. Add the gallon of dex/dme and the pre-hopped extract. I pre-boil an extra 2 cups of water and let it cool to 80 degrees and pitch the yeast to get it started. Then add that to the mix after about 10 min so its nice and hydrated.

If you boil pre-hopped wort, it can throw it off. Pre-hopped kits are pretty simple. Just remember your not really "making" beer. Unless you call making orange juice from a frozen can of concentrate "making" orange juice.

I think its more of a sanitatry thing. I do kit Pilsner as a filler beer if I know that there will be heavy consumption on the horizon. That way I don't have to use all my good beer! If you heat your malt extract on the stove in a pot of water first it will pour right out without having to use the spoon. These kits are good fire and forget beers and it seems everyone likes a Pilsner!

Do not boil the pre hopped coopers extract. I have tried it..................came out to really really bitter. Boil the water with your sugar or dme you are adding for fuel and maybe add some flavoring hops to the mix when boiling the water and sugar. Dump boiled slurry into your bucket or such when cooled, then add pre hopped extract, mix well then top off as stated in the instructions. I did just this with their canadian blond kit with good results.

Jawbox0 said:

Am I wrong in thinking that boiling pre-hopped extract would completely change the hop profile eliminating all the flavor and aroma hopping?

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Most no-boil kits aren't all that heavy in the flavor/aroma area, so it doesn't matter much. Most likely, they are bittered with tetra (which is a stabilized form of alpha acids) and have hop oils for aroma.