Late Additon for Hefe

I'm brewing a Bavarian Hefe tonight, and through the forums I've read that it's good to not add all the extract at once, but later in the boil. This is an all LME, with steeping grains.

So how much and when is good?

1. Should I put about a quarter of the LME in first, then add all of it at the last 15? And I assume i remove from heat every time I add LME?

2. The recipe calls for 3/4 spalts at the begining for bittering, then 1/4 the last 5. Will the late addition affect the hop utl.?

I would put in about 1/4 first, and the rest the last 15. I never remove from heat when I add, but I add very slowly and stir while I add. I don't think your recipe is hoppy enough to make much of a difference.

quickerNu said:

I would put in about 1/4 first, and the rest the last 15. I never remove from heat when I add, but I add very slowly and stir while I add. I don't think your recipe is hoppy enough to make much of a difference.

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Alright I think i will stick with this plan, thanks a lot!

BTW, got some alcohol booster for this batch when do i add the sugar? At the same time as the LME?

BleedsDogFish said:

2. The recipe calls for 3/4 spalts at the begining for bittering, then 1/4 the last 5. Will the late addition affect the hop utl.?

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Late addition will affect the bitterness. You will be getting more IBUs out of your hops since the boil gravity is lower (sugars in a high gravity boil slow the alpha acids from being extracted).

However, for your recipe I wouldn't worry about it. In a recipe that uses a lot of bittering hops, the difference may be large. But for only 0.75 ounce of Spalt, the difference is not that big. It is only an increase in 5 IBUs for using late extract addition.

If you want to calculate the adjustment for the hops, then calculate the IBUs from the bittering hops using a calculator for the original recipe using the gravity of a boil with all the malt extract. Then put in the gravity of the boil using late extract addition and see what the increase in IBUs. Play around with the ounces of hops until you get to the original IBU level.

Well, everything seemed to go fine with this brew. It's bubbling like crazy right now, which I like. Although, the color does still seem dark even with the late addition. Will it lighten up? All i can think is that my boil temp was a little high, but nothing looks or smells burned.

It is hard to judge color until it is in your glass. When you can, try doing a partial mash recipe. That way, you have some wort to boil the hops in, and dont have to add any LME until the last 5 minutes or so.