Fixed Gear Clone Question

I posted this in the extract forum but didn't get a response. I might brew tomorrow so I was hoping to get an answer.

I'm going to be brewing something similar to the Fixed Gear clone from Northern Brewer but I'll be using Briess Golden Light DME and it will just be a 2.5 gallon batch. My question is should I put in the DME at the start of the boil or wait till the last 15 minutes so I just sanitize it?

Fixed Gear Clone

Recipe

Extract/Grains:
3.75 lbs Briess Golden Light DME
0.375 lbs Briess Caramel 60L (Steep 20m/Until 170 degrees)
0.25 lbs Belgian Special B (Steep 20m/Until 170 degrees)

Hops:
0.5 oz Columbus (60 min)
0.25 oz Chinook (20 min)
0.5 oz Cascade (5 min)
0.5 oz Centennial Type (dry hop 7 days)
0.5 oz Chinook (dry hop 7 days)

Yeast:
6g US-05
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Follow the instructions that came with the kit. If you start messing with adding extract at different times you'll mess with hop utilization since that is dependent on boil gravity. Lower gravity means higher hop utilization so if you wait to add the DME, the beer will be way hoppier than you want it to be. Good luck with your brew.

-AJ

nukebrewer said:

Follow the instructions that came with the kit. If you start messing with adding extract at different times you'll mess with hop utilization since that is dependent on boil gravity. Lower gravity means higher hop utilization so if you wait to add the DME, the beer will be way hoppier than you want it to be. Good luck with your brew.

-AJ

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No it wont. That's a small boil with a small amount of extract and the utilization won't change.

I typically would add half the extract at the beginning, and the rest at flame out with good results.

Yooper said:

No it wont. That's a small boil with a small amount of extract and the utilization won't change.

I typically would add half the extract at the beginning, and the rest at flame out with good results.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the response. This sounds like a good idea.

Yooper said:

No it wont. That's a small boil with a small amount of extract and the utilization won't change.

I typically would add half the extract at the beginning, and the rest at flame out with good results.

Click to expand...

I plugged the recipe into BeerSmith and compared doing a late addition to adding all the extract right away and it said that with the late extract addition, IBUs almost double. Is BeerSmith wrong or was there something flawed about my thought process here? I have always thought boil gravity will change utilization pretty significantly. Thanks.

nukebrewer said:

I plugged the recipe into BeerSmith and compared doing a late addition to adding all the extract right away and it said that with the late extract addition, IBUs almost double. Is BeerSmith wrong or was there something flawed about my thought process here? I have always thought boil gravity will change utilization pretty significantly. Thanks.

Click to expand...

This is interesting. Anyone else have an opinion? Also, does boiling the DME longer effect the flavor/color?

IBUs really aren't dependent on wort gravity, but there is a problem with the utilization math with a higher gravity wort due to a partial boil. The work around is to just ignore it.

We are actually having this same discussion here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/question-alpha-acid-chemistry-342939/