DME - Adding to boiling water

Mmk... just a tid bit I would share with you all.

When I brewed my last batch of Oatmeal Stout a few weeks back I ended up with a mess. I bought the water to boil, turned off the burners, and dumped 6# of DME into the water. It floated on top of the liquid and formed into this huge solid chunk of sugar. It took like 30 minutes to dissolve, and ended up sticking to the bottom of the pot and scorching. The boil also was really strange becuase he never fell even after 45 minutes of HARD boiling.

So I boiled up a batch of Coffee Stout this afternoon. This time I turned off the burners, stirred vigorously, and sprinkled in the DME. All of the DME dissolved immediatly, the wort rose quickly after I turned the heat on, then settled quickly into a "perfect" hard boil.

Moral of the story - When using DME, take 1-2 minutes and add it in SLOWLY.

Or you could grab some wort out of your boil, put it in a vessel, dissolve the DME in that solution, and then slowly add it back to the boil.

No muss, no Fuss

Or, you could avoid using that much DME. Personally, I like to use a mix of DME & LME when extract brewing. I add the DME first, and I add it slowly. Dumping six pounds in at once is not a good idea. I add a pound or two at a time and stir. Heh, the DME that we added to our barleywine this past weekend was stuck together in a big solid 1# brick. We broke it up as much as we could in the bag, but it still took awhile for the chunks to dissolve in the water. No fun...

I always add it a pound at a time, stir to dissolve BEFORE adding the next pound.

Or better yet switch to AG, and you'll never have to worry about it again until you reach maximum capacity in your mash tun!

homebrewer_99 said:

I always add it a pound at a time, stir to dissolve BEFORE adding ther next pound.

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HB: I'm totally stealing your technique. I tried it partially the last time I brewed and it worked nicely. I'm using up the last of my LME and will most likely go all DME in the future, using the HB99 patented "1 at the beginning, the rest pound by pound at 15 minutes" method. I'm not gonna pay you royalties, though, okay? Thank you for sharing your experience.

monk

heh heh... problem with AG is equiptment costs and size. I live in a 750sqft apartment which is large for myself, but there isnt any great place to put a whole AG rig

I suppose I could rent out a garage for 100 bucks a month and brew out of that! HAHAH! I think that would be pretty HARDCORE. Brewing out of a Public Storage garage! HAHAHAH!!!

Someone should do it... get one of those garages where the first month is like $1. Just make a couple batches of homebrew and use their AC to keep it cold. HA!

Monk said:

HB: I'm totally stealing your technique. I tried it partially the last time I brewed and it worked nicely. I'm using up the last of my LME and will most likely go all DME in the future, using the HB99 patented "1 at the beginning, the rest pound by pound at 15 minutes" method. I'm not gonna pay you royalties, though, okay? Thank you for sharing your experience.

monk

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I'm glad things are working better for you.

Not to burst your bubble, but it's not stealing and I wasn't the first to come up with it.

I just researched it more than the casual brewer and decided after a couple of times that it works well for me.

Oh, yeah, you're welcome. Glad to help.