Late addition malt extract question

Hi All,

I am planning on brewing a Brewers Best European Bock kit this weekend and was looking to make a few tweaks. I have read on several threads here that saving some of the malt extract and adding it during the last 15 minutes of the boil is a way to improve the overall quality of your beer. The kit comes with 6.6 pounds of Munich LME and 2 pounds of light DME. If I wanted to use some of this for a late addition, which should I go with and how much of it should I save for that last 15 minutes. Advanced thanks to you all. Cheers!

RRR_BrewCo said:

Hi All,

I am planning on brewing a Brewers Best European Bock kit this weekend and was looking to make a few tweaks. I have read on several threads here that saving some of the malt extract and adding it during the last 15 minutes of the boil is a way to improve the overall quality of your beer. The kit comes with 6.6 pounds of Munich LME and 2 pounds of light DME. If I wanted to use some of this for a late addition, which should I go with and how much of it should I save for that last 15 minutes. Advanced thanks to you all. Cheers!

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I'd start with the 2 pounds of DME at the beginning, and add the liquid malt extract (LME) at the end of the boil.

Yooper said:

I'd start with the 2 pounds of DME at the beginning, and add the liquid malt extract (LME) at the end of the boil.

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This!

I am planning on doing almost the same thing this Saturday with a Scotch Ale kit from BB. I am adding 3 lbs of DME For the sole reason of bringing my ABV up slightly. The kit comes with 3.3 lbs of LME. I would be very interested in hearing what you decided to do and what everyone means by "start" and "end" of the boil. This will be my first brew so I am looking for any advise/suggestions. My initial reaction to adding the LME at the "end" is that is 6+ lbs of malt that won't get a full boil and maybe not get all the sugars out of it that you could? From what I have read, that will leave you with a hazy beer because of starch haze, but again I am so new to this and probably wrong.

I think the main improvement from late extract addition is hop utilization. This will increase the bitterness of your beer. I think it also prevents darkening of the wort. All the sugars have been taken out of the grain for you, so it's not a worry with extract. It does, however, need to be fully dissolved and pasteurized. Adding at the end of the boil with stirring could probably achieve this.

Many here have said that due to the better hops utilization from a lower gravity boil that your beer will be more bitter as a result of late addition. An adjustment in your bittering (or 60 min) hops would correct this, but I'm too new at this to say how much.

That helps thanks for the replies everyone!

@unionrdr - How long should I boil the DME then? It is only 3 lbs

unionrdr said:

I use half a 3lb bag of plain DME in my partial boils. Once the water is boiling,add the 1.5lbs of DME,stirring till clumps dissolve. Then there's a mini hot break for 3 minutes or so. Then proceed with whatever hop additions/times for them.
Then add the remaining DME at the end. If you're adding LME,add it all at flame out off the heat source. Your beer will be cleaner tasting & lighter in color.

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Thanks for the advise, that sounds great to me! I just finished this morning and it is fermenting now. Hoping for the best!