Short Boil Time for DME

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BierMuncher

...My Junk is Ugly...
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I'm taking a break from AG since the wind chill makes it a biti difficult to be outside.

I'm going to brew Cheesefood's Caramel Cream Ale (Partial Mash) and I'm wondering...

Can I shorten the boil time on the DME down to around 20-30 minutes or so? My intent is to keep the color as light as possible and I've read here that 60 minute boils can darken the wort.

I still need 60 minutes for my Cascade Hops to "bitter".

I'm just curious...the impact of shortening an all DME boil.

THanks.
 
Yup, absolutely. Note that your hop bitterness will be higher. When doing extract, I would usually boil SOME of the extract the full time, then add the remainder with about ten minutes to go. Figured that more-or-less approximated the gravity of a full wort boil (using half the water, but only boiling half the extract).
 
I do them all the time.

Incidently I recently tried another experiment you may be interested in.

It's in the primary at the moment and I did a gravity check the other day.

I only boil 1.5 gals. Instead of boiling 1 oz bittering hops for 1 hour I brewed 2 oz for 1/2 hour. You get the same utilization. (1 oz at 1 hour = 30% and 2 oz for .5 hour gets 15% (each) = 30%. Also 4 oz at 15 mins get the same results). But instead of boiling 1 lb of DME in 1.5 gals as I usually do I only boiled 1 oz.

Boiled 30 mins, @ flame out, added 5 lbs DME for a 10 minute steep. Sparged into the primary as usual.

The color is light and the brew is hoppy. What can I say?

LME and DME have already been cooked once. The only reason for the long boil is to get the bittering alpha acids out of the hops.
 
homebrewer_99 said:
LME and DME have already been cooked once. The only reason for the long boil is to get the bittering alpha acids out of the hops.

Yes and no. They are boiled in a vacuum by the maltster, so you still have to boil them yourself to get a hot break.

-walker
 
Walker-san said:
Yes and no. They are boiled in a vacuum by the maltster, so you still have to boil them yourself to get a hot break.

-walker

Not according to the guy from Briess on Basic Brewing Radio; he indicated that most of the break material is removed in the manufacturing process.

It's hard for me to tell, I never seemed to get a good hot break with extract, as I was doing it on the stove; it's a lot more obvious with AG and 210kBTUs. :rockin:
 
Do you lose any of the bitterness or flavor from the hops by doing this? It seems to me that some (although I don't know if it would be a significant amount) would be lost due to the late hot break that would occur. I'm making an IPA, and would like it to be a little lighter, but don't want to lose any hoppiness.
 
the_bird said:
Not according to the guy from Briess on Basic Brewing Radio; he indicated that most of the break material is removed in the manufacturing process.

It's hard for me to tell, I never seemed to get a good hot break with extract, as I was doing it on the stove; it's a lot more obvious with AG and 210kBTUs. :rockin:

Weird. The last extract I bought was a big bag of bulk DME from Briess. I always got a good, thick hot break with it on the stove.

-walker
 
Walker-san said:
Weird. The last extract I bought was a big bag of bulk DME from Briess. I always got a good, thick hot break with it on the stove.

-walker
I know what you mean. If you toss it in and go directly to a boil it'll rear up like a bear, but if you allow it to sit a few minutes it doesn't. It's a bit weird.
 
Walker-san said:
Weird. The last extract I bought was a big bag of bulk DME from Briess. I always got a good, thick hot break with it on the stove.

-walker

Do you seem to get more with AG? I definately do, and I don't think it's just the fact that I can boil easier now. He didn't indicate that ALL of the break material has precipitated, just a good percentage of it. Isn't it Palmer, too, who says that you don't even need to boil extract, just steep post-boil for ten minutes to sterilize?
 
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