adding extract

Super noob brewer here, I have done 2 extract batches and I was wondering about whether or not to add all my extract at the start of the boil?

I have since read that i should save half of my extract for the last five minutes or so of the boil.

My first 2 batches are still in their primaries so i was curious what everyones thoughts on this is!!

Cheers!!!

Just add all of it at the end with 5-10 minutes left. You want to boil it for a few minutes to make sure it is sanitized but no longer. Boiling it for longer periods will lead to caramelization and darker colors.

Is that true with both the liquid and dry?

THanks

bmock79 said:

Is that true with both the liquid and dry?

THanks

Click to expand...

Yes

I added all of the lme and dme at the begining on both of my first to batches!!

It should still be tasty...I hope!!

You can add it at the start or the end. Probably worth splitting it nd starting with some, since you will need ot for hop utilization.

Advantages for late addition: Lighter beer and more hop utilization.

I feel it needs some amount of boiling as it does create break material. I do a partial mash and start boil with that, and add my extract at 30 minutes, prior to adding my wort chiller or any of the finishing hop additions.

Definetely going to save some for the end next time.

"I feel it needs some amount of boiling as it does create break material. I do a partial mash and start boil with that, and add my extract at 30 minutes, prior to adding my wort chiller or any of the finishing hop additions."

I am still a few batches away from trying to mash anything. Whent the weather breaks I am going to look into a mash setup.

Calder is correct that you can alter hop utilization with staggered additions of sugars.
You can play with a calculated effect by creating a Beersmith recipe and entering DME/LME additions using the "Late Extract Boil" checkbox and putting differing boil times for each addition. Create the same recipe and lump all the sugar into the beginning and you'll see the IBU calculation change rather drastically.
For a 9 pound DME recipe I'll generally put in 3 pound increments at 60, 30 and 15 minutes respectively. I also try to time my DME additions with my hopping schedule.

I always do a 50/50 split. 50% at start of boil and 50 percent at the 20 minute mark.

When you do the split do you have to alter the amount of hops you put in, or do you just stick to the recipe?!

Here is an article on this that is really good:

http://www.baderbrewing.com/store/product.php?productid=22691&cat=396&page=1

Here's a thread about the article:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f37/boil-hops-not-malt-extract-steve-bader-143145/

Great article, I will most definetely tweak my method next round.

Thanks

bmock79 said:

When you do the split do you have to alter the amount of hops you put in, or do you just stick to the recipe?!

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I just keep the recipe the same. Having a little more hops never bothered me, but to be honest I have never noticed a huge difference with hops utilization. There is a difference, but not one that would make the recipe seem like a drastic change. Maybe with an IPA this would be more prevalent.

bmock79 said:

Definetely going to save some for the end next time.

"I feel it needs some amount of boiling as it does create break material. I do a partial mash and start boil with that, and add my extract at 30 minutes, prior to adding my wort chiller or any of the finishing hop additions."

I am still a few batches away from trying to mash anything. Whent the weather breaks I am going to look into a mash setup.

Click to expand...

Instead of waiting to get those other batches done first, so a search on "Brew in a Bag" because you probably have nearly everything else you need in the way of equipment and you can be doing all grain next week if you want. I'm almost through the boil on my 5th batch this way and love the process. It seems to add about an hour to hour and a half to my brew day but I get to choose exactly what goes into my brew instead of the maltster.

RM-MN said:

Instead of waiting to get those other batches done first, so a search on "Brew in a Bag" because you probably have nearly everything else you need in the way of equipment and you can be doing all grain next week if you want. I'm almost through the boil on my 5th batch this way and love the process. It seems to add about an hour to hour and a half to my brew day but I get to choose exactly what goes into my brew instead of the maltster.

Click to expand...

I too am going ot be joining the brew in a bag (BIAB) club soon. I am really interested to see what the savings will be for some of my extract batches, and it looks pretty easy. I just upgraded my pot a week or two ago, so now I have enought room to do a full steep with space for grains.

There was a great how to post on this, but I seem to have lost where I put it... pictures and all.

It had me thinking.... buy a big bag of 2 row!

cool thanks, if you find a thread care to post a link?

Here you go - dug it up!!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-partial-mash-brewing-pics-75231/

going to be trying this in the next few weeks or so on a pale ale. Since the grains aren't crushed I am trying to brew the two or three other batches I have with precrushed grains.

Good luck!

My understanding is, as long as you use the right kinds of "steep-able" grains, then you can do this without DME.

i.e. you can do all grain BIAB

Cost would really only be a nylon bag for the grains if you have the other regular brewing equip.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/can-you-partial-boil-all-grain-216957/

some more info when I was asking about this.

bmock79 said:

When you do the split do you have to alter the amount of hops you put in, or do you just stick to the recipe?!

Click to expand...

If you want to brew the beer that the recipe designers intended, then you need to alter your hops and possibly your malts. That said, you will still get beer even if you don't, so it depends on what you mean by "have to".

I tend to balk when people suggest that late extract additions are "better". There are plenty of things that are just flat out better in brewing: using a sanitizer is always better than not using a sanitizer; pitching yeast at appropriate rates is always better than just chucking in whatever you have; fresh ingredients is better than stale ingredients. But this isn't like that

The article JonK cites suggests three advantages of late addition:
1) lighter color
2) more hop bitterness
3) less carmelization

That is all very true, but I could just as easily say that the advantages of early addition are:
1) darker color
2) less hop bitterness
3) more carmelization

Color, hops, and carmelization are not inherently good or bad things in brewing the way that, say, sanitation is. They are particular traits of a beer, and likewise they are more or less desirable depending on the style you are going for.

This point really comes home when you are following somebody else's recipe. If they do an early addition and you do a late addition, you will get a different beer than they intended. It might even be a beer you like better, but all that demonstrates is that you have different tastes than the recipe designers. When I cook Indian food, I tend to double the recipe's garlic and halve its ginger because I know that I like garlic more than most people and ginger less, but I wouldn't go onto a cooking website and tell everyone that halving ginger requirements is part of good cooking procedure.

I certainly don't mean to discourage experimentation; quite the opposite. Knowing what you like is the key to coming up with some great recipes. That said, think of early vs. late addition in the same way you would think of American malt vs. British malt. Understanding the difference between them can help you really dial in a recipe, but it doesn't make sense to just automatically replace all domestic 2-row with Marris Otter. Unless, of course, you determine that you just flat out prefer British malts to American.

I agree with Malfet.
When I cook up a porter I tend to dump all the malt up front. When I'm brewing an IPA I get most of the malt in on the backside.

I'd say to each his/her own.

I noticed that my first few batches had a noticeable "twangy" taste that I wasn't experiencing in commercial brews. I did some research (mostly on HBT) and found that some people were attributing this to extract caramelization and that late extract additions would help.

After that, I started doing full boils and late additions (I usually add about 1/3 of my extract at the beginning and the remaining 2/3 with about 20 min left) and I have experienced a noticeable improvement in the taste and appearance of my beers.

I have never tried the extract addition techniques from that article but I will definitely give it a shot in my next brew.

Good salient points Malfet

I originally started doing 50% early/late additions when I read it and found out it also reduced the foaming issues (was brewing in a 22qt pot). Since I liked less boil over risk I continued it.

You manner of view on this is accurate. The late additions are like many aspects of your routine in brewing, part of your toolkit. They can be used to influence your end product one way or another based on your tastes.

That said, I do try to follow other people's recipes as accurately as possible the first time through. But, I guess I am just too new to brewing to go back in and adjust hops/etc based on boil volume, extract addition timing etc., (I don't own beersmith). Plus, having a bunch of partially used/opend hop packets isn't a goal of mine.

It always drives me nuts when someone goes onto a recipe (i.e. foodnetwork or whatever) and says "it is really good when you add 8 cloves of garlic vs. 2". I mean I get it, I love garlic, but you should honor the persons recipe, and then use your cooking skills/tastes to adjust as per your palate. This is part of cooking. But you should let everyone work from the base recipe and tweak it to their own tastes; afterall not everyone is a garlic hound like me.

kingmatt said:

I noticed that my first few batches had a noticeable "twangy" taste that I wasn't experiencing in commercial brews. I did some research (mostly on HBT) and found that some people were attributing this to extract caramelization and that late extract additions would help.

Click to expand...

I will agree with this, for my tastes, when I did the late additions it did seem the beer tasted more like a commercial beer to me. However I did make several other changes, such as letting my beers age 3 weeks in the primary vs. 2, before racking, and sparging the grains at 170F. So it could have been a result of bettering my overall routine and process.

i.e. You should try different things and take good notes.