carmelized LME?

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marshman

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I can feel little ribs on the bottom of my brewpot as I stir, I assume that it's little bitsof the LME that carmelized as I was stirring it into the wort. My water was @ 160 degrees at that point, but the burner was on high, so I guess it's highly likely. Note to self: Pull pot off burner to add the LME.

So, do I want to try to knock it loose during the boil, or will it add unfermentable sugars to my wort, or will that answer depend on the goal of the brewing process? (eg-lager vs. Scotch ale). I'm looking to end with a medium bodied, not too sweet red ale, so I'm guessing that I want to leave it if possible.

Way off base?
 
If it's burnt, you don't want to disturb it. If it's carmelizing, you should be okay scraping it off the bottom and getting it back into solution. You may want to take it off the heat while doing this. One thing which really helped my extract brews was bending a coat-hangar into a 2-d star and placing it on the electric element (I assume you're using an electric stove,) this simple device cut scorching way down.
 
Stir, but don't scrape. If it is just caramelized it will dissolve, burnt parts won't.
 
It was difficult NOT to scrape, but after the boil, what was left was definitely not burnt.

Not to disregard the obvious ingenuity of the star, it seems like it'll be simpler for the LME dissolution phase to just slide it off the burner for the moment. I hope to upgrade to a better and larger brewkettle in the not too distant future,although I like these smaller 2 to 3 gallon batches for recipe experimentation. Once I get a few recipes I really dig, I'll start in on the big batches.

Sorry...mind got to wanderin' there fer a sec...
 
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