Late extract brewing

Can someone tell me the pros and cons to late extract brewing? When do you add it? Are you just boiling hops and water until you add it? Does the beer come out better?

THere are a ton of threads on LEA on here. THis one looks pretty thorough.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f37/extract-late-brewing-77656/

...liquid and dry extract is merely wort that has already been boiled and then most the water is removed for storage and shipping purposes; right?...

robertbartsch said:

...liquid and dry extract is merely wort that has already been boiled and then most the water is removed for storage and shipping purposes; right?...

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Sounds good to me?

goat said:

Can someone tell me the pros and cons to late extract brewing? When do you add it? Are you just boiling hops and water until you add it? Does the beer come out better?

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Late extract additions are a method for extract brewers who do not (or cannot) boil the full amount of wort. Boiling highly concentrated wort can cause the extract to carmelize, which darkens the beer and affects the flavor. Some also believe you get poor hop utilization, meaning you'd need more hops to reach the recipe's appropriate number of IBUs.

I use the late addition method all the time. It's debateable whether hop utilization improves, but there's no question that you get lighter beer.

The way I brew is I add 20% of the extract at the beginning of the boil, then the remaining amount when there's 20 minutes left. The pic below is the most recent beer I brewed using this method with DME. As you can see you can get very light colored beer.

CrookedTail said:

Late extract additions are a method for extract brewers who do not (or cannot) boil the full amount of wort.[/IMG]

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Not necessarily true. The logic is that the extract has already been boiled so there is no need to do it again. Whether full boil or not.

JonK331 said:

Not necessarily true. The logic is that the extract has already been boiled so there is no need to do it again. Whether full boil or not.

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So what is the solution, boil hops and water for 60 min and add Malt extract?

Yes, some people like to boil a very small portion of the extract for the full duration and then add the bulk of it at the end. I don't find that to be necessary. When I do extract, I steep my grain as usual, bring to boil, add hops per recipe and boil down to the last ten minutes and add the extract. I do like to boil the extract for just a few minutes to make sure it gets sanitized. I also don't want to be trying to add my finishing hops and extract at the same time. This method also lets the liquid boil down so there is more room in the kettle when you add the extract = less chance of boilover.

I used to add it all at the start then moved to half and half. Now I add all of it the last couple minutes of the boil and i have been getting considerably better and clearer beers. So I add 0 extract at the beginning.

I asked this question but in a slightly different mannor; Do I need to boil extract wort for 1 hour"

This question was asked in in effort to identify steps that might shorten the normal brewing day.

No one who responded suggested there was a scientific reason to boil extract for 1 hour as recommended in virtually all receipes. For the most part, people said boiling was necessary for hopps bittering which normally takes no longer than 1/2 hour.

Yeh, people also said the "long" boiling time will further darken the beer/wort and furrther carmalize sugars.....

You really don't need to boil the extract but the hour is for hops utilization. How much difference an hour vs 30 minutes makes, I have no idea.

As far as shortening the brewing day, I multitask and have 2 pots. There are 2 of us so that helps but having 2 things heating in 2 pots is one big thing to help. Including cleaning we are down to a little over 3 hours. Revvy always says do what works for you. This is what works for me.

Brewing procedure
At least 2 days before brewing check yeast viability
1 Gather ingredients, water, and equipment
2 Open beer, gotta stay hydrated
3 Start steeping water heating, heat to temp then turn to WM/low
A Steep in smaller pot, 1-3 quarts of water/lb
4 Put specialty grains into bag
5 Steep grains at suggested temp
6 Start boil water heating
7 Put LME jug in warm water to warm up LME
8 Set up burner
9 When steeping is done add more water.
10 Heat till almost boiling
11 Remove from heat then add extract
12 Heat to boil and follow brewing instructions
13 Start top off water boiling with 20 minutes left in boil
14 Place wort chiller in pot 15 minutes before the boil ends
15 Cool wort
16 Sanitize fermenter while wort cools
17 Pour wort into fermenter
18 Sanitize yeast and scissors
19 Top off to 5 gallons with cooled water
20 Check specific gravity, add more water if necessary
17 Pitch yeast
18 Put airlock or blow off tube on fermenter and put in a cool dark place
19 Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew - Charlie Papazian

JonK331 said:

Yes, some people like to boil a very small portion of the extract for the full duration and then add the bulk of it at the end. I don't find that to be necessary. When I do extract, I steep my grain as usual, bring to boil, add hops per recipe and boil down to the last ten minutes and add the extract. I do like to boil the extract for just a few minutes to make sure it gets sanitized. I also don't want to be trying to add my finishing hops and extract at the same time. This method also lets the liquid boil down so there is more room in the kettle when you add the extract = less chance of boilover.

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Thanks for your input. I will try this.