Potential Issue with Malt Boil Timing

I was just reading through Palmer's recipe for the Cincinnati Pale Ale I brewed on Saturday morning and realized I was supposed to add half of the malt extract in first, and then the rest near the end of the boil. But I just dumped it all in to start with (~6 lbs LME). He says this could result in inky-tasting beer.

Has anyone else fudged the recipe like this, and if so, was it a big problem? Now I'm worried about my beer . If it goes wrong all my nay-saying roommates are going to have a field day.

Lots of recipes call for a full 60 min boil of the extract. It may turn out a little "darker" then normal... but it should taste fine. You will have beer, and it will be drinkable!

Thanks for putting my fears at ease. My friends keep having me second guess myself because they all keep telling me it's going to taste like @#)$. I think they're just jealous that they didn't come up with the brewing idea themselves!

Lucretius said:

Thanks for putting my fears at ease. My friends keep having me second guess myself because they all keep telling me it's going to taste like @#)$. I think they're just jealous that they didn't come up with the brewing idea themselves!

Click to expand...

It might taste like ****! I know they're not all winners. Just keep it up long enough to make it good to shove it in their faces!

If you've kept sanitary, And followed the recipe, it will taste good.
Don't worry about boiling all the extract for an hour, it won't hurt anything.

What Palmer suggested to do was called a "Late Extract Addition" that is a recent idea to prevent extract beers from becomming to dark. And Palmer's is a recent book, but prior to recipe books like that one and others in the last couple years people just added all their extract in. So all is well, you just did it "old school."

Just relax, it is really hard to ruin your beer, it surprises us and manages to turn out great no matter how hard we try.

I want you to read these threads and see..

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/wh...where-your-beer-still-turned-out-great-96780/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/has-anyone-ever-messed-up-batch-96644/

It'll be fine! The only differences will be subtle. One, it'll be a little darker than most "pale ales" because the extract can darken with boiling. It doesn't affect taste at all! The other difference may be that the beer is less bitter (a bit more sweet) than the recipe intended. That's because more sugar (extract) in the wort can cause less hops utilization. It won't be a huge difference, though- so don't worry! It might even be an improvement if you're not into bitter beers.

+1 to not worrying

RDWHAHB

Your beer will be fine. Yeast know what they are doing, just give them the time to do it. Give your beer plenty of time to finish fermentation and plenty of time to condition in the bottle and you'll be rewarded. The number one issue most (all?) new brewers have is the lack of understanding of how important patience is in brewing.

Most recipes geared toward new brewers will seriously shorten the time needed for proper fermentation and bottle conditioning. Palmer's Cincinnati Pale should find it's legs pretty quickly but will benefit from aging. Definitely give the beer at least the two weeks Palmer suggests for fermenting, but give your beer three weeks in the bottle. It really does make a difference.

I've let all of my beers do a 60min extract boil. I prefer the extra malty flavor it gives and since I don't care much about the color it's just not important to me. If I were making a beer for a competition I would probably adjust the extract timing some, but I brew for me and my tastes. It's a fairly negligible process/step in my book.

Well, I like a little less bitterness than is in your typical pale ale, and the darker color is fine by me. Thanks again for letting me know I'm still doing okay. Now, if only it would become a few degrees colder outside so I wasn't fermenting in a 73 degree basement...