stupid question to clarify my technique

While I wouldn't consider myself a beginner brewer anymore (although I do ask a TON of questions on this forum), I feel like this is a beginner question (no disrespect to all of you starting out), so I'll post it in the beginner forum.

I swear I do this differently everytime--WHICH WAY IS RIGHT?! I'm an extract brewer that does partial mashes and full wort boils. After steeping the grains and sparging them over the rest of the water already coming up to temp in the kettle, do I add the DME and hops before it boils or bring the water (well, diluted grain tea really) to boil, remove heat, add DME and hops and return to boil?

The second option is what I used to do when I stovetop brewed, I think.

Anyway, thanks for your help, and hopefully this will help any newbies out there wondering the same thing.

BREW ON

I think you got it but why would you remove it from the heat? When you take out the grains, add the DME and hops and start the clock.

Oh and remember there is no such things as a stupid question We're all learning all the time

You remove it from the heat so that you don't risk burning the extract. Though, this has always seemed a bit awkward to me but not enough of an inconvenience to make me question my brew books.
As for the the hop additions, I've had the same question. Some directions say turn the heat off and add the extract and bittering hops. This never made sense to me. What I do is: bring water to a boil, turn heat off, add extract, stir in completely, turn heat back on, bring back to boil, THEN add bittering hops and start the clock at 60min.

I start adding the extract after removing the grains and while the water is heating up. I usually remove it from the heat to avoid carmelization. I add the hops when a rolling boil starts, and this is when I start the timer. I continue to slowly add extact as the boil continues up until about the last 15 minutes. I do not remove the kettle from the burner for this.

Next time I brew I will add the DME from a seperate smaller boil. This is supposed to make the DME easier to work with.

This is not the definitive way to do it, but it is how I do it... most of the time.

- magno

Hmm... never removed it from the heat yet... though its never on a roiling boil either... perhaps thats how I get away with it. I never dump the whole thing in either....

I bring the water to boil, then add the extracts. If you stir constantly while you do so, there is no need to turn the heat off.

Once it comes to the boil again (adding the extract cools the mixture somewhat), I add my bittering hops and start the timer.

All the kits I have from Austion Home Brew say to bring the wort back to a boil after adding the extract. Then you throw the hops in.

Somerville said:

You remove it from the heat so that you don't risk burning the extract. Though, this has always seemed a bit awkward to me but not enough of an inconvenience to make me question my brew books.
As for the the hop additions, I've had the same question. Some directions say turn the heat off and add the extract and bittering hops. This never made sense to me. What I do is: bring water to a boil, turn heat off, add extract, stir in completely, turn heat back on, bring back to boil, THEN add bittering hops and start the clock at 60min.

Click to expand...

ME TOO!

it's not necessary to bring the water to a boil before adding the extract. The important part is that the water is HOT when you add the extract so that you can get it to dissolve well.

If you do bring it to a boil, it's probably in your best interest to remove it from the heat before adding the extract so that you don't risk it hitting the bottom of the pot and scorching before it has a chance to dissolve. Vigorous stirring is probably suffucient to avoid this, so that's fine.

The 'correct' answer is just: add your extract to hot water and do whatever you need to do to prevent it from burning while it dissolves in the water. Then bring it to a boil.

-walker

PS: as for hop additions, I personally wait for the hot break to come and go before adding my bittering hops and starting my timer.

There is another reason for removing from or turning off the heat. For those that use flame, whether on a stove, fryer, or burner, DME is very flammable! If any should miss the pot while your fire is on, look out!

Wild

My technique is exactly the same as Shambolic's, regardless of whether I am using dry or liquid ME.

Make sure you add the bittering hops after you had the initial hot-break (when it foamed-up). When adding it before the hot break, lots of the alpha acids get bound to the protein and will be lost. This results in a lower and unpredictable hop utilization.

Though this is more of an issue with AG, I remeber that I also had hot-break formation and foam-ups (and foam overs ) with my extract brews.

Kai