barleywine LME addition questions

[mcwilcr]

I will be brewing a 10 gal. batch of American style barleywine this weekend and inorder to get my gravity up in the range where I want it (1.090), I need to add some LME to the fermentables (looks to account for about 30%) since my mashtun can only handle 24lb of grain with the mash water at a thickness of 1.25 qt/lb. I have read that you can get better hop utilization if you add the extract at the end of the boil but should I wait to add all of it to the end or just a portion? and how late do I wait? last 10 min, 5 min, flameout?

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

I would just hold off all LME till probably, the last 10-15 minutes-ish. Since you already have wort from the mashtun you don't need to add any LME near the start to make sure the hop utliziation is good.

Really all you need is for it to get boiled and mix in nicely (and don't scorch it to the bottom of your pot). I've used LME to boost up a wee heavy and since the IBUs dont really matter (at all) I just added it when I felt like it (I think my notes will say I added it at 45 minutes), a barleywine you need much higher IBUs though so I would do the last 10-15 minutes.

 

[mcwilcr]

I would just hold off all LME till probably, the last 10-15 minutes-ish. Since you already have wort from the mashtun you don't need to add any LME near the start to make sure the hop utliziation is good.



Really all you need is for it to get boiled and mix in nicely (and don't scorch it to the bottom of your pot). I've used LME to boost up a wee heavy and since the IBUs dont really matter (at all) I just added it when I felt like it (I think my notes will say I added it at 45 minutes), a barleywine you need much higher IBUs though so I would do the last 10-15 minutes.

Thanks, Thorny. Meow that sounds like a descent plan.

 

[Calder]

I pm/pb all the time as I'm limited by my boil pot. ........... And I am happy with that because I can boil in the kitchen. So I'm always adding a pound or so of extract to every batch.

I add it after flame out. Works fine, wort is plenty hot to pasteurize it. I add it, stir it in, then put in the I/C. If you add it before the end of the boil, you end up waiting for the wort to get back to the boil and are never sure if you should count that 5 to 10 minutes to the boil time?

 

[mcwilcr]

My only concern is that I'm talking about adding 9 lb of extract. I'm not necessarily worried but I have a feeling that the extract will drop the temp significantly to the point that I don't think I would be hot enough to sanitize my IC.

 

[Calder]

My only concern is that I'm talking about adding 9 lb of extract. I'm not necessarily worried but I have a feeling that the extract will drop the temp significantly to the point that I don't think I would be hot enough to sanitize my IC.

I have about 3 gallons in my pot at the end of brewing. After adding 4 lbs of LME and my I/C, I still have to run water thru the cooler to get it down to 175 F, where I add my flame out hops.

I assume you are doing a 10 gallon boil. Adding 9 lbs of extract (about 1 gallon), your temp will drop about 10% (probably a little more because it is more dense, but we will ignore that). With a boil temp of 212, and an extract temp of 62 F, the bulk temp drop due to the extract will be about 15 F; still plenty hot to pasteurize.

 

[mcwilcr]

I have about 3 gallons in my pot at the end of brewing. After adding 4 lbs of LME and my I/C, I still have to run water thru the cooler to get it down to 175 F, where I add my flame out hops.

I assume you are doing a 10 gallon boil. Adding 9 lbs of extract (about 1 gallon), your temp will drop about 10% (probably a little more because it is more dense, but we will ignore that). With a boil temp of 212, and an extract temp of 62 F, the bulk temp drop due to the extract will be about 15 F; still plenty hot to pasteurize.

I see what you're saying. At ~6000 ft where I live water boils at ~205 F. By my calculation my temp after adding the LME will be roughly 180 F which is still enough to pasteurize the LME and still sanitize my chiller but I think just barely if I'm not mistaken which also does not take into account the heat lost during the probably 5 min I spend mixing the extract in.... Anyway I'm just thinking out loud here. If I'm really worried about it I could just stick my chiller in the bucket of starsan that will be sitting right there by me anyway for a while.

Is there a reason you wait to 175 F to add your flameout hops? I've always just thrown them in when I turn off the burner just before I turn on flow to the IC.

 

[mcwilcr]

Ended up adding entire LME at the end of the boil with no problems. Tasted great when I was transferring it to the barrel for aging.