differneces in when to put in malt extract

[Glaurung30]

So I have done a couple of recipe kits and I was wondering why one kit has me put my malt extract in at the beginning of the boil and another has me put it in at the end and let it sit for 10 minutes.

Can anyone explain to me the differences? Does this have to do with the style of the beer? Or is it just a brewing preference? Or does it have to do with the sugars and flavor?

 

[Yooper]

Adding some (or most) of the extract late in the boil is a relatively new development, and some kit makers just haven't updated their techniques.

Adding the bulk of the extract late means the beer has a "cleaner", less cooked extract taste, and it remains lighter in color. It avoids more maillard reactions (similar to caramelization) so the beer is better and tastes more like a commercial beer or an all-grain beer.

Since the extract has already been processed by the manufacturer, it doesn't need to boil the way it does when you extract wort from grain.

 

[Glaurung30]

Ahhh thanks. That makes sense. So it's not really necessary to boil the extract for such a long time, unless you want to boil it for a different taste? Does it affect the fermentable sugars?

 

[Yooper]

Ahhh thanks. That makes sense. So it's not really necessary to boil the extract for such a long time, unless you want to boil it for a different taste? Does it affect the fermentable sugars?

No, it's not necessary to boil extract although I like to put in a pound of extract per gallon of liquid in the boil so that it's more like the composition of an AG batch. It shouldn't affect fermentation at all.

 

[JonK331]

This is a good article on the subject: http://baderbrewing.com/content/boil-hops

 

[Glaurung30]

Awesome thanks. The instructions in the link given were very similar to the way the instructions were from AHS for the recipe that I got. The only difference I did was that I sparged my specialty grains. I figured it would get a little more flavor out of them.

 

[Cyclman]

You also get better hop utilization with less sugar in the wort.