Hi guys, I started brewing a few months ago with extract kits, have a pair of porters under my belt and just racked a pale ale into secondary earlier tonight.
In the intrest of learning more about the hobby, I've been reading a ton of reading on this forum and a few other spots. One thing I noticed is that just about everyone seems to boil the wort for at least an hour, whereas all my kits instructions have been 30 minute boils.
Now, I noted the instructions are a set of generic, non specific instructions my LHBS provides in the box. Should I be following those instructions to the letter? Or would an hour boil benefit me?
To give an idea of the process, for my cascade pale ale I just made--
Steep specialty grains in a cheesecloth bag in 155 degree water for 20 miinutes in about 5L of water.
Bring to a boil, and add half of malt extract (called for all of it, but I had heard you can lighten the color by holding half back til the end, so I did that) and boiling hops.
At 22 minutes added cascade aroma hops.
At 24 minutes I added the remaining malt extract. This also killed my boil for about 2 minutes.
At 29 minutes added finish hops.
31 minutes I pulled it off heat and chilled.
So is this a typical process for extract brewing with the 30 minute boils; Would I benefit from using a 60 minute boil? Should I add that second half of extract a bit sooner or later in the boil?
Any advice or insight would be much appreciated! Thanks.
In the intrest of learning more about the hobby, I've been reading a ton of reading on this forum and a few other spots. One thing I noticed is that just about everyone seems to boil the wort for at least an hour, whereas all my kits instructions have been 30 minute boils.
Now, I noted the instructions are a set of generic, non specific instructions my LHBS provides in the box. Should I be following those instructions to the letter? Or would an hour boil benefit me?
To give an idea of the process, for my cascade pale ale I just made--
Steep specialty grains in a cheesecloth bag in 155 degree water for 20 miinutes in about 5L of water.
Bring to a boil, and add half of malt extract (called for all of it, but I had heard you can lighten the color by holding half back til the end, so I did that) and boiling hops.
At 22 minutes added cascade aroma hops.
At 24 minutes I added the remaining malt extract. This also killed my boil for about 2 minutes.
At 29 minutes added finish hops.
31 minutes I pulled it off heat and chilled.
So is this a typical process for extract brewing with the 30 minute boils; Would I benefit from using a 60 minute boil? Should I add that second half of extract a bit sooner or later in the boil?
Any advice or insight would be much appreciated! Thanks.