Question about kit I just bought

[LarsonLE]

So I just purchased an extract kit at a local homebrew store that is titled "C.J's House of the Rising Sun JPA". JPA stands for Japanese pale ale. Here is what is included:

6 lbs. Light Dried Malt Extract (DME)
1 lbs. Wheat Dried Malt Extract (DME)
1 bag Specialty Malts (Belgian CarmelPils Malt, Belgian CaraMunich Malt, Belgian CaraVienna Malt)
1.25 oz Brewer's Gold, (bittering)
1 tablet Whirlfloc
1 oz Armarillo
1 oz Brewer's Gold
1 oz Cascade
1/2 oz Amarillo (aromatic)
1/2 oz Brewer's Gold (aromatic)
1/2 oz Cascade (aromatic)
1 cup Priming Sugar

My question comes in with what it says about the brewing procedure. I have re-written the beginning of the instructions here:

"Place the pre-cracked specially malt in the muslin bag.

Dissolve the DME in 2 gallons of warm water in your stock pot. Stir several times over a span of 5-20 minutes to aid the dissolving. Make sure the DME is completely dissolved to prevent scorching.

Add the bag of specialty malt to your stock pot and adjust the heat to medium high. After 20 minutes adjust the heat to achieve boil. The instant that the boil is achieved, remove the bag of specialty malt from the stock pot."

Question: Am I reading this correctly? In my other kits I started out steeping the grains and not adding the DME (as well as LME) until I'm in the boiling process, but here in this kit it is saying to add my 7 lbs. of DME (which I must say is a LOT) to "warm water", stir for 20 min, then add the specialty malt. What the hell is going on here?

 

[cervezarara]

That's definitely a new one to me! You probably already know this, but I would suggest you just steep the specialty grains in 150-160F water for 30 minutes or so, remove the bag, and then add half of the DME and bring to a boil. Edit: add the remainder of the DME about 10 minutes before the end of the boil.

I have never steeped grains in a high SG wort, so not sure how it would affect extraction. And I would be careful not to heat the grains over 170F for very long so as to avoid tannins and astringency. Maybe some of the chemists here could advise what the possible benefits of this technique would be, but I suspect these are just poorly written instructions.

Otherwise, this sounds like a tasty kit! Hope it comes out well for you.
Cheers!

 

[McGarnigle]

I suspect they do this to avoid the clumpiness when DME is added to boiling liquid. So they add it to warm water and stir to dissolve. I don't know what it does to your steeping efficiency.

 

[LarsonLE]

Anyone else have any suggestions?

 

[cervezarara]

I don't see any reason for adding the DME prior to steeping. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/specialty-grains-using-malt-extract-95766/
In my experience, DME dissolves more easily in hotter wort than cooler wort. And you don't want the grains to be heated too high to avoid extracting harsh tannins from the grain husks. Thus, steep grains below 170 and then add DME near the boil.
The schedule I suggested above is for late extract addition. You want to boil 60 minutes to isomerize the alpha acids in the hops, but DME doesn't have to boil 60 minutes. Thus if you add half (or more) toward the end, your hops are boiling in a lower gravity wort and, some argue, isomerize more efficiently.
Cheers!

 

[tchuklobrau]

I have done several kits that had the same instructions for the grain. I always ignore the boil the grains comment. I always put grain in muslin bag and add to the water as i am heating it. when temp reaches 150 i hold temp for 20 min then remove grains. have had great success, but refuse to heat grain above 170. So i would ignore that part of the instructions and steep as you usually do.

 

[LarsonLE]

Could someone tell me when exactly should I add part/all of my 7 pounds of DME? cervezarara said to add half, should i add half of each DME? I have both a Wheat DME and a Light DME (1 lb and 6 lb respectively). I'm steeping my grains right now and im about to wing it. Could I add all of my DME with 10 minutes left in the boil? Or do I need to add some sort of DME before I add hops? Also this kit has absolutely no LME which I found strange. Is it?

 

[McGarnigle]

I would probably add all the DME at the beginning as per directions (but maybe not pre-steeping). It's not a big deal if you add half of it late, but that would alter the hopping a little.

If you did add half at 10 minutes, tt doesn't matter which one you hold back. That method really only affects color and hop utilization (and maybe caramelization of the wort). I wouldn't add it all at 10 minutes because you need something in there for the hops to work properly (not sure if specialty grains will suffice). Also, if you hold all the DME back, your beer may be overly bitter.

And it isn't necessarily strange that the kit has all DME and no LME.

 

[cervezarara]

Larson,

I made the assumption that you are doing a partial boil (less than 6 gallons) of 2 gallons of water (per the recipe) and topping off after the boil with cold water to cool the wort. If you add all of the DME at beginning of the boil, your wort will have a very high gravity and your hop utilization may be lower.

If you have a big enough kettle for a full boil (6 gallons of wort) you can add all the DME near the beginning of the boil. It will be less complicated than the late extract addition I described, and less chance of boilover after the late addition.

Even if you do a partial boil with 2 gallons of water, you can still add all the DME at the onset of the boil and it will probably not affect the outcome much.

But by all means, steep at 150 to 160, remove the grains, and then turn up the heat. Whenever you add the DME, you will still make a great beer. DME is somewhat less affected by boiling (Maillard reactions and scorching) than LME, so you can boil it for an hour with a great outcome.

Do what is the least complicated for you and what you are most comfortable with. You will make great beer. And be sure to have a homebrew!

Cheers!