Risks of Long Build Up to Boil???

[jloxton]

I am a new stove top brewer (after a decade of pre-made wort brewing). (Electric, coil element stove.) We are just getting ready for our third grain and extract brew. For our last beer, a traditional British IPA, we did a 15 L boil. We had no problem rapidly chilling this, nor keeping a rigourous boil, but I am concerned about the amount of time it took to reach a boil from steeping (~40 minutes) after grain removal. The recipe we were using called for immediate addition of extracts post steeping. What effects, if any, would this long exposure to pre-boiling heat have on wort flavour/colour? In future brews, should I hold off on adding extracts until the wort tempature reaches near boiling? Should I cut back on volume to reduce lead time to boil? (We are trying to brew fairly high SRM/hops beers, so this later suggestion is undesirable.)

Your help is greatly appreciated!

Jason

 

[gtpro]

some people only add extract once they get to a boil, others say it doesnt matter. . .and it probably doesnt. If you add extract pre-boil you might get some scorching because the extract doesnt dissolve as well in cooler water. The only other effect is camelization/darker color of the final product, for pale brews you use Extra light LME and save most of the addition for the last 15 minutes of the boil.

 

[david_42]

Since the Mallard reactions occur at higher temperatures, the main impact would be higher SRM and some slight caramelizing. Having weighed these changes against scorching the extract while mixing it into boiling wort (although this might be less of a problem with an electric element), I mix right after removing the steeping grains.

 

[CiscoKid]

First off, welcome to the site!

Generally speaking, that hot heat source on the bottom of the pot is going to affect the color of the beer, even if your wort hasn't reached a boil yet. It's going to inevitably caramelize some of those sugars in the bottom of the pot and lead to an end product that is a little darker than you intended. There's a couple of techniques you can use to combat this though.

1) Wait until you reach a boil to add extract. I did this on the stove, and I've continued to do this with my propane burners. After my steep is done, I bring the water up to a boil and then shut off the flame and add/mix in extract. It's still going to take a few minutes to get it to a boil again, but significantly less time than it took to get from 150 degrees to a boil.

2) Late addition of extract. Consider adding half your extract just about the time you start the boil, and the other half in the last 15 minutes of your boil. This will pasteurize the extract sufficiently, while keeping it in contact with that heat source for less time.

 

[jloxton]

Thanks guys for all the help! : )