When to add DME during boil?

[rilo0407]

I brewed a small 1 gal batch of pale ale a few days ago and I added all of the DME at the beginning of the boil. The last kit that I brewed split the LME at the beginning and at the last 15 min. Should I have split the DME? Since it was a small batch I only boiled for 35 min. BTW I really liked working with DME. Much easier to handle than LME in my opinion.

 

[MalFet]

Short answer: follow the instructions on your kit. When you add your extract impacts hop utilization, and if you do it at a time other than what your kit designers were expecting you might end up with too much or too little bitterness. There are techniques for adding extract late that are often used when converting full boil to partial boil recipes, but there are a few calculations involved in doing this right.

Also, boil length shouldn't really have anything to do with batch size. You want to boil a 3 gallon batch just as long as a 6 gallon batch, again for reasons related to hop utilization.

 

[hudsonj6]

I've added it at the beginning and split it. I now prefer to split it just cause it's easier to get (and keep) the wort boiling on my stove. If I had an propane burner I would probably add it at the beginning, but I'd probably be doing all grain as well.

 

[Rev2010]

When you add your extract impacts hop utilization

He's talking about dry malt, not hops.

I'm curious too. I posted recently about boiling the DME and was pretty much told a 10 minute boil is fine, I'm using hopped liquid extract that doesn't require boiling. I was wondering if it's fine to just pitch the dry malt I'm adding into the fermenter with the boiling water initially put in to dissolve and mix the extract. So I'm curious as well if there are any pluses or minuses to boiling DME any longer.


Rev.

 

[Alehouserock]

A DME hint,


Add it to cold water (like in a pitcher) and it won't clump. Mix it up well and pour the room temp/cold water in to your boil. Not clumps and it is way easier.
Like others said add it when the kit says or just add it at the 60 minute mark before your first hop addition

 

[mixedbrewer]

I am a late edition guy. Because it has already been cooked once, I like to add it in the last 10 minutes of the boil. I want to keep some of the protein that is still left in the DME for head retention. The beers also seem to have better mouth-feel when I cook it less. But who knows, maybe I am just crazy...

 

[storunner13]

When working with kits, it's best to always follow the instructions. Hopefully, whoever put together the kit figured out the numbers to end up with the right Original Gravity (OG) and IBUs. If you start to create your own recipes, adding DME or LME at the end of the boil might improve the final product.

Rev2010, hop utilization is dependent on the gravity of the boil. For example, I will get better hop utilization from the boil of a 4% blonde than I will from a 12% barleywine because a lower gravity boil can extract more bitterness. Therefore, if you add all the DME before the boil, your hop utilization will be lower than if you split it.

 

[rilo0407]

Thanks for the relpies. This is not a kit. Im just using DME and leaf hops. I'm plugging the volume, hop amounts and boil time in the beer calculus to get OG, IBU and color. I also have QBrew software downloaded and am comparing it to beer calculus. So I'm sort of making my own recipes.

 

[rilo0407]

Thanks Storunner. That really makes sense and I will try that on my next small batch. The pale ale that I brewed a few days ago may be less bitter then because of the full amount of the DME in the beginning. I'm always learning something new.

 

[weirdboy]

He's talking about dry malt, not hops.

I'm curious too. I posted recently about boiling the DME and was pretty much told a 10 minute boil is fine, I'm using hopped liquid extract that doesn't require boiling. I was wondering if it's fine to just pitch the dry malt I'm adding into the fermenter with the boiling water initially put in to dissolve and mix the extract. So I'm curious as well if there are any pluses or minuses to boiling DME any longer.


Rev.

OK you (and others in the thread) need to understand this, as it is important:

When you add the EXTRACT to your boil has an impact on the HOPS alpha acid utilization. This is because the amount of alpha acids that are isomerized during the boil are directly affected by the gravity of the wort. So for the same recipe, if you add the extract at the beginning of the boil, you will have a lower IBU wort than if you add the same extract at the end of the boil, or split it. This is why others above suggested following the instructions for the kit. Extract kits are (usually) designed with this concept in mind so you should follow the recipe as outlined for that kit, since changing it on brew day will have an impact on the perceived bitterness in that beer.

 

[MalFet]

Thanks for the relpies. This is not a kit. Im just using DME and leaf hops. I'm plugging the volume, hop amounts and boil time in the beer calculus to get OG, IBU and color. I also have QBrew software downloaded and am comparing it to beer calculus. So I'm sort of making my own recipes.

Excellent! In that case, late extract additions can be useful, especially if you are doing a partial boil. Consider an example like this:

Say you're making a beer with an OG of 1.050 at 6 gallons, but you're only able to boil 3 gallons at a time (topping off to 6 gallons in the fermentor). If you dumped all your extract in at the beginning, you'd have a gravity of 1.100, and you'd get very different hop character. Instead, you can just add half of your extract (giving you a gravity of 1.050, just like your final beer), and then add the rest of the extract ten minutes from the end of boil. This way you can use roughly the same recipes for full and partial boils.

If you are doing full boils, the difference is less significant, but see below:

He's talking about dry malt, not hops.

I'm curious too. I posted recently about boiling the DME and was pretty much told a 10 minute boil is fine, I'm using hopped liquid extract that doesn't require boiling. I was wondering if it's fine to just pitch the dry malt I'm adding into the fermenter with the boiling water initially put in to dissolve and mix the extract. So I'm curious as well if there are any pluses or minuses to boiling DME any longer.

Yep, I understood what he was asking. As others have point out, gravity affects hop character. To answer your question specifically, though, the main concern is recipe. You have to design a recipe differently for early and late extract additions. Some of the better brew software will help you with this.

If you are designing your own recipe, you can go either way so long as you are calculating your IBUs accordingly. I wouldn't add DME to the fermentor directly, just because it won't be sanitary. Boiling it for ten minutes will pasteurize and is plenty as far as your malt bill is concerned. If recipes are adjusted appropriately, early malt addition will give you slightly more melanoidin production (caramel flavors) and late addition will give you slightly less, but it's a subtle difference compared to the hop effects.

 

[Rev2010]

Ah, for some reason I had the idea he was using a non boil hopped liquid extract. Think I got my threads crossed when replying.

Thanks for the follow up info by the way.


Rev.

 

[yewtah-brewha]

I am a late edition guy. Because it has already been cooked once, I like to add it in the last 10 minutes of the boil. I want to keep some of the protein that is still left in the DME for head retention. The beers also seem to have better mouth-feel when I cook it less. But who knows, maybe I am just crazy...

I think your right on target! I have brewed 18 batches. and the only one that I can say had good head and retention was a canned coopers ipa kit. The one thing I remember about that brew was I added 1 lb of dme near the end of boil. I havn't done it since, I have used cara pils w/o much sucsess.

So tomarrow I will try this using DME at 20 min eob.