Added LME too soon

[Woodland]

I'm making Northern Brewers Nukey Brown (Newcastle) kit. I steeped the grains, added the DME, then added the 6 lbs of LME right away. Oops, I was supposed to add the LME the last 15 minutes of the boil. Should I boil less and add extra hops? I wonder how it will turn out if I boil the LME too long.

 

[mikebowman]

Boiling the lme longer shouldn't be much of a problem, though your beer may be darker than you intended. Adding more hops would probably be a good idea though

 

[unionrdr]

The beer will be darker,& caramelized to some degree. When we use steeping grains,we do that step 1st,then start the boil & get it through the hot break. Then add some DME (about 1.5lbs in our case) to do hop additions. Then the remaining DME & all the LME at the end off the heat.
Then cover it & let it steep 10 or 15 minutes while the fv is sanitized & we get ready for the ice bath. Theirs still plenty of heat in the boiled wort to kill any nasties that may've been present.

 

[Woodland]

Thanks for the input. I decided to shorten the boil time by about 15 minutes and add extra hops. I pitched recycled WL California Ale yeast and it took off within 12 hours. Glad I hooked up an overflow tube to my 5 gal carboy, because for the first time I actually needed one. How will the beer taste? Only time will tell.

RDWHHB

 

[Woodland]

It's been in the primary for 2.5 weeks and I decided take off the airlock and take a sniff. It smells pretty gross, tempted to not even bottle it. Kind of sickeningly sweet. Over carmelized, infection?

 

[Diaperload]

Noob question alert: What exactly is a hot break?

 

[BlainD]

Noob question alert: What exactly is a hot break?

Noob answe. It is when wort boils and the sugars go through a process that is similar (but not)caramalization. It's called the hot break.


Some one is going to give a much better answer than mine.

 

[comer88888]

taste your beer and check your gravity. do not dump it. So does it look like anything in any of these pics? https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/post-your-infection-71400/
you probably don't have an infection. Adding your lme isn't a big deal. You just get better hop utilization and less dark color if you add it at the last 15.

 

[wolfstar]

it's green ...give it some time.

 

[Woodland]

Kind of hard to see down into the top of the 5 gal carboy, much yeast and old kreusen stuck to the inside of the neck. I'll check the gravity in a day or so and see if I can see a visible infection.

 

[solbes]

I doubt you have an infection. Carmelization will not greatly affect the taste, mostly it will darken your beer. Since your beer is relatively dark to begin with you will hardly notice it. Don't dump your beer. Give it some more time. Even if it doesn't taste good now, carbonation and time in the bottle may greatly improve it.

 

[Woodland]

Checked the FG tonight, a bit hard to read because of the foam, but it appears to be about 1.012. Took a swig and it tasted fine, rather tasty in fact. Looks like I'm good. There did appear to be a touch of carbonation rising in the beer thief, perhaps fermentation is still going a bit after 2.5 weeks. I'll bottle over the holiday sometime. I can't get over that odor, though. Maybe there was a build up from using a long blow off tube rather than an airlock.

 

[plumbob]

Noob question alert: What exactly is a hot break?

A hot break is when your wort reaches the point where certain proteins from the malted grains coagulate (that is, cook) and form globules in the beer. If you ever do a BIAB (brew in a bag) batch you'll see plenty of hot break roiling around it your kettle during the boil. It's a lot of stuff that you don't want to make it into your bottles or kegs, luckily, it really likes to settle out of your beer, and with the addition of some carrageenan (irish moss) or gelitan at the appropriate time it'll really fall out of your beer.

The stuff just ends up as trub, sludge at the bottom of the fermenter (mostly yeast, hop particles, and coagulated proteins). Even if you suck some of it up during racking or bottling, within reason, it'll just settle out in the bottle or keg at the end of the day.

 

[solbes]

I've had some REALLY bad smells from fermentation that did NOT translate into the finished beer. Fermentation is not always pretty, but the end results usually are.

 

[Woodland]

Thanks, all. That last reply from solbes really sums it up.

 

[Woodland]

I just cracked open a bottle of the brown ale after only 5 days in the bottle, and it's dang good. I'm sold on a yeast starter. I wonder if the starter made for a faster carbonation?