Boil question

[TheCollector]

Ok so my electric stove has a hard time getting my wort up to boil so it takes a long time. My question is the recipe I followed last night called for a late addition of 6lbs of LME at 15 minutes left and another addition of 2lbs of corn sugar at 5 minutes left in the boil. I pulled the pot off the eye to add these additions plus the room temp ingredients dropped the wort down to about 180°f. I paused my timer until I got back to a boil then resumed for the last 15 minutes. Was this a mistake that would extract extra bitterness? Should I have kept the timer going even if it's not boiling? I don't think it would have reached a boil in that 15 minutes if I had not paused the timer. Thanks on advice everyone

 

[chawn]

Yooper suggests adding late extract additions at flame-out because of the temperature drop. I'd take her advice.

 

[TheCollector]

Doesn't that cause concern for infection?

 

[aopisa]

Doesn't that cause concern for infection?

The wort at flameout is still near boiling temperature.

A general rule of thumb is that anything below 160 F whether it be wort or Grandma's lasagna is when bacteria becomes a concern. Of course it is a best practice to be mindful of sanitation as soon as you stop boiling, but adding extract at flameout would still be considered safe.

 

[JimRausch]

To answer your Q- yes boiling for an extra 15 minutes will potentially mess up your hop schedule and potentially increase bitterness and decrease any flavor/ aroma. But, yes I've done it too. I guess whether you notice a difference will depend on if you have done the same recipe in the past and have it to compare to.
The last time I did a PM batch, I did wait until flameout to add LME- it does make it easier. No risk of scorching, no risk of boilover. Plenty of heat for sanitation- a win,win situation.

 

[rodwha]

I've been adding my LME at flameout for nearly 3 years with over 35 brews and none have been infected. But the LME is good as is. The only potential problem might be the exterior of the container.

I'd add the sugar at flameout too.

 

[JimRausch]

Also, almost forgot. The last batch I did on the stove before moving to a propane burner/turkey kettle combo, I actually used two pots on the stove. It was a bit of a pain in the butt trying to keep the hop additions the same for each pot, but it did keep the rolling boil going well.
Propane/big BK is nice!

 

[peterj]

Yeah I agree with the other posters that you should add extra sugars at flameout. Especially since it's so hard for you to bring the wort back up to a boil.

As long as the temperature is above about 180-190F, it is still hot enough to isomerize alpha acids. It will be happening at a lower rate, but it will be happening. It really depends on the recipe as to how much it will affect the outcome. If you added a lot of hops right before you added the LME then you may be looking at an increase in IBU and possibly a decrease in hop flavor/aroma. But if the recipe only had a bittering addition or something, then you're not really going to have much of a difference at all.

 

[TheCollector]

Here is the recipe schedule if that helps. Add 1 oz hops while steeping the specialty grains for 20 minutes. Bring to a boil then remove from heat and add 3.15 lbs of gold LME. Start boil.
At 30 minutes left add1/2 oz summit.
At 20 minutes left add 2 oz cascade.
At 15 minutes left add 6 lbs of gold LME.(took an extra 10-13 minutes to get back up to boil) then continued.
At 5 minutes left add 2 lbs of corn sugar.
At flame out add 2 oz cascade AND 1/2 oz summit. Let steep for 15 minutes (hop stand) then cool and so on and so forth.

So would adding the late additions at the end change the flavor at all?.
Also I have a turkey fryer with aluminum pot that a friend loaned me. Would using that eliminate this problem all together next time?

Thanks for all your responses!