Extract Brewing - late malt addition question

[bni]

I find that it does a great job oxygenating the wort for piching also.

 

[YankeeBrewer09]

I have noticed that recipes with higher IBU's tend to have you add some malt or other fermentables toward the end if the boil. Like this dogfish clone www.boomchugalug.com/downloadables/recipes/catbird_5400.pdf
Do they do this to use less hops or boil volume?
I'd love to know because I am always afraid to change boil volume or adjust when I add malt.

 

[TheBS19]

Hmm, I definitely read somewhere about the dangers of messing with cooling wort, noting that I had definitely stirred my cooling wort in my previous batches and to make sure I didn't do that again.

Yeah, here it is:

6.9.3 Aeration is Good, Oxidation is Bad

The yeast is the most significant factor in determining the quality of a fermentation. Oxygen can be the most significant factor in determining the quality of the yeast. Oxygen is both your friend and your enemy. It is important to understand when which is which.

You should not aerate when the wort is hot, or even warm. Aeration of hot wort will cause the oxygen to chemically bind to various wort compounds. Over time, these compounds will break down, freeing atomic oxygen back into the beer where it can oxidize the alcohols and hop compounds producing off-flavors and aromas like wet cardboard or sherry-like flavors. The generally accepted temperature cutoff for preventing hot wort oxidation is 80°F.

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter6-9-3.html

Is that not true?

 

[NanoMan]

I have noticed that recipes with higher IBU's tend to have you add some malt or other fermentables toward the end if the boil. Like this dogfish clone www.boomchugalug.com/downloadables/recipes/catbird_5400.pdf
Do they do this to use less hops or boil volume?
I'd love to know because I am always afraid to change boil volume or adjust when I add malt.

First, I think you should consider either brewing software or learn the manual calculations (Designing Great Beers is a good reference). The software is nice 'cause you can do things on the fly (except that it won't account for different timing additons of malt, only hops).

Second, I posit a guess. One factor contributing to IBUs is wort density. The lower the density the higher the IBU, and vice versa. If I'm selling kits, I could use less hop if the majority of the boil is done with a lower wort density (less malt), and then I get the correct starting gravity by adding malt at the end where it's impact on IBUs will be minimized. Make sense?

Cheers!

NanoMan

 

[YankeeBrewer09]

Thanks for the help. Going to purchase some brewing software before next batch. This way I can play with the recipes and still get a good final beer.

 

[pdm1982]

TheBS19, you've got me wondering now. It's been a while since I last brewed so I don't specifically remember the temp of my wort when I aerated it and pitched the yeast. I know it was below 70 but maybe not cool enough... I'd like to believe I got the temp down enough. I use an aerating wand attached to an electric drill then I aerate in the carboy just before pitching the yeast. If my temps were too high still then that could explain an off flavor as well. I will have to be more certain in future batches that my temps are low enough prior to aeration and pitching.

 

[unionrdr]

I stir the wort whil boiling & when chilling. But not roughly,just enough to stir it up. I save the rough stirring for mixing the wort/top off water after straining into the FV. Works better toward not oxygenating at the wrong time.

 

[TheBS19]

I stir the wort whil boiling & when chilling. But not roughly,just enough to stir it up. I save the rough stirring for mixing the wort/top off water after straining into the FV. Works better toward not oxygenating at the wrong time.

Fair enough - is there any advantage to doing that gentle stirring? Obviously I guess it would promote cooling if you were using cold air to get the wort off the bottom of the kettle swished around, but in an ice bath, is any advantage seen from that stir?

Would simply dropping a sanitized frozen bottle like the other poster suggested (as a type of home-made wort chiller) be just as effective without the danger of disturbing the wort?

Just trying to get myself a best practice to adhere to this time around to see about improvements in taste without necessarily deviating from kit ingredients (yet) - want to get my process down.

 

[BigGoat]

I gently stir in the ice bath. Cuts cooling time a lot. I can cool two batches in the same bath in about 20 minutes

 

[TheBS19]

I gently stir in the ice bath. Cuts cooling time a lot. I can cool two batches in the same bath in about 20 minutes

Continuous or occassional?

 

[NanoMan]

I stir with the electric dril starting at flameout. Stir like hell. Then let it settle for 20 minutes to 2 hours. I use brewBrite, too and the wort comes nearly crystalline, cool and all oxygentated...

 

[unionrdr]

I'm going to to order fivestar's "super moss" next month & tey that. My PM ales have this very thin light fog to them that's taking longer to settle out. I think it's protiens from the fine crush I use for PM BIAB. It'd be great to get'em clear faster than 2-3 weeks fridge time. It was easy with the 1st PM batch I did. Then this fog shows up. I guess yooper was right about clearing agents when I'd asked about it awhile back. Def needs a lil something with mashed grains & how fine the crush is.

 

[BigGoat]

Occasional. Between sanitizing carboys and such. Using a frozen bottle of water sounds like a good idea too.

 

[NanoMan]

Brewbrite is specifically designed to remove haze-causing proteins and is very effective.