Late addition LME/DME with steeping

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

BrutalBrew

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2012
Messages
344
Reaction score
21
Location
plainfield
Ive been reading a lot of old threads about late additions. Every kit I have got so far has steeping grains and I have not found any info involving how the grains effect all the talk. Ive been steeping my grains first at temp list on instructions, most is around 155. then remove grain bag, bring to boil, remove heat and add extracts, bring back to a boil and start my timer with hop additions. After reading and learning more I know this isn't the best way. This is my plan for my next batches. I would love some feed back on this.
Also I have been steeping for longer than the 15 minutes listed on the instructions , is this a good idea or bad? Ive been steeping for 30 minutes.

my plan: Steep grains for 30 minutes at 155, pour hot water over grain bag on removal. Bring to a boil. start timer 60 min if called for and start hop additions at recommended times. Add lme/dme at end of timer/flameout. Bring back to boil for 1 min just to be sure all is dissolved well and equally mixed. off to the ice water in a tub. I fill the tub with ice to match liquid in pot (pot will float if to much water/ice) top off with cold water. take a spatula and rotate the ice water so it rotates around the wort pot, it reachs 70 deg in 15 min)
 
I would argue that the best late extract method would entail boiling a wort that is around the OG of your final beer. So, if you are boiling half of your water, you'd be best to add half of your extract as well.
Having a wort with more malt in it will also likely give you a more palatable hop flavor as well.

If I were you, I'd steep my grains, then boil half my extract, add bittering hops after the hot break, then start the boil timer, and add the remaining half of the extract with about 5 minutes to go.

Something worth keeping in mind is that although extract is preboiled, it still has some hot break proteins. You want to make sure your late addition is able to create that hot break before you cool. Even if your timer goes off, keep boiling after you add the late extract until you get past the break.
 
I start with 5.0 gallons and end up adding 1 more gallon when pouring hot water thru the grains. start with total of 6 gallons and boil off 1.0 to 0.5 gallons ending with around 5.5

From alot of recent research the needing of malts dont effect hops at all. Now if theres proteins that still need breaking down then I can see the need of adding early in boil.
Yooper where areeeeeeeeee youuuuuuuuuu. lol
 
Ive been steeping my grains first at temp list on instructions, most is around 155. then remove grain bag, bring to boil, remove heat and add extracts, bring back to a boil and start my timer with hop additions

my plan: Steep grains for 30 minutes at 155, pour hot water over grain bag on removal. Bring to a boil. start timer 60 min if called for and start hop additions at recommended times. Add lme/dme at end of timer/flameout. Bring back to boil for 1 min just to be sure all is dissolved well and equally mixed.

I'm in the exact same boat as you, only about two months ahead. Your first paragraph is exactly what I used to do with my extracts. The second paragraph is what I've done with my most recent three brews, with the exception that I add 1lb of DME at the beginning of the boil. One of them is still in secondary so I can't tell you what it tastes like, but the others have been bottled for 3 weeks and 7 weeks and are both already great.

I was saying yesterday while I was drinking a couple that they're the two best beers I've made; whether that is from the extract addition-changes, my increasing experience as a brewer, or the fact that my last 3 brews have been my own recipes, I don't know.

I don't know the right answer, but I can all but assure you that your plan above won't make a bad beer. Or to specify: it at least won't be your extract additions that screw up your beer.
 
I have been reading all of the similar threads also and have a question that I haven't seen brought up in the past (forgive me if it has). I am currently only doing extract but have the ability to do full boils. Is it worth doing full boils while using the late extract addition method? Previously when I did partial boils I was never pleased with the flavor as it seemed that the beer didn't come together very well.
 
Back
Top