late extract addition

[bellyofbeer]

I'm making a rasberry wheat beer and was going to try a late addition of my LME. My question is should i add the other half of my LME 20 minutes before the end of the boil and then bring back to a boil and proceed with hop schedule; or should i complete the boil and hop schedule then add LME and let steep for 20 minutes. Clarity on this as well as hop utilization would be appreciated.

 

[jaycount]

I add approx half of my extract at 60 min (some folks suggest it would affect the hops utilization) then add the other half with 10-15 min left.

I have noticed my beers are clearer now that I do this, I don't *think* my hops utilization has decreased any but I'm not a scientist either

FWIW though, I wouldn't be trying for clarity in a wheat beer. I might still do the late extract addition out of habit, but I wouldn't use whirlfloc or anything. Whirlfloc definitely helps with the clearing efforts too if you're looking for another way to get things clearer.

 

[tvtoms]

I think you slide it off the heat at 20, add the rest of your liquid and stir it quickly in then right back on the heat and back to a boil and complete the schedule as normal. Basically just not allowing it to hit the bottom and burn before you get a chance to stir it in.

 

[pkiller001]

Late extract additions serve a couple of purposes:
1) you will increase your hop utilization from the earlier hop addition. I'm not sure by exactly how much, but I'm pretty sure equations that predict IBUs take into account the specific gravity of the boiling wort.
2) this will decrease the amount of color the LME will add to the beer because it will have less opportunity to form caramels/malanoidins during the longer boil
3) If you're doing a partial boil, then the extra volume added towards the end of the boil decreases the amount of water you need to add to bring your recipe up to 5 gallons.

In my experience I haven't seen a big difference in clarity either way.

 

[Yooper]

Since adding the extract stops the boil for a while, I found that adding it right before flame out worked perfectly for me. It stayed hot enough to pasteurize for a while, but it didn't mess up my hops additions.

 

[bellyofbeer]

i do all full boils. Its not clarity that i am concerned with as much as the "extracty"(for lack of a better term) flavor that i've noticed consistently in all my beers. All brews have tasted great just trying to figure out how to refine the taste a little. Will doing a late addition help with this. Thanks for all of your input