Late extract additions

[manisfive]

Hi all.



I'm a new brewer, with only one batch under my belt (and it is still sitting in the fermenter only a week old.) On my first batch I added a little more than half and a little less than 3/4s of the extract at the 15 min mark of my boil. On my stove I am lucky to get a rolling boil for 1.5 gallons of water. I use the late extract addition for the same reasons that most of us know. I run the #'s through beersmith to adjust for the IBU's being off. I am going to brew a saison next friday night or saturday morning and I would really like to get the color as light as possible. To help with this I was thinking about adding the majority of my extract at flame out. The only concern I have is that I have a few more ingredients than before.

-- 3.15 lbs Pilsen malt syrup
-- 1 lb Pilsen dry malt extract
-- 1 lb Wheat dry malt extract

Has anybody used the extract at flame out method? I assume that I should use one of the dry extract additions for my initial boil and safe at least the liquid if not both the liquid and one of the pound dry extracts for the flame out.


Any thoughts? Suggestions? Experiences? :rockin:

 

[erikpete18]

So when I was doing extract and partial boils, I generally tried to aim for the same OG of my partial boil as it would for a full boil. For instance, if I was doing a batch that, had it been a full boil, would have had a pre-boil gravity of 1.04, I tried to add enough extract to get it around 1.04 as the first addition, and then the rest as the late addition. (Of course, I did this within reason, I wasn't trying to measure out partial amounts of liquid extract, just doing what you're doing and trying to get close to a number.) This wasn't so much with any scientific backing, just so that if I did eventually want to remake the recipe with a full boil, the hop additions should be pretty close to the same as with the partial boil recipe.

Judging from that, and assuming that you're only boiling 1.5gal of a 5 gal batch, that's only 30% of the recipe, so your plan should be about right. I don't think you'd be incorrect to add both dry extract additions at the beginning, since they always took longer for me to work into solution, but if you only wanted to add one pound of dry (roughly 30% since dry is worth more than liquid) it should work out pretty well. For my recipes it was always the liquid extract that lent more color anyways, and so long as you make sure to take the pot off the heat when you add it at the end, you should wind up fairly light.

 

[revco]

I have a miserable kitchen stove and it was troublesome to say the least to brew on, similar to your situation. What I ended up doing was running two extract boils on two different burners, both about 1/2 the overall recipe...but I could work with a larger boil overall. Fortunately, I had an extra 5G pot and two large burners to work with. Then, I moved my operation to the garage and a propane burner...wish I had done that sooner, it would have saved me a number of frustrating moments.

Your overall process seems fairly sound. I used flameout LME extract additions pretty regularly without trouble, but it's probably wise to boil it for at least a couple minutes if you can, so as to totally kill off any improbable nasties. When using DME, I wouldn't add it past 15 minutes remaining in the boil, because yes, it needs some time to dissolve and meld. "Close enough" is fine in extract brewing, LME can be pretty gnarly to work with, in particular.

 

[Biere_Titan]

If you're adding the extract at flameout just be sure to wait 10-15 minutes before cooling. The wort will be plenty warm enough to kill off any "nasties".

Have you tried using two burners to bring the wart to a boil? Once it's reached that point one burner should suffice to keep it boiling. That should allow you to do bigger boils. Another idea is to wrap your pot that foil insulation you can buy at Home Depot or other hardware store. It's inexpensive and will greatly reduce the time required to get your wort boiling.

Cheers.

 

[unionrdr]

I do late extract additions in all my beers,evwen the PB/PM BIAB ones. Pasteurization happens about 162F,& since the flame out additions are added to still boiling hot wort,it works just fine. I've been doing it since my 3rd brew a couple years ago. and if you have an electric stove with the usual coil style burners,there's a link in my profile for aftermarket ones on amazon that heat up faster. I can get 2.5-3.5 gallons from mash temp to boiling in about 18 minutes. These will allow you to use a larger boil volume.

 

[manisfive]

So when I was doing extract and partial boils, I generally tried to aim for the same OG of my partial boil as it would for a full boil. For instance, if I was doing a batch that, had it been a full boil, would have had a pre-boil gravity of 1.04, I tried to add enough extract to get it around 1.04 as the first addition, and then the rest as the late addition. (Of course, I did this within reason, I wasn't trying to measure out partial amounts of liquid extract, just doing what you're doing and trying to get close to a number.) This wasn't so much with any scientific backing, just so that if I did eventually want to remake the recipe with a full boil, the hop additions should be pretty close to the same as with the partial boil recipe.

Judging from that, and assuming that you're only boiling 1.5gal of a 5 gal batch, that's only 30% of the recipe, so your plan should be about right. I don't think you'd be incorrect to add both dry extract additions at the beginning, since they always took longer for me to work into solution, but if you only wanted to add one pound of dry (roughly 30% since dry is worth more than liquid) it should work out pretty well. For my recipes it was always the liquid extract that lent more color anyways, and so long as you make sure to take the pot off the heat when you add it at the end, you should wind up fairly light.

Yes. From doing some research I was under the impression that I would probably need to adjust my hops due to late extract additions. Though most of what I read was late extract additions in full boils. When I adjust my recipe in beer smith for my lower boil volume the hop additions tend to give me ibu levels really close to the original recipe. I didn't realize why this is until I put two and two together with your post. It makes sense now. I did both pounds of Dme for the full boil and this worked out fine.
Thanks for the recommendations.