Using LME

[ncbrewer]

I can't say from experience, but this Beersmith article states

For those wondering what Beersmith article I was talking about, it was Better Beer with Late Malt Extract Additions | Home Brewing Beer Blog by BeerSmith™.

 

[ajbosley2015]

This is an interesting conversation and I am enjoying it quite a bit. There are some methods that I never would have considered in my early extract brewing days, specifically not boiling the malt extract at all. I read (somewhere) that most high AA hops require some complex sugars to enhance isomerization. My extract brews were almost always split 25/75 in that 25% of the extract was added at the initial boil, and 75 percent was added within the last 20 minutes (depending on my hop schedule).

I have gotten to the point where most of the year I only use my homegrown. My yard consists of:
Petoskey
Columbus
Zeus (yes, I know they are practically the same, but one group of rhizomes was from the PAC NW, one was from the Midwest...and I live in WV so I wanted to see what would perform best)
Fuggle
Sterling
Cashmere
Crystal

I cant typically get just about everything I want out of these hops, but I do still buy a lot to get me through the rest of the year.

The reason I brought this up, is that I do not like adding anything homegrown post-boil if the temp has dipped below 165, just for safety...so as I have began transitioning into some pretty flavorful IPAs, I have started really supplementing elsewhere

How do we feel about dryhopping with dried and frozen homegrown hops?

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

According to newer research (Scott Janish, The New IPA, 2019) alpha acid isomerization starts somewhere around 140-145F.

Where in the book is this mentioned?

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

That way I'm getting less darkening of the wort without risking a harsh bitterness. I'm guessing this depends on your water chemistry.

If one is brewing extract+steep with tap water, without knowing the mineral composition of the water, "all bets are off" as to the outcome.

Recently, I brewed the same SMaSH-ish DME recipe (using distilled water) with two different brands of DME . Different beers, both were good. Experimented with adding CaCl & CaS04 in the glass. The "overmineralized" levels were different for each beer (but it didn't take a lot of either salt to "overmineralize"). So each brand of DME probably started with different water chemistry. Most of this is my personal confirmation of information in a chapter of How To Brew, 4e and a chapter of Brewing Engineering (chapter numbers and specific page numbers available upon request).

 

[madscientist451]

Let's say that I want to make beer using 3 lbs of unhopped LME and want to add 2 qts of hop tea to bring the wort up to 3 gallons. Is there a ball park way to determine how much hops and how long to boil the tea in order to achieve about 19 IBUs in 3 gallons?

Not sure how to estimate/calculate hop tea in an extract brew, but I'm thinking for 5 gallons of Modelo beer, an ounce of Mt Hood or Hallertau at 60 minutes qnd 1/3 ounce of Saaz or Mt Hood/Hallertau at 10 minutes would be about right, so with 1/2 gallon of plain water for hop tea and a 3 gallon batch, I'd reduce those amounts and go with 1/3 oz of Mt Hood or Hallertau, boil it for 15 minutes and see how it comes out.
If you don't have a scale, Just dump out a 1 oz pkg of hops on to a plate and divide the pellets up by eye.
To make things more complicated, you can also make hop tea by boiling water, turning off the heat and then adding the hops, letting them steep in almost boiling water instead of boiling the hops.
Here's more information:
https://beerandbrewing.com/use-hops-tea-to-enhance-flavors-in-your-beer/

 

[ncbrewer]

This link has some interesting info on hop utilization at sub-boiling temperatures: An Analysis of Sub-Boiling Hop Utilization
I use their formulas for hop stands, and it seems to work well.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

According to newer research (Scott Janish, The New IPA, 2019) alpha acid isomerization starts somewhere around 140-145F.

Where in the book is this mentioned? Asking for a friend

 

[IslandLizard]

Where in the book is this mentioned?

Not sure, I don't have the book here. If I got it from there, it would be in Ch.2:

Chapter two is all about hot-side hopping, which includes science on early addition bittering hops and late whirlpool hops. I look at research into the importance of whirlpool hopping for enhanced hop flavoring. How the temperatures and durations of whirlpool hopping can impact hop compounds. Also, how certain hop varieties can have higher extraction efficiency than others.

[Added] Scott Janish's blog also contains tons of information on hops and brewing in general as does themadfermentationist.com.

Thinking about it, I may have gotten the information on that topic from the Alchemy Overlord blog, the same link @ncbrewer posted:
An Analysis of Sub-Boiling Hop Utilization
and their calculator (choose either Tinseth or mIBU):
https://jphosom.github.io/alchemyoverlord/
I've used that calculator. In mIBU mode I get somewhat lower IBU estimates than BeerSmith 3 calculates from whirlpool hops.
However, the resulting beer tastes a bit more bitter, 5-10 IBU higher than the 34 IBU Beersmith predicts, including 15 IBU from bittering hops. I haven't looked deeper into the mIBU method yet to get predictions to be closer to Beersmith 3 (34 IBU) or what it tastes like in reality (40-45 IBU), which is my estimate.

The only thing I can think of is that the calcs are either conservative or dry hops add bitterness too, either perceived or real IBUs. At 4-6 oz (15.5% AA) per 5.5 gallons for 1-3 days with stirring agitation twice a day.

 

[Sailor323]

Thanks to all for the advice. I made a tea of 3 oz of Citra hops for a 3 gallon batch of 2 row lme. Nice, light kind of beer. My wife said a little bitter on the finish. Will try hallertau next time.