Help needed before my first extract brew (full boil)

Lord Callahad

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Hi, I was just prepping for my brew day tomorrow and before hitting the hay I've been reading that it isnt good to boil your DME for the full hour. I am doing a full boil (around 20 L or 5 gallon) and aiming for a 4 gallon batch. Ive scaled a recipe down so it should be all good. There's quite a few citra hops in there and I'll be steeping grains as well. Should I add most of the DME at flame out or does this really only apply to partial boil extract brewers? Thanks in advance, particularly to my american friends who will probably be up to actually read this!

Edit: just went for the DME going all in before the boil. Seemed to go ok. Wort tasted pretty awful at the end lol just hoping that's normal. There was a lot of citra went in there!
 
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I have only ever done one extract brew. My kit came with LME, I boiled it with the LME for the full 60. If you are brewing a recipe, what does the recipe say? Making beer is essentially cooking, no matter how long one has been brewing, we follow a recipe to some degree...
 
Hi, I was just prepping for my brew day tomorrow and before hitting the hay I've been reading that it isnt good to boil your DME for the full hour. I am doing a full boil (around 20 L or 5 gallon) and aiming for a 4 gallon batch. Ive scaled a recipe down so it should be all good. There's quite a few citra hops in there and I'll be steeping grains as well. Should I add most of the DME at flame out or does this really only apply to partial boil extract brewers? Thanks in advance, particularly to my american friends who will probably be up to actually read this!
Like most you read in the Interwebs, rhat a 60 minute extract boil is bad is unadulterated BS. A long boil won't hurt it, if you need to isomerize hops, boil 60 mins. If not, shorter will do. Adjust your boil to the length you need for your beer and ignore at least 9/10ths of what the Intertubes say.
 
The reasons they say not to boil the extract for the full 60 minutes are
1. It makes the beer darker. Not a problem if you are not needing to nail a certain color, like a beer you are entering into a homebrew competition that will be scored on color.
2. It can make hop oil extraction more difficult if you are boiling only part of the water and then diluting to full volume. The wort gets very thick and can't absorb as much hop goodness. If your doing a full volume boil the wort isn't thick so not a problem.

When I started out I always boiled the extract the whole 60 minutes and did a partial volume boil then topped off to 5 gallons. The beer came out just fine. After a while I started adding about 3./4 of the extract with about 5 minutes left to boil, just to get a lighter color in the beer. Both ways worked and made good beer.
 
thanks guys! worked out ok and good to know that it mainly affects the colour not the taste. the recipe I followed (Zombie Dust Clone - Extract) actually had a 60min steeping grains phase. as i was fishing out my little bags of grains i was thinking: i could have just done a goddam BIAB and it would have been quicker! i'll use up the rest of my DME and get a bag asap lol.
 
The reasons they say not to boil the extract for the full 60 minutes are
1. It makes the beer darker. Not a problem if you are not needing to nail a certain color, like a beer you are entering into a homebrew competition that will be scored on color.
2. It can make hop oil extraction more difficult if you are boiling only part of the water and then diluting to full volume. The wort gets very thick and can't absorb as much hop goodness. If your doing a full volume boil the wort isn't thick so not a problem.

When I started out I always boiled the extract the whole 60 minutes and did a partial volume boil then topped off to 5 gallons. The beer came out just fine. After a while I started adding about 3./4 of the extract with about 5 minutes left to boil, just to get a lighter color in the beer. Both ways worked and made good beer.
Right on the money, Hoegarth. The BF calculator does a good job predicting IBU's based on time and boil gravity. Check the calculator using a water only boil with the hops and with using full recipe strength extract. See which one matches your taste or style better. At a minimum , I would add the extract 5 minutes before the end of the boil, just to get if fully dissolved and sanitized.
 
thanks guys! i kinda freaked out last night. losing sleep over stupid stuff again. the recipe I followed (Zombie Dust Clone - Extract) actually had a 60min steeping grains phase. as i was fishing out my little bags of grains i was thinking: i could have just done a goddam BIAB and it would have been quicker! i'll use up the rest of my DME and get a bag asap lol.
BIAB is a great way to go, particularly for small batches. I typically brew 3 gallons batches. Very easy and you can make very good beer.
 
Partial is like Biab just havnt used base grains in the steep if your going to wait for some coloured grains to steep you might as well get some Amalyse to work converting base grains at the same time and just extend that steep out to an hour;).
 
Someday I'll try a BIAB, but I like my setup.
 
thanks guys! worked out ok and good to know that it mainly affects the colour not the taste. the recipe I followed (Zombie Dust Clone - Extract) actually had a 60min steeping grains phase. as i was fishing out my little bags of grains i was thinking: i could have just done a goddam BIAB and it would have been quicker! i'll use up the rest of my DME and get a bag asap lol.
Sounds like you nailed your bases.
Let me know how this turns out. I was going to brew the same but went a little mellower.
 
Sounds like you nailed your bases.
Let me know how this turns out. I was going to brew the same but went a little mellower.

Hi. First taste today after a week, v tastey! Like a really hoppy cask ale. Gravity 1.021 but hoping I'll make it to the 1.016 over the next few days. Dry hopped the 50g citra today after the sample and just hope I kept it sterile! Will let you know how the next one goes
 

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