ZooBroo said:
Thanks for the quick response. You must monitor every discussion thread here!
I don't steep my grains at 165 for 45 minutes every time. Some recipes call for different temperatures and time. I also add my extract at different times during the boil depending on the recipe. Assuming the Late Addition flag for the malts equals last 10 minutes, that helps for some recipes but I have done some that say add malt at the beginning and other malts at 45 mins or 30 mins remaining.
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When it comes to extract brewing, in practice, yes we could look into allowing brewers to adjust steeping time and temp. However for the most part, steeping is steeping, and since the majority of the sugars are coming from extract, what you care about most is flavor extraction during that step. I am not confident there would be much difference between steeping at 150F for 30 minutes, and 160F for 45 minutes. It really comes down to crush.
As for when to add extract during the boil, that does impact boil gravity (for IBU purposes) and perhaps a very minor degree of caramelization which is probably hard to detect. Customizing when an ingredient goes into the boil would add complexity to the recipe editor. Currently early/late additions are considered added at either the start of the boil (in the case of late additions), or at 10 minutes (in the case of late additions). Again, this is something that amounts to a minor detail, as in the end OG is the same either way.
Given that you are thinking about these things, you are probably ready for partial mash or even all grain brewing, and at that point these concerns would be much less of an issue. You will also enjoy the Brew Session -> Batch Stats feature for tracking efficiency numbers during your brew.
All that said, we hear you when it comes to customizing brew steps. I want a custom profile that allows me to 'squeeze out the hops' right after flameout for my IPA recipes.