extract brewing: does a late addition boil evaporate more than early addition.

Yesterday I did a late addition for the first time. So I essentially boiled hopped water for an hour before adding any malt extract. Seemed like a *lot* of water evaporated. Much more so than my first two batches where I added the extract at the start of the boil.

Okay, makes sense. Solutions (sugar or otherwise) evaporate at a lower rate. But that much?!? I didn't actually measure but seems like I lost well over half of the one gallon I was boilling (it was a 2 gallon batch). Previous attempts seemed I lost few cups at most. ...Seems.... I have no empirical data.

Any thoughts? Seems to me any change in evaporation, like change in boiling point (sugar water boils at a higher temperature), would be negligible.

You didn't start with ANY extract? You need some extract for the hop utilization to come into play.

Half extract at beginning and the other half at end would be better.....

Ne'mine. Did the math and ... No way. I guess I just noticed it more because I had to add the extracts and thought "gee, there doesn't seem to be all that much water" whereas it wouldn't have concerned me before.

Next time I'l boil the full 2 gallons. The only reason I didn't is because I wanted to cool with ice and not worry about dilution. Turns out that is *not* an issue.

duboman said:

You didn't start with ANY extract? You need some extract for the hop utilization to come into play.

Half extract at beginning and the other half at end would be better.....

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I was told otherwise. Maybe I misunderstood. But no, I didn't add any until the very end.

So, how will my beer turn out?

I like to use DME in the partial boil of 2.5-3.5 gallons. I use 1.5-2lbs of the DME. Do all hop additions. Then add remaining extracts at flame out.

Funny, in a way. I was assuming this would be a "slow down" beer; simpler and fool-prove before I move up to the next step (mashing). But it looks like this is the first beer I really screwed up. Well, maybe "screwed up" is too strong but it didn't go as smoothly as me first two; and I was sooo sure I had extract down pat: well, that's hubris for ya.

Use a about 25% of your extract in the full boil then the rest at flameout and you will be good to go.

grem135 said:

Use a about 25% of your extract in the full boil then the rest at flameout and you will be good to go.

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Well... I *didn't*. Does that mean I'm bad?

Mail the finished beer to me. I'll dispose of it properly...

woozy said:

Well... I *didn't*. Does that mean I'm bad?

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From a thread I posted in last month:

The brewing radio guys did an experiment boiling hops in just water and adding all the extract late, then compared to boiling with extract for the full time. They actually liked the batch with the hops boiled alone better, and it had good bittering. They also seemed to debunk the theory that it would add grassy off flavors.

That being said, it seems standard practice for most folks to add somewhere between 1/4 to 1/2 of their extract at the beginning on a partial boil.

woozy said:

Well... I *didn't*. Does that mean I'm bad?

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All else being equal, the beer will turn out just fine.

The only thing a brewer dogmatically *MUST* do is be very careful with cleanliness and sanitation. In the end, everything else is just nuance. Adding all the extract when you did might result in a slightly different, though not necessarily inferior, flavor. It will still ferment and produce beer.

I'm interested to see how it turns out. Please come back and let us know.

I did have steeped grains.

But the evaporation thing. Just my imagination?

When I have steeped grains I usually only add 1lb of DME. My Patersbier came out nice and golden yellow that way. I have thought about not using any extract when I had steeping grains and LME only. Not done it yet so let me know how yours turns out.

I think maybe you did lose more to evap since lighter weight solution would boil more aggressivly due to the smaller volume your stove had to heat (I think)

grem135 said:

I think maybe you did lose more to evap since lighter weight solution would boil more aggressivly due to the smaller volume your stove had to heat (I think)

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My previous batches were of similar size. However it's possible I simply didn't boil them at quite such a high hear for fear of boil overs and burnings (it just seems intuitive when turning on the burners not to push it; I do have *some* cook's instincts). This batch, being just stained water, I maybe without thinking too consciously boiled at a higher heat.

At any rate I watched the water mark dwindled *way* below the starting level. In the end it looked like I had to add nearly two lbs of DME to what looked like only a quart or two of water and my heart did an "oh boy..." at the thought. Then because, (see my other thread), my DME had clumped into a solid mass (oops) I was just thrown off my rhythm. So basically I stirred like crazy muttering "oh, man! oh, man!" worried like crazy as it bubbled and came *really* close to the limits of boil over.

I'm sure it's fine but it just wasn't the cool, calm, collected and by the book experience I was assuming it'd be.