Hello all,
I had to stop brewing for personal reasons a while back and I am looking to get back into it, but my current situation (living area) isn't really workable with the 3 vessel all grain method I was accustomed to. Basically I don't really have anywhere to put a propane burner and such to make it work. This leaves me with a regular stove top to do either 3 gallon all grain batches or potentially some extract batches. Because a 3 gallon all grain batch still takes most of the time needed to make a regular sized batch and only nets you 3 gallons, I was leaning towards making some extract brews.
Like most people, I started with extract. I actually started with the pre-hopped tins and that never... worked out so well, but anyway.
I did make the occasional extract batch with my old gear, I would do a full volume boil with all the extract in at the start, I never thought much of it. The beer was actually pretty decent, but I did notice that my extract brews were darker and they did have a bit of a caramel taste to them, no matter how fresh or light the extract was.
So, now that I'm working with a burner that can't boil the full volume needed to make a 5 gallon batch, I'm faced with boiling a smaller amount and topping up in the fermenter. From my research, I have found a lot of people talking about "late extract additions", where you add a portion of it at the end to keep the gravity of the boil lower to prevent excess darkening and to reduce any nasty flavours that comes with it. So, this has me thinking and I have a few questions that I haven't been able to answer through searching goolge, so I figured I would ask you folks:
When doing a partial boil, will adding 50% of the extract at the start and the other 50% towards the end of the boil result in a comparable brew to one done with a full volume boil?
Will adding less than 50% at the start and adding even more at the end, say 25% at the start and 75% at the end show even more improvement?
This also begs the question, what about boil length? If you were to assume that extract has already been boiled once, if you choose to do a full boil, whether it's with late addition or not, that's 60 minutes + what ever length of time it was boiled by the producer of the extract. That's a lot of boiling! So, what about reducing the boil time? Does shortening the boil time of an extract batch result in any improvement? What if you shortened it to 30 minutes?
I'm just trying to figure out the best way to make extract beer with what I currently have. Any advice would be appreciated.
I had to stop brewing for personal reasons a while back and I am looking to get back into it, but my current situation (living area) isn't really workable with the 3 vessel all grain method I was accustomed to. Basically I don't really have anywhere to put a propane burner and such to make it work. This leaves me with a regular stove top to do either 3 gallon all grain batches or potentially some extract batches. Because a 3 gallon all grain batch still takes most of the time needed to make a regular sized batch and only nets you 3 gallons, I was leaning towards making some extract brews.
Like most people, I started with extract. I actually started with the pre-hopped tins and that never... worked out so well, but anyway.
I did make the occasional extract batch with my old gear, I would do a full volume boil with all the extract in at the start, I never thought much of it. The beer was actually pretty decent, but I did notice that my extract brews were darker and they did have a bit of a caramel taste to them, no matter how fresh or light the extract was.
So, now that I'm working with a burner that can't boil the full volume needed to make a 5 gallon batch, I'm faced with boiling a smaller amount and topping up in the fermenter. From my research, I have found a lot of people talking about "late extract additions", where you add a portion of it at the end to keep the gravity of the boil lower to prevent excess darkening and to reduce any nasty flavours that comes with it. So, this has me thinking and I have a few questions that I haven't been able to answer through searching goolge, so I figured I would ask you folks:
When doing a partial boil, will adding 50% of the extract at the start and the other 50% towards the end of the boil result in a comparable brew to one done with a full volume boil?
Will adding less than 50% at the start and adding even more at the end, say 25% at the start and 75% at the end show even more improvement?
This also begs the question, what about boil length? If you were to assume that extract has already been boiled once, if you choose to do a full boil, whether it's with late addition or not, that's 60 minutes + what ever length of time it was boiled by the producer of the extract. That's a lot of boiling! So, what about reducing the boil time? Does shortening the boil time of an extract batch result in any improvement? What if you shortened it to 30 minutes?
I'm just trying to figure out the best way to make extract beer with what I currently have. Any advice would be appreciated.