I'm just moving up from using the cans, and i was wondering about this.
Would it be possible to make a nice tasting beer without boiling the extract? I know that the bitterness comes from the boil, but it was thinking about boiling hops for an hour or so on the stove to produced the isomerised alpha acids, then adding this hop tea to the unboiled liquid malt extract.
What do you guys think about this? Would it work?
Obviously you wouldn't get hot break occuring, which means that the proteins will not break out of solution, but is this really a massive problem? Maybe it would mean that your beer would be hazy. I dunno...
Without boiling the extract?
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barl_fire
Re: Without boiling the extract?
I think if you want to get decent hop utilisation you do have to boil some of the extract. I can't comment on LME in terms of sanitisation as I never use it but I do all my extract brews with DME. My approach doesn't boil the full batch of dme. When I use 2-3kg of dme for a 23l brew, I boil and do late hop additions with 1kg of the dme made up to 9l of water. That gives a gravity for the boil that loosely approximates to the final gravity of the whole brew which is what you want to aim for decent hop utilisation. If I do a 2-3kg brew I just chuck the remaining 1-2kg of dme in the FV and dissolve that in water straight from the cold tap and aerate thoroughly. The boiled dme/hop extract gets added to that once ready and the temperature comes out at around 30 degrees so I don't have to wait too long to pitch the yeast.
I don't boil it all and I don't use a chiller for the stuff that is boiled either. Although my approach isn't the one you'll see recommended by the experts in books and on websites like this:
I'm yet to experience an infected brew despite 2/3 of the dme not being boiled (I am scrupulous about sanitising my equipment though, infections are far more likely to arise from unclean equipment than processed ingredients like dme and sugar. Obviously if you're adding steeps from grains or extracts from fresh fruit you'd wanna add that to the boil.)
I can always tell that my boils have been successful in terms of bitterness, flavour and aroma on tasting the finished product and the bitterness is clearly a function of the amount of hops/aa used and the vigour of the boil in my case.
I've never had any clarification issues, for example my last Citra pale ale made with extra pale dme, when served from a keg was a clear as a pasteurised shop bought bottled beer, something many of my friends and family commented as soon as I handed them a pint of the stuff. Put it this way, using my approach I have clear beer between 1-2 weeks in the keg as opposed to 2 months from two can kits, and it tastes so much better
I don't boil it all and I don't use a chiller for the stuff that is boiled either. Although my approach isn't the one you'll see recommended by the experts in books and on websites like this:
I'm yet to experience an infected brew despite 2/3 of the dme not being boiled (I am scrupulous about sanitising my equipment though, infections are far more likely to arise from unclean equipment than processed ingredients like dme and sugar. Obviously if you're adding steeps from grains or extracts from fresh fruit you'd wanna add that to the boil.)
I can always tell that my boils have been successful in terms of bitterness, flavour and aroma on tasting the finished product and the bitterness is clearly a function of the amount of hops/aa used and the vigour of the boil in my case.
I've never had any clarification issues, for example my last Citra pale ale made with extra pale dme, when served from a keg was a clear as a pasteurised shop bought bottled beer, something many of my friends and family commented as soon as I handed them a pint of the stuff. Put it this way, using my approach I have clear beer between 1-2 weeks in the keg as opposed to 2 months from two can kits, and it tastes so much better
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JTK
Re: Without boiling the extract?
I am also new to extract brewing, and take the same approach as Barl_fire with boiling for hop additions. I also only do DME's, no LME's. Ive been doing the complete hop schedule in that 8-9L boil then add to the brew, that being the Gain steep, and the rest of water/DME.
Good to see another taking the very same approach! Now I need to get a few more under my belt to have a better feel for how much hop to use. I dont think I used enough last time, while it is good fresh tasting beer, its a bit light on hops for my liking.
Good to see another taking the very same approach! Now I need to get a few more under my belt to have a better feel for how much hop to use. I dont think I used enough last time, while it is good fresh tasting beer, its a bit light on hops for my liking.