Adding extract...how do you do it?

[monk]

Hi all,

I'm just curious, how do you guys add extract when boiling your wort. I used to bring water to boil, then remove from heat and mix in all the LME, then bring back to boil for the whole 60 minutes, usually. But I had some problems with carmelization. Particularly with smaller batches.

I had a funny batch that was an American Pale Ale with lots of cascade hops, but it got carmelized and had a strong caramel/toffee taste in the end. It wasn't that bad. Just funny. Everyone who tried it said, "did you add caramel"?

Anyway, I've now heard a lot of different methods and might start using one from the member of another board, "Homebrewer99" (give credit where it's due...).
He adds one lb. of DME to the water, brings to boil and adds bittering hops. Then with 15 minutes left in the boil, he adds the rest of the DME or LME, one pound at a time. Another little hotbreak occurs right before the aroma hops are added.

So has anyone tried both methods? What's more common?

monk

[Jaytee]

Hi chaps, haven't been past here for awhile ...

I usually add the first half (1.5kg) of the extract to to pot with some boiling water, disolve and then bring to the boil.

I add the other half (another 1.5kg) after the boil's finished

If I'm doing a partial mash I just boil the liquor from the mash and add the extract after the boil.

No caramalization problems so far

jaytee