to boil or not to boil that is the question

[micromaniac]

planing to do a 23ltr brew in a 10ltr boiler the guys on here av helped me a lot as best way to go about it but am a bit comfused.one way is to only put half the extract in the boiler at the begining and ad the rest 15mins from end,ok with that but does it go thro another hot break?
the other way is to put half in boiler as before but ad the rest to the fv,ok with that,but what benifits are lost from not boiling the half thats gone in the fv

[soupdragon]

planing to do a 23ltr brew in a 10ltr boiler the guys on here av helped me a lot as best way to go about it but am a bit comfused.one way is to only put half the extract in the boiler at the begining and ad the rest 15mins from end,ok with that but does it go thro another hot break?
the other way is to put half in boiler as before but ad the rest to the fv,ok with that,but what benifits are lost from not boiling the half thats gone in the fv

Hi
Just made a brew today using the 2nd method you describe. I'll stand corrected if I'm wrong but as far as I know, the point of boiling with a smaller amount of malt is to keep the ballance of sugars right in the boiler. If you put all the extract in at the start you'd lose quite a bit of hop extraction.
I boiled 10 litres with 1kg of dried malt with the full ammount of hops to get a very bitter wort then added the bulk of the malt in the F.V. When I diluted up to 5 gallons the bitterness level is restored.
I've read mixed reports about hot break and extract. Some say that it's not as critical with extract as with all grain but others suggest that regardless of the type of malt, ALL the malt needs to be boiled for a full break.
I'll find out for myself in a few weeks time when I start drinking mine. If it's hazy then so be it but as long as it tastes ok I'll be happy
Cheers Tom

[micromaniac]

planing to do a 23ltr brew in a 10ltr boiler the guys on here av helped me a lot as best way to go about it but am a bit comfused.one way is to only put half the extract in the boiler at the begining and ad the rest 15mins from end,ok with that but does it go thro another hot break?
the other way is to put half in boiler as before but ad the rest to the fv,ok with that,but what benifits are lost from not boiling the half thats gone in the fv

Hi
Just made a brew today using the 2nd method you describe. I'll stand corrected if I'm wrong but as far as I know, the point of boiling with a smaller amount of malt is to keep the ballance of sugars right in the boiler. If you put all the extract in at the start you'd lose quite a bit of hop extraction.
I boiled 10 litres with 1kg of dried malt with the full ammount of hops to get a very bitter wort then added the bulk of the malt in the F.V. When I diluted up to 5 gallons the bitterness level is restored.
I've read mixed reports about hot break and extract. Some say that it's not as critical with extract as with all grain but others suggest that regardless of the type of malt, ALL the malt needs to be boiled for a full break.
I'll find out for myself in a few weeks time when I start drinking mine. If it's hazy then so be it but as long as it tastes ok I'll be happy
Cheers Tom

is this your first brew with this method and did you get any kind of hot break they all talk about.i made a hop tea in this 10 ltr boiler for a nog kit on saturday with only 6 ltrs in and had to turn it down to stop it coming over the top.how did you get on with 10 ltr in it?

[soupdragon]

Yep, 1st brew and I did get some break material but obviously not as much as if I'd boiled up with the full amount of malt. If OldSpeckledBadger is about, he has a lot more info on the method as it's the one he uses
Cheers Tom

[canarytim]

Sorry if this is off topic but I'm looking to do my first extract brew and was wondering whether you could simply make a strong hop tea boiled for an hour(with suitable hop additions along the way) in 5 litres water and then add this to FV with 2 tins of lme, check temp then pitch.

Would this be a viable method for the simplest of extract brews?

[canarytim]

Oh and I forgot to say, top up FV to 23 litres with water before pitching

[sparky Paul]

Sorry if this is off topic but I'm looking to do my first extract brew and was wondering whether you could simply make a strong hop tea boiled for an hour(with suitable hop additions along the way) in 5 litres water and then add this to FV with 2 tins of lme, check temp then pitch.

Would this be a viable method for the simplest of extract brews?

Boiling hops in just water is not ideal. The extract sugars in wort act as a pH buffer, and this acidity suppresses the extraction of tannins and other undesirable compounds. These can lead to astringent flavours in the final beer.

Best to add malt extract to the boil, in proportion to the volume of liquor boiled. You also have to bear in mind that reducing the boil volume also reduces the extraction rate from the hops, so more hops may be required.

[canarytim]

Thanks Sparky Paul - very helpful response.

In terms of beer software I'm using Ian H's fantastic Kit and Extract Beer Designer on the Aussie Home Brewer site.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/i ... opic=29655

In terms of hop attenuation [is that the right word?], this software suggests a hop concentration factor of 1.58

Hop availability is not a problem as I have discovered thrify shopper and gone a bit mad!