First extract brew - Some questions

[JammyBStard]

I did my first extract brew today I think I'm a bit of a convert; so much simpler and so much quicker than AG; I can see myself doing an extract every other brew now.
A quick recipe I knocked up on Beersmith to try out the Citra Hop:

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size: 20.00 L
Boil Size: 22.89 L
Estimated OG: 1.045 SG
Estimated Color: 9.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 35.1 IBU
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.00 kg Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 92.31 %
0.25 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 7.69 %
25.00 gm Citra - Malt Miller [13.80 %] (Dry Hop 3 Hops -
10.00 gm Citra - Malt Miller [13.80 %] (60 min) Hops 15.7 IBU
15.00 gm Citra - Malt Miller [13.80 %] (15 min) Hops 11.7 IBU
25.00 gm Citra - Malt Miller [13.80 %] (5 min) Hops 7.8 IBU
25.00 gm Citra - Malt Miller [13.80 %] (0 min) Hops -
1.06 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) Yeast-Ale

There's a couple of things I was wondering afterwards;

In John Palmer How to brew he instructs to add half the LME at the begining of the boil and half at the end; everyone else seems to put it all in at the start; is there any reason to put in half at the end?

I didn't get any break material after I cooled the Wort, I assume this is because the extract has already been through a boil!

And when should I have started the steep, when the water was upto temp or when it just starting to heat up? I put it in at about 50'c and then raised it to 77'c (actually it briefly went into the 80's I hope i wont effect it to much).

[beerandgarden]

I think the logic behind just adding part of the extract to the boil is because you are just boiling part of the volume of water, so if you add all your malt it will increase the boil SG and effect your hops utillisation. However recent experiments have cast doubt on the whole theory of BG effecting hops utillisation. You might be interested in listening to a podcast about these experiments, but the gist of it is that there were not any major differences between 3 test brews of the same recipe - 1. partial boil w. partial extract 2. partial boil w. full extract 3. full boil w. full extract.

And yep, less break material in ME because it's already being boiled.

Most advice I've heard on steeping grains is bring water temp up first

[potatoes]

Hi Jammy,

I think beerandgarden answered the question LME pretty well.

In relation to the I tend to raise my water temp to 75c, then put the grains in. If the temp goes below 65c I add a little more heat. I do all the heating first because I dont want to over heat the grains. If I put the grains in whilst heating the water I would probably over heat them because I tend to get distracted forget about them. Does that make sense?

Potatoes

[DaveyT]

The hot break material may already be present on the sides of the FV or on the surface of your brew. When you drain the FV you will see more in the trub at the bottom of the FV with the yeast slurry.

DaveyT

[JammyBStard]

All good answers.

I actually rather than add them to the boiler; steeped my 0 min hops in the FV in pre boiled water cooled to 80'Cand left them in for over thirty min.

I was wondering if the absence of malt would effect the extraction!