Late addition LME

[Brouwer]

Hi Folks,
I've recently been reading about adding liquid Malt Extract late (as in the last 15 min of the boil) to prevent scortching and darkening. I was wondering if anyone does this and if so, do you just boil your hops for the first 45 minutes before adding the LME? Will this affect the hops in any way?

I'm coming up to brewing a triple and I want to keep it light in colour, so I'm planning on giving this a try.

Thanks
Rich

[BrewDog]

Yes, that technique works well. It is called the "Extract Late" method, and i've tasted many beers that were made that way and were excellent.

This technique is especially effective when doing partial boils -- ie, total wort volume is less than batch size and it is topped up in the fermenter with more water post boil.

Usually, folks will add a portion of their extract up front (maybe 1/4 of the total), and hop it as usual. Then, with roughly 15 mins left in the boil, they'll add the remainder.

One other thing about topping up - make sure you use chlorine-free top-up water. Chlorine in the top up water is probably the most common source of chlorphenols, which give a plastic/band-aid off flavor. 1 small aspirin-sized Campden tablet is enough to treat 20 gallons of water. A bottle of them is less tha 5 bucks, and you can split them up using a standard $1 pill-cutter
that you can find at any drug store. Since you need less than 1/4 of a tablet dissolved into your 5 gallon batch, a single bottle will last a very, very long time and is well worth it. Split one into quarters, crush one of the quarters, and add the crushed powder to your brewing water. Done -- no more chlorine or chloramine.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!