1st home brew question

Can you expend on the procedure you used? Mainly, was there any extract in there for the majority of the boil? Assuming yes, then you're fine. In fact, most of us these days are recommending to hold off adding some of the extract till late in the boil. Personally, when I do extract, I prefer holding about half out till later.

 

When wort is boiled, some proteins coagulate and precipitate out of the beer (hot break, in homebrew parlance). This doesn't have as long to occur when extract is added late. The impact is debatable. Proteins do good and bad things for beer, depending on quantity and specific type of protein. The high protein content of American 6-row barley was part of the reason corn adjuncts were adopted in historical American brewing (careful; I'm not a historian and have learned not to believe every unsubstantiated beer myth, but this one makes sense; the corn dilutes the protein content). On the other hand, proteins can help with foam formation and retention. I suggest you do not worry about it, and, perhaps, make an experiment out of it. Next time boil longer and see if you can tell the difference. Adopt the strategy that optimizes favorable perceptions of the beer and convenience.

 

“Is this going to have a big impact on the quality of the brew?”

No, it will not have a big impact on the resulting beer.

As Charlie Papazian likes to say: Relax, Don’t Worry, Have a Homebrew!!

Cheers!

 

One other 'benefit' that results from the late addition of the DME is that your beer should have a slightly lighter color (assuming it was not a dark DME that you used). If your recipe is for a light-colored style, then you've helped your beer to be closer to style by accident.

P.S. Welcome to the BA site, and to the Homebrewing forum. Make yourself at home.

 

Since your question has been answered I just wanted to add some advice that was given to me on my first homebrew from this group is set a plan. Now every brew day I have a checklist and steps to ensure I don't forget stuff. With a lot going on its easy to forget minor things like adding salts to the mash, Irish moss that 15 min hop addition, yeast nutrient or whatever.

Also, a plan helps you think ahead and be more efficient. For instance in extract brewing with specialty grains you could be heating the boil water will steeping the grains.

 

All or nearly all of the hot break is made and removed by the boil that was used to produce the extract, assuming a competent manufacturer.

 

Thanks. Wasn't sure how they did it. Can anyone brewing extract confirm that they get no break materials ?

 

i can say for sure that i observed a shit ton more hot break (that is the technical term) going from all extract to all grain. i tend not to worry too much about trub too much as i routinely cool my wort to pitching and then let it sit cold overnight. again, a shit ton of junk drops out.

i wouldn't state there is no break material, but a lot less. noticeable.
Cheers.

 

welcome to BA.
for the OP, you should know that saving some extract for a "late edition" is a common practice. since you asked, here are some points...

you will get better hop utilization, and that will change the final result but usually for the better. your hops were boiled in a less dense wort and therefore there was a greater extraction of bittering compounds. so this would be a bit more bitter than if you added all the extract up front. we tend to like more hops around here so that is generally considered a good thing.

the wort will be a bit lighter in color. extract is basically sugar, and the less you cook sugar the less dark it becomes. if you know about maillard reactions, well there could be less of that too.

while all extract beer can be excellent, and the quality of extracts is 100x better than even 20 years ago, extract is still mostly a big club and not quite a refined brewing science. extra light, light, amber and dark mostly. if you had your heart set on a very specific style and you know it very well then all extract won't likely take you there with the 4 or 5 extract varieties available. but even still extract can make great beer, better than a mediocre all grain often.

for now, enjoy the fermentation. don't worry. read up on bottling and priming. good beer is on its way.
Cheers

 

Me too. It was too long ago and I p5robably didn't know, enough to look. The basis of my original comment was an old memory of a an Ask the Professor question from Zymurgy, in which he expressed skepticism over the extract late method. It could be my memory is bad or it could be the advice given was bad, but I thought the gist was that he didn't like it because of break issues. But clearly others use it.

 

Your 'mistake' is widely considered a 'best practice'; therefore ... it will have a positive impact on the quality of the brew's color.

 

Peter, I still homebrew with extract and specialty grains depending on the beer style/batch I am brewing. Malt extract will indeed still provide hot break.

Cheers!

Jack

 

That reminds me...

I'm looking forward to seeing the photograph. If you're getting egg-drop-soup-like break material from extract, I will frankly be amazed.

 

I just switched to all-grain recently, and I find my wort is much cloudier than it was when I was using extracts. The resulting beer is often clearer, though, for whatever reason.

 

Yes, all grain batches will have more proteins evident in the boiling wort and consequently a greater amount of hot break material as compared to malt extract wort. Having stated that, there is still hot break material in malt extract wort.

Cheers!