Quick question, when doing a full boil extract brew do I want to add all my malt for the 1 hour boil or is it better to add 1/2 for 1 hour and the 2nd half at flame out? I've been doing the latter and am wondering if that's the best way to go. Thanks!
I think the trend is to add 25% for full boil and the last 75% with 15 minutes to go so that there is less darkening of the extract from the heat. If you've had successful beers that aren't darker than you'd like with what you've been doing, then it would seem that the actual split amounts and the timing may not be very critical.
When you say full boil, do you mean starting with ~6.5 gallons for a 5 gallon batch? If so, then I don't think there is any reason why you can't add all of the extract at the beginning of the boil. It is not like you will have a super concentrated/high gravity wort, so there is less concern with hop utilization.
Sorry, basically looking for best practices and what to improve upon. If doing 50/50 malt additions is a good best practice I'll stick with it.
When i was an extract brewer, all dme or lme was boiled for 60 minutes. The beer was good, then i went to all grain. Perhaps try a few batches with different malt additions, keep records and decide. Good luck.
I personally wouldn't do it. Ibu calculations take into account the amount of extract dissolved in the water. I care more about being closer to my target ibu without having to do more complicated calculation than I do about color darkening. That being said the difference will probably be minimal so just do whatever you like brew on!
50/50 extract additions are "best practice" if you aren't doing a full boil, wort darkening and hop utilization,... If you are doing full boils, it probably doesn't matter. All grain has all of the "extract" added at the beginning. The only way to know for sure is to experiment a little and see if you notice a difference.
