So I'm still relatively new to brewing, and I'm starting to see other recipes that call for adding the LME towards the end of your boil. What variations does this have on the beer in the end? Does it favor certain styles more than others? Up until now, every recipe I've followed has called for LME added before the hopping stage, didn't even occur to me until now to add it later on!
Some extract brewers will wait to add half or more of their extract until late in the boil (10-15 min. before flameout). The reason for this is to not have a super high gravity boil because it will effect hop utilization negatively. A high gravity wort will also darken more during the boil so adding extract late is a good thing in paler beer styles.
It matters more for hop-forward styles like IPAs vs. a malt-focused beer like an english brown. This is also most relevant for someone doing a partial boil. It is easy to add half the LME/DME at the beginning of the boil and then half in the last 5-10 minutes although other people might suggest a more complicated system.
Only issue with adding LME (as opposed to DME) towards the end of the boil is you have to be careful about scorching. The LME will sink before its dissolved and if it gets to the bottom it may scorch. This is why a lot of extract recipes call for you to turn off the heat when stirring in extract and then bring it back to boil. This isn't a problem for DME because it floats until dissolved. I would only do late extract additions with DME because its easier and no chance of scorching. In fact I choose DME every time if I have the choice, because of this and other benefits. Its easy to convert a batch to DME if you're interested.
Yeah, if you just dump it in and don't stir. LME itself is extremely hygroscopic and will dissolve into hot wort very fast with a minimal amount of stirring . I think the risk of LME sinking and scorching is extremely overstated. Just another thing for new brewers to worry about. "Did I ruin my beer, I didn't turn off the heat......"
cool - thanks for all the help guys. I will most likely start playing around with DME as others have suggested as well.
It is more of an issue of practicality, and a consideration to be taken seriously for many extract brewers (who might be brewing with under-powered heat sources, i.e. a kitchen stove). For practical reasons, it's easier to get a good boil going, and keep it going, if you don't add all the extract(s) at once. Adding a little here and a little there keeps your boil going better. Under-powered heat sources lead to scorching more easily than a good robust heat source. I have never once had any scorching at all when using my turkey fryers, but had scorching on occasion when using an under-powered stovetop (some, not a lot, but any is worse than none). LME sinks so it can scorch easy. Stir it when you add it. Hops utilization probably won't be very noticeable for a noob extract brewer, so don't worry about it. I'm not a noob and I doubt I could tell the dif either.
If you care about color...add ~1/3 LME at the start of the boil and the remaining 2/3 LME @ 15". Otherwise...fuhgettaboutit.
