Boiling Extract - Lumpy?

[RdeVjun]

Gooday folks,
have done some searching on this, to no avail.... So...

Just doing my first extract, Everard on Morgan's and I'm at the first step just boiling the 1/2 kg of Pale Malt Extract in 4 litres of water with the hops and noticing some lumps. Not thick with them, just like something is precipitating. Sort of like whey goes after adding rennet if you've ever made cheese before (hmm, actually, I guess not, but an outside chance with this being a home- something website ), or partly- curdled milk.

I'm not freaked out about it, as it won't make any difference to me (its only 1/4 of the Pale Extract in there), but are there any takers for an explanation?

Many thanks- these are the world's best forums and all that is all down to _you_! :icon_cheers:

Cheers,
RdeVjun.

 

[buttersd70]

Cold break.
link

</h2>

<h2>Should I boil the kit to remove break?

We brew beer, malt extract and home brew worts in the same way. All worts are boiled and produce hot break which is then removed in the whirlpool. Rather than being cooled down for fermentation, the malt extract and home brew worts are centrifuged and transferred to evaporators where all but around 20% of the water is removed. At this stage the malt extract and home brew is packaged then cools down but does not throw cold break material because the extract is too dense for it to precipitate.

Once you add water, the wort becomes thin enough for the break material to precipitate. This break material is completely harmless to the brew and will settle out during fermentation.

If boiled the break material may clump together giving the impression, incorrectly, that it is hot break. Boiling home brew (hopped malt extract) will only darken the brew and drive of hop aroma.

However, if you are following a specific recipe and using additional hops, you may like to boil some of the malt extract to achieve the expected hop utilisation for correct aroma, flavour and bitterness in the finished beer.

 

[RdeVjun]

Fantastic! Not quite sure if the context is the exactly same, but I'm glad for the words "completely harmless"- just what I suspected! Many thanks Mr Butters!

So, its on with the show...

 

[RdeVjun]

Fantastic! Not quite sure if the context is the exactly same, but I'm glad for the words "completely harmless"- just what I suspected! Many thanks Mr Butters!

So, its on with the show...

[Reads closer...]
Wait, yes it is- precisely. Sorry, a thousand pardons...

 

[Bribie G]

I get it all the time with Coopers kits and as they say on their site, nothing to worry about. As it's protein I often wonder if it's also a good yeast nutrient.

 

[RdeVjun]

To update, it all seems to have dispersed or broken up by the time the boil was finished. If the yeast wants it, they can go hard for all I care...

If anyone is interested, the density reported on the website recipe seems a bit high, I make it, or rather measure it, around 1.040 as opposed to their 1.050. But then again, I've never calibrated my fermenters for volume... plus my PME measures won't be _exact_, although the Caramalt certainly is at a tin-full. But its not a complex recipe to make a bollocks of, so it has me guessing. Anyway, for now, I'm just mighty glad to gradually move away from k&k! B)

 

[Gavo]

Went through these calculations in another thread just recently here. I would agree with you that the SG of 1050 on the website is a bit high. Using the calculatoins, on the aforementioned thread, I get around 1040 which is what you measured.
Good that you are getting away from K&K.

Cheers
Gavo.