Why Boil The Extract?

[buttersd70]

Short version of my tuppence:

Anything thats touched grain...boiling is mandatory. No ifs or buts.

As far as extract is concerned.....(or even other adjuncts such as dex, maltodextrin, lactose, or whatever).

If it's sterile (as opposed to sanitary; ie tinned), no need to boil, unless you choose to do so for a particular reason (eg to boil off the flavour (not the bitterness, refer to MHB's post on that) from kits).

If it's not sterile, eg dry malt in plastic packets that aren't vac packed.....this one is opinion. My 2c is to bring it to the boil to sanatise (as the packs aren't airtight, who knows who sneezed on it).

So, for me.....enough of the dry malts get boiled for hop utilisation....the remaining dry malts get added with long enough left to sanatise....the liquid malts get added in right at the very end, only due to the fact that the heat makes it easier to mix, not because it needs sanitation (as it is tinned sterile. Bulk liquid from a honey trap is a different kettle of fish).

 

[Nick JD]

I steep some grain in 4 liters of warm water and then bring this to the boil for an hour to do my hop additions. I taste it along the way and, oh boy, does it get bitter and hoppy. It's fun to taste every five minutes with a glass of water to cleanse the palette - you get to go from nice sweet malty and grainy, then starting to get bitter ... then starting to get hideously bitter, then with the flavour hop addition you can actually taste the fresh hop taste again in all that bitter.

Then I throw in the home-made dry hop bag just to get it sterile. By then the volume is 2 liters of boiling fluid - which is what K&K brews need.

It's just like doing a K&K, but your 2 liters of boiling water is 2 liters of grainy/hoppy goodness. I pour this over the top of my LDME and liquid malt extract, stir and top up with rainwater.

It's no harder than K&K, but infinately better tasting ... and the recipes are endless with all the un-hopped malt extracts and hops available.

 

[thylacine]

re boiling liquid extracts: there is a colour effect as well...

"...Heating the wort to concentrate it also produces meanoidins, a color pigment that darkens the extract. This darkening process continues when boiling your extract. That is why wort made with even the palest malt extracts is significantly darker that corresponding all grain wort."
http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2008/08/16/m...t-beer-brewing/