One of the least known technique for extract brewing is called “Late malt extract addition“. Basically it calls for the malt extract to be added late, say maybe at 45 minutes of a 60 minute boil. Extract beer brewing is actually the use of malt extract and boiling them along with the hops to add flavours and bitterness to the beer. What normally brewers do is that they start the boil with all their malt extract (be it liquid or dry) and then start adding hops to this boil. Some beer recipes call for bittering hops to be added at the start of the 60 minutes boil and then subsequent addition of hops at maybe 30 minutes and so on. The longer the hops is in the boil, the more bitter it gets. Aromatic hops are added at the end of the boil. Boiling is not only needed to for the addition of the hops, it also helps stabilize the wort and get out any proteins that was not removed by the malt extract manufacturer.

However, the problem with this method is that the wort (including the malt extract) which is being boiled tends to darken due to the actual boiling process. They call this carmelization and it not wanted when you are planning to create a light coloured beer. And worse still, the carmelization may create off-flavours to your beer, something like perhaps a burnt flavour. This is usually a problem with brewers using a partial boil which means that for a 23 litre wort, you boil about only 10 litre or less of wort and just add water to top up the 23 litre of wort. This is because the sugars from the malt extract will settle on the bottom of your brew pot due to the high gravity of the wort, even if you stir the wort often during boiling.

The solution is to add perhaps a third of your total malt extract at the beginning of the boil and then the rest at the last 15 or 10 minutes. This way, you will be able to maintain a lighter colour beer since there is much less darkening of the wort. The reason why there is a need to add the malt extract to the beginning is that hops need the sugars and the enzymes to effectively extract the alpha acids from the hops, thus you still need some extract in the boil. However, since the amount of sugars in the wort is much less, there will be less carmelization and thus your wort will be lighter in colour.

For more information, check out this great article on late malt extract addition.

You will remember for my first brew, I commented that my wort is very dark in colour and the resulting beer looks like some dark stout rather than a pale ale? Well, I did boil it. But I boiled the beer concentrate which is hopped! That’s probably the worse thing to do, it not only darkens the beer, it makes it more bitter plus it boils off any flavours and aromas in the beer concentrate. A rookie mistake but what the heck, what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger doesn’t it?