I’m hoping for a bit of reassurance. In brewing the Innkeeper last night I placed the liquid malt extract on the ground “near” the burner to keep it nice and warm and easier to pour (STUPID IDEA). Steeping grains was going great, temp at 170 when I notice that the container must’ve been too close to the burner because the corner of it started melting. I swear you can’t make this up. In fear of losing the malt, I decided to quickly add it before bringing it to the boil. So I added the malt dry/liquid at that time, brought it back up to temp and added the corn sugar. Everything else went smoothly and the OG reading came to 1.041 and they wanted it at 1.043. I know I’m in wait and see mode now, but is there anything that can happen b/c the extract was added before bringing it to a boil? Thanks for any help. I’ve been doing this long enough to not make this mistake. I can tell you that I won’t do that again.
Short answer: No
Long answer: There might be a lower hop utilization, i.e. a slightly less bitter beer. And the final beer might be slightly darker in color because of the more concentrated boil.
+1 to all this ^^^
But it will still be beer and I bet you still enjoy it! :cheers:
It’s all good. I did the same with my better bottle fermenter just before cooling the wort and adding it. Too close to the heat can happen and now I’m wiser to it. If there is an cost to adding the extract early, you won’t notice it. Brew on.
I’m not sure I understand why you are so concerned. Please explain to me why adding liquid extract to the boil kettle before it reaches the boiling point is a problem.
It’s like 4Swan said, lower hop utilization and darker color.
When I used to brew with extract, I would fill a mixing bowl or gallon bucket with hot water and let it sit in that to loosen up the extract. It worked well and sounds safer than heating it around your burner.
Instead of heating up the liquid malt, I use a measuring cup to pour the near boiling wort into the jugs and shake it up. I get most of the extract out this way.
