BeerBorg

Is it discouraged to boil the Brew Demon liquid extracts? For many reason I've read that a 60 minute boil is what must be done. Making tasty beer is more important to me than saving time.

Thanks in advance!

You don't need to boil the brew demon HMEs because they are already boiled with the bittering and flavoring and aroma hops.

That said, if you are adding your own hops as a late addition you can boil them for a short while if you like. It is not a "fixed rule". But you will change the character. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it just depends on what you want.

If you brew all grain then you want to boil for a longer time. 60 minutes is good and "standard practice", although if it is "necessary" is something we could debate. Because some of us here are heretics and do stuff that is outside of "standard practice". Because we have found that it works fine.

If you are brewing with steeped grains and extract, then honestly a 10-20 minute boil is enough as long as you know what your doing and are getting the IBUs you want from the hop additions.

I do lots of short boils, because I'm a heretic.

If you boil a Hopped Liquid Malt Extract, as Brew Demons are, it will change the profile of the beer you are making. This is why they tell you to boil the water, kill the heat (flameout) then mix the can in. Boiling an already hopped extract will probably make it way too bitter.

Makes sense. Thank you both replies.

So if I were brewing using grains and a HME could I:

1. Steep grains for 20 min at 160F
2. Bring to boil and remove from heat
3. Mix in HME
4. Cool

Yes, you can do exactly that. Also, if adding some hops for more flavor or aroma, then just throw them into the steep and boil for however much time you want for the results you intend, and then add the HMEs.

mashani wrote:Yes, you can do exactly that. Also, if adding some hops for more flavor or aroma, then just throw them into the steep and boil for however much time you want for the results you intend, and then add the HMEs.

Thanks that is good to know.
WOW! That is really freaking cool!

Highly discouraged. They already did the 60 minute boil for you. It is called Hopped Malt Extract for a reason. You boiled Unhopped Malt Extract, or LME/DME.

i-ferment wrote:

mashani wrote:Yes, you can do exactly that. Also, if adding some hops for more flavor or aroma, then just throw them into the steep and boil for however much time you want for the results you intend, and then add the HMEs.

Thanks that is good to know.
WOW! That is really freaking cool!

Just understand that the longer the boiling of the hops, the more bitterness you will pull out. And viceaversa less boil will add aroma

i-ferment:

This charts isn;t 100% accurate, but it's a great baseline/starting point to understand what boiling hops for different times does.



So for your request, when dealing with an HME that has already been boiled, they have added hops at different times to achieve a desired bitterness, flavor and aroma. So if you took that HME and boiled it again (say for 20 minutes) you be moving the hops at 10 minutes that were added for aroma and "moving" them to flavor additions. The flavor additions would be added to the bitterness, etc.

I hope that helps and doesn't confuse things for you.