Ollie Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Fellas, I read on the AHB forum when looking for the highly recommended Centenarillo Ale that to do a hop boil correctly there is a specific gravity required to get the most out of your hops. The advice was 500gm LME/LDME in approx 4L of water then begin your hop additions. To be honest I have typically always added all my wet and dry ingredients to 6L of water, brought to the boil and begun my hop additions. Of course this only applies to un-hopped cans of malt or LDM etc... My question is I have never had a bad tasting beer doing it this way... The one I put down on Monday evening I tried Neil's method but want to know what everyone else does?? Have I really been doing it wrong for all this time??? Do you think that I am going to be blown away with a difference in taste with this latest brew? Has anyone tried both methods and is there much difference?? Keen to hear your thoughts guys. Cheers, Ollie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 You will get greater extraction/utilisation of hop bitterness when boiled in wort with a graity of around 1.040. You can still do it without the LME/LDME added but you will have to use more hops to get the same bitterness extraction. There is a table in the attached link: Hop Utilisation And this: Hops - Gravity So I don't think it is a question of taste but more of getting the most value from your hops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Actually, I don't think that second link really helps much [crying] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ollie Posted October 7, 2011 Author Share Posted October 7, 2011 Actually' date=' I don't think that second link really helps much [crying'] The first one is great thanks! - The second reminds me of a particular technicolour yawn my mate did on Saturday evening! [bandit] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 The second reminds me of a particular technicolour yawn my mate did on Saturday evening! Was it extra malty, evenly balanced or extra hoppy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Yep... Hairy is on the money yet again [biggrin] 1.040 wort for the best hop use. However, it will be slightly different in taste purely because you will get more from your hops than you are usually. However, you will most likely not notice a huge difference depending on what your current habits are. The easiest method to calculate without any problems is 10% of your liquid volume in LDM. i.e. if you want 6L then 600g LDM. I obviously don't know who advised you 500g in 4L water as 4L water should be 400g LDM which is 10% [rightful] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 LME & LDME will give different gravity. It is probably: 400g LDME per 4L of water, and 500g LME per 4L of water. Perhaps that has caused the confusion. Regardless, either way it will only make a slight difference to your utilisation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muddy Waters Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 I read on the AHB forum when looking for the highly recommended Centenarillo Ale that to do a hop boil correctly there is a specific gravity required to get the most out of your hops. The advice was 500gm LME/LDME in approx 4L of water then begin your hop additions. Neill's recipe calls for a 6L boil Ollie. In regards to hops utilisation, Neill tends to favour smaller boils therefore he uses a fair whack of hops. You could get similar results using a bigger boil with less hops but I tend not to mess with perfection when it comes to the fabulous Centenarillo Ale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 I didn't think the size of the boil had much of an effect on hop utilisation. Provided you at least had a few litres, the main impact on the bitterness was the amount of hops, boil time and the gravity of the wort. That is, assuming the gravity of the wort was the same, you would you use the same amount of hops for a 4L, 6L or 10L boil. Please correct me if I'm wrong; I am interested in this. I didn't really have to ask that; there is always someone around here to correct me when I am wrong [biggrin] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 I also found this reference from "Brewing Classic Styles" by Jamil Z: The alpha acids will be isomerized based on the boiling time and wort gravity. The physical size of the boiling pot doesn't really affect the utilization like the boil gravity does, because the amount of alpha acid dissolved into the wort is still relatively small compared to the total volume. The above reference was in relation to converting full boils to partial boils. Although just because it is written in a book it doesn't make it correct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soundawake Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 I have just bottled my first batch of Neill's Centenarillo, and I did a 6L boil and tipped about a 1/3 of one of the malt extract cans into the boil. SG was probably off. I read that Centenarillo thread on AHB a bit more and I think Neill mentions both a 5 and 6L boil? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewF111 Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 what does the following acronyms stand for? LME LDME LDM Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muddy Waters Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 LME = Light Malt Extract LDME = Light Dry Malt Extract LDM = Light Dry Malt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 I found these acronyms confusing as a new brewer. I sometimes still do. Does LME also mean Liquid Malt Extract? Or do you use LLME - Light Liquid Malt Extract? Or does the fact that you don't use the word "Dry" in the phrase indicate that it is liquid? I really should know this stuff by now [innocent] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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