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I'm currently making a Sam Adams Clone extract and was provided dry hops with the recipe. Do I add the dry hops to the carboy (secondary)? Can I just drop them in? Also, how long of a process is the dry hopping. Can it remain in there for the entire "secondary" carboy timeframe?

Thanks!

After fermentation has mostly completed drop them in. You can use booze or boiling water, I don't. 3-7 days is normal(ish) but some go longer.

S

I've tried doing 3-7 days and can't really tell much difference so I've settled on 4 now. Works fine for me.

Has anyone made a Sam Adams clone as of yet. I just transferred it to the secondary and added the hops. It's a really dark brew. Wondering if it should be substantially dark.

Sometimes the beer looks a lot darker than it really is in the carboy because not as much light can get through. Did it look dark in the tubing when you were transferring or just in the carboy? When you are gauging the colour you should ideally be looking at a sample in a serving-size glass.

I do believe that it is difficult to nail colour when extract brewing; the ingredients in the extract vary quite a lot and it is sometimes hard to tell exactly what is in the extract that you have. Additionally, I read in a recent issue of Brew Your Own (BYO) magazine that long and/or improper storage of extract can lead to darker colour among other issues. There could be a lot of reasons. If you post your recipe people might be able to help more.

Agreed, almost all of my extract brews come out pretty dark. I did the NG Oktoberfest kit and it was practically purple... I'm thinking about picking up some Pilsen DME for some of the lighter brews I'd like to do:
https://www.everwoodavebrewshop.com/pro ... tract-dme/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

From what I understand, there is some slight carmelization that happens in the drying process of extract, so it may still produce a darker than desired beer, but should be better than the stuff that is a mix of 2-row and Crystal.

Thanks it is quite dark...cloudy as well. I am anticipating it being dark as it seems to be the norm with extracts. In the tubing, it was of course not as dark as the carboy.

The recipe came from Dave at Everwood, so I don't have the ingredients listed. It was only stored for a month or so with the hops being in the freezer. I think I did slightly burn the extract on boil. Nothing substantial but I did have a few burnt pieces at the bottom of the primary on transfer. Activity seems to be good with a bubble or so every 20-30 seconds.

I guess time will tell. I hope the burning didn't effect anything else.

As for process, I used the kit Dave put together with the instructions from a Best Case. Differences included doing a 60 min boil, adding hops at different times, and the dry hops I added when I transferred to secondary.

I find my beers always look darker in carboy

LiverDance wrote:I find my beers always look darker in carboy

Definitely.

Also I wanted to mention that if you find your extract beers are coming out dark (in the glass), you can hold back a lot of your extract until the last 5-10 minutes or so of the boil. I pretty much do this with all my beers.

When you do a boil for a certain amount of time, is it for the benefit of the hops or the extract? I assume if you can hold the extract back the time effects the hops.

How much can you actually hold back?

The length of your boil is 2 fold. For all grain brewers, the a longer boil is used to drive off certain compounds that will cause off-flavours in their beer (DMS namely, although this widely held belief may be up for debate http://brulosophy.com/2015/09/14/boil-l ... t-results/). As well, the longer you boil your hops, the more bitterness will be extracted. So, for Everwood's kits, he provides a smaller amount of boil hops compared to NG, as he recommends a 60 minute boil over a 30 minute boil. Boiling the extract will also pasteurize is, but you only need a few minutes for that to occur.

The benefit of the late extract method is that the boil is less concentrated and therefore less carmelization / maillard reaction will occur, which will reduce the amount of darkening the wort undergoes throughout the length of your boil. As well, your hop utilization will be affected by the gravity of your wort. Starting with a thinner wort (i.e. holding back some of the extract) will increase your utilization, so you may experience increased bitterness. If you plugged it into BeerSmith properly, I believe it would account for the increased IBUs. I've never adjusted the kits for this theoretical increase in IBUs, because I usually find the kits a little on the tame side, bitterness-wise.

Personally, I always hold back much of the extract. Usually I start with a quarter or a third of the fermentables in the boil and hold the rest until 10 minutes. I don't believe this is as much of an issue if you're using a full volume boil, however.

Here's a old but relevant blog entry on the topic:http://beersmith.com/blog/2008/02/20/be ... additions/

That's awesome. Thanks for the links and the info. I'll probably try this on the next batch I make.