Tips for first extract batch since 2006?

[bwarbiany]

After reading about jward's brew day, I thought I might do an extract batch next weekend just to fill the pipeline. Generally I've avoided extract due to cost and typically the feeling that if I'm going to steep specialty grains, I might as well just brew AG. But with the Morebeer rye malt syrup, I won't need any specialty grains.

So given that I've barely paid attention to extract, what are some things I should be thinking about?

1. Should I do the "late extract" method that people talk about, or is that only really meaningful for partial boils?
2. I'm planning on using RO water. Since this will be a rye IPA, should I do any water treatments to the RO water to improve hoppiness? I know people typically up the sulfate for hoppy beers.
3. I typically do 90 minute boils, not adding hops until at least 30 minutes into the boil. I assume I can do just a 60 minute boil here instead.
4. Anything else I'm missing?

I know it sounds weird to say I've almost "forgotten" how to brew extract, but that's where I am... Any tips & tricks would be appreciated...

[jward]

I would do your boil with all the water and as much time as your hop schedule calls for. I think you will get better results with the boil, hops, and wort interacting the way you are used to and expect. You probably could save some time with a shorter boil and starting hops in just water. I never did that when extract was my normal brewing. Some of our extract and BIAB brewers may have good tricks. I think the malt extract will have the minerals from the water used for mashing originally and RO will be OK. If you add sulfate to accentuate the bitterness to ordinary water I would add a little here too.

[bwarbiany]

Thanks John... I think I'll add a little gypsum to the boil to boost the sulfate, but otherwise just boil as usual (full hop schedule, adding all the extract at the beginning). I do think I'll do only a 60 minute boil rather than 90, as most of the things I've read about long boils are negated by extract.

What's sad is that I know my brew day is going to take less time and a lot less effort than usual... But I'm still sitting on the couch playing on the internet procrastinating instead of getting started lol...

Oh well, bottled 2+ cases of wine already today, so at least I'm not a total waste...

[bwarbiany]

Well, I'm still boiling. I'm just going to call it now. I don't think extract is worth it for me. I feel like the time savings, once all the setup / teardown / cleaning is factored in, aren't large enough to justify the cost adder and the lack of control over the mash.

And the aggravation of dealing with bags of LME was annoying.

I'll stick with the "hard" way lol

[jward]

I don't plan to go back to extract either, but I may do extract again especially if brewing somewhere else.

[bwarbiany]

I don't know how, but somehow I ended up still spending 4 hrs on a brew day...