Boiling The Wort.

50% Mogman · Post by **50% Mogman** » Saturday Oct 01, 2005 5:09 am

This is how I do it now....
Place dried fermentables in brew pot with two litres of cold water, bring to boil
and stir until dissolved. Then I add the beer kit and bring to the boil, add a few hops stiring constantly for a minute or two, then I pour the wort to the fermenter and top-up with cold water, add finishing hops, and pitch the yeast.

Should I boil for longer, until the hot break? And does the hot break make a difference to kit beers, and the final clarity of the beer?

Cheers,
John.........

jayse · Post by **jayse** » Saturday Oct 01, 2005 8:51 pm

theres no need to worry about the hot break with extract brewing as that has already been done and removed at the brewery.

What your doing is fine.
Jayse

Lebowski · Post by **Lebowski** » Saturday Oct 01, 2005 8:55 pm

I read somewhere to fill the fermenter up to half way with cold water before pouring the wort into the fermenter, does this make any difference at all?

jayse · Post by **jayse** » Saturday Oct 01, 2005 9:06 pm

that would technically save the hot wort getting splashed about which is always not a good idea, yes that in theory would make a difference in the stablity of the final beer.
This is what is commonly called hot side airation which is irreversable but never really a major problem with freshing drunk ales using standard practices.

Anyway in theory at least what you are talking about would be best.

Jayse

Dogger Dan · Post by **Dogger Dan** » Saturday Oct 01, 2005 10:17 pm

Boil for an hour

Add Cold water to hot wort and splash away, It aerates the wort

Dogger

tommo · Post by **tommo** » Sunday Oct 02, 2005 7:27 am

I thought it wasn't a good idea to boil the Kit as you can alter the bitterness etc of the already added hops.

tommo

Hillbilly · Post by **Hillbilly** » Sunday Oct 02, 2005 9:20 am

Gotta agree on that one Tommo.

Post by **Oliver** » Sunday Oct 02, 2005 11:29 am

tommo wrote:I thought it wasn't a good idea to boil the Kit as you can alter the bitterness etc of the already added hops.

There's also absolutely no need to. If you need to boil hops up, do it separately in a little malt, then just dissolve the kit and add it to the fermenter.

Another reason for adding water to your fermenter before adding the hot malt mix is so that the concentrate doesn't fill the tap and create a pocket of malt mixture. (Obviously this isn't a problem for those of us who use a fermenter without a tap!).

Cheers,

Oliver

Dogger Dan · Post by **Dogger Dan** » Sunday Oct 02, 2005 6:09 pm

You should always boil actually.

Dogger

tommo · Post by **tommo** » Sunday Oct 02, 2005 6:52 pm

Dogger Dan wrote:You should always boil actually.

Dogger

Apologies if I have missed the point Dogger, are you meaning boil the kit ?

GO THE TIGERS

cheers

tommo

Dogger Dan · Post by **Dogger Dan** » Monday Oct 03, 2005 1:19 am

Yes,

Mix the kit and kilo up in about 1 gallon or so of water and boil it. It will improve your beer

Dogger

Lebowski · Post by **Lebowski** » Monday Oct 03, 2005 1:30 am

Is there a reason why it improves it? My first few brews I just ditched everything in the fermenter and they had a funny aftertaste. Then from then on I always mixed everything up in a pot on the stove and didnt seem to have the same problem. Dont know if it was just inexperience at first or a coincidence.

Dogger Dan · Post by **Dogger Dan** » Monday Oct 03, 2005 1:36 am

Yes,

There all sorts of reasons however I would first like to mention that these kits are designed to make alcohol with little effort, ie no need to boil add sugar and hot water add yeast come back in a week and bottle come back in two weeks and yeha beer.

Fair enough right. So if you are willing to put more effort into it, hmmm lets try some grains, add dex and malt instead of sugar guess what you get, better brew, more effort but better brew.

And this includes the boiling of a kit more effort, better brew.

Dogger

50% Mogman · Post by **50% Mogman** » Monday Oct 03, 2005 7:23 am

But why do you suggest boiling for an hour, doesn't that effect the flavour/bitterness profile of the hops?

John..........

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Monday Oct 03, 2005 12:16 pm

Dogger,

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say "why bother?" for both kits and liquid extract. These are already boiled by the manufacturer, so they've done all the work that you would otherwise do if you were boiling an AG wort.

I might just venture futher out on that limb and say "don't"
All you're doing is darkening the malt. Sure, for a stout, porter, dark ale, etc it doesn't matter than much, but for paler styles it's a different story. For kits, the additional boil is removing any of the hop flavour and aromo that survived the contrentraction/dehydration process.

Tony

Dogger Dan · Post by **Dogger Dan** » Tuesday Oct 04, 2005 2:42 am

Ok,

I have done brews both ways and boiling for an hour improved my beers and those of others amazingly. And the malt doesn't darken unless you are placing the pot directly on an electric oven which you shouldn't do anyway and no the hop profile doesn't change because the aroma and flavour hops are already blown off during manufacturing, as you have pointed out (20 min for flavour, 1 minute for aroma)

The fermentations are quicker, cleaner and with less esters. Chill haze is reduced significantly. The beer clears faster

But hey, don't take my word.

Why not try it though before you go out on that limb and fall off.

Dogger

Tyberious Funk · Post by **Tyberious Funk** » Tuesday Oct 04, 2005 7:55 am

Dogger Dan wrote:The fermentations are quicker, cleaner and with less esters. Chill haze is reduced significantly. The beer clears faster

I have boiled all my beers, so I can't comment on how they would have turned out if I hadn't boiled... but I have certainly had pretty good experiences with them clearing nicely. So I'll vouch for that.

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Tuesday Oct 04, 2005 12:19 pm

Thanks guys.

I have since read an article on the byo website about darkening being less of an issue if you can do a full-wort boil.

Doggar Dan wrote:The fermentations are quicker, cleaner and with less esters

Makes sense really - if the complex sugars are being broken down by boiling, they will be more fermentable.

One of these days I should get myself a really big pot and a serious gas burner and do a side-by-side.

Tony

GTI86 · Post by **GTI86** » Tuesday Oct 04, 2005 3:45 pm

I would Have to agree with Dogger in boiling the wort at least when you boil you kill off any nasties but unless your trying to change the profile of a kit only 10-15 mins should be enough Anyway I havevnt tryed not boiling guess someone should try a comparison

thehipone · Post by **thehipone** » Tuesday Oct 04, 2005 9:32 pm

I'll weigh in my 2 cents here:

I have boiled a Morgans kit, which is supposedly "specially kettled for excess clarity"

you would not believe the amount of break material that comes out during a boil.

As far as boiling affecting the hopping character, it really shouldnt. The bittering alpha-acids are already isomerized and wont change. If there were any flavor or aroma hops (typically very low in kits) they may be driven off, but if you are boiling, you are likely adding flavor and aroma hops anyways and it might give you a cleaner slate to start from.

If you are going to bother doing a boil though, you may as well just start from extract and control the entire hop schedule yourself.