The Boil

west1m

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How hard does everyone boil the wort? Hard as you can and still keep it in the pot or just a soft roll?
 
Just rolling here as long as it's consistent for your boil off numbers. When I boiled on a gas burner it was fully cranked for consistency.
 
I do a very tame boil. Just rolling enough to do a good job of circulating the wort.
 
I'm at a fairly vigorous boil the whole time. Since I use a lot of Pilsner, I like to move keep things moving to drive off any possible DMS/precursors. Might be overkill but I get great results.
 
Some combination of the above. Mostly, slow and rolling.
 
I guess my boil is what you would call a medium rolling boil, whatever you do, make it consistent so that your boil off rate is... consistent:D
 
That's one thing I love about my digitally controlled electric boiler. Set it to 214F (101C) and it maintains the same very light roll every time.
Boil.jpg
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Kind of looks like the "don't get carried away" boil has the majority. Aside from "boil off numbers" which I don't really have a grip on yet,
would either boil rate affect color, taste or the way hops cooks up or any thing else I have not mentioned.
 
Kind of looks like the "don't get carried away" boil has the majority. Aside from "boil off numbers" which I don't really have a grip on yet,
would either boil rate affect color, taste or the way hops cooks up or any thing else I have not mentioned.
Water boils at 100c no matter how much energy to force into it it won't get hotter is all i know so the maximum isomorisation temperature is constant throughout the boil regardless if it's rolling along or trying to jump out the pot.

How much hop material gets stuck to the side and missed will probably affect your bitterness more than a bigger boil.

Just my 2c anyways maybe I'm wrong if so I'm all ears and toes;)
 
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Put that it makes perfect sense to me...Boil on!
 
Water boils at 100c no matter how much energy to force into it it won't get hotter is all i know so the maximum isomorisation temperature is constant throughout the boil regardless if it's rolling along or trying to jump out the pot.

How much hop material gets stuck to the side and missed will probably affect your bitterness more than a bigger boil.

Just my 2c anyways maybe I'm wrong if so I'm all ears and toes;)
You got your science right! Once water boils, it doesn't get any hotter (steam will but that's a different story). It's temperature, not force of boil, that isomerizes and a hard boil might break up your hot break flocks leaving hazy beer or wort. Actual consensus out there according to a Zymurgy article a couple months ago is a gentle boil through half, then a harder boil the last half is the "best" way to boil. But if you're making good beer, boil on.
 
If you are uncertain of your boil off rate, you could do a test with water. For a true result cool the water after to account for expansion. Or calculate 4% reduced volume for expansion when done a one hour boil. I don't think you need to get too scientific about it, but 4% of 5 gallons is approximately 750ml. Theoretically you could start with 4% less than a given amount of water, confirm the thermal expansion just before boil, than calculate the boil off rate at flame out.

I personally haven't gone to this trouble, but, I think I might actually do this when I get back from my vaca
 
People will talk about Mallaird(sp?) reactions in a strong boil but I don't believe it, the temperatures are nowhere near enough to get a reaction.
 
I agree, although with a intense flame and a very thin bottomed kettle, you might get a bit while the wort is fairly static before reaching a boil. I doubt it would be enough to perceive though.
 
People will talk about Mallaird(sp?) reactions in a strong boil but I don't believe it, the temperatures are nowhere near enough to get a reaction.
It's quite warm enough for Maillard reactions, they can occur at room temperature. It's far too cool for caramelization so "kettle caramelization" refers to the Maillard reactions.
 
People will talk about Mallaird(sp?) reactions in a strong boil but I don't believe it, the temperatures are nowhere near enough to get a reaction.
I get some Millard reactions on my element some brews a brown scorching gotta turn the watts down. Still don't get why it happens on some brews but not all.
 
It's quite warm enough for Maillard reactions, they can occur at room temperature. It's far too cool for caramelization so "kettle caramelization" refers to the Maillard reactions.

The reaction is a form of non-enzymatic browning which typically proceeds rapidly from around 140 to 165 °C (280 to 330 °F).

I have not found a single piece of scientific evidence saying it happens with brewing that was not a brewing web site.

Edit: This is the best/most generous I've been able to find and it doesn't really support brewing Maillard reactions as under 120C is reporting to take days to happen.
 
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