Boil times

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cowboy7307

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Theakston Old Peculier​

Iam looking at giving this recipe a go, but 90min boil time , can i do a 60 boil time .and just adjust hops to get same ibu
Do i gain any thing from a 90min boil
 
Agree with Dave that there is no need to boil for 90 minutes. However, if the recipe is designed for a 90 minute boil and you shorten to 60, you will end up with extra volume and a lower OG than planned for. Unless, of course, you plan ahead for the reduced boil-off.
 
Less boil-off is probably the only downside here.
 
Could you post the recipe?
I don't completely disagree with the comments so far, but I am not familiar with the beer you are making.
For instance, I will be doing a Wee Heavy later this month which will be a 120 minute boil.
On top of that I will be removing 4 liters at the beginning of the boil, and boiling that down separately to 1 liter, then adding it back to the kettle.
 
90 minute boils used to be the norm for beers brewed with pilsner malt, as the less modified malt in the past was supposedly more likely to produce DMS, and the longer boil was needed to boil this off. With better modern modern malt, DMS is much less of a concern, I've brewed dozens of beers with pilsner malt, all with 60 minute boils, and never had a problem with DMS. So if your recipe is a pils, I think you can safely do a 60 minute boil.
 
I didn't see a specific recipe. Web searches lead to the UI brewery and a BYO recipe from the late 1990s.

Looks like the base malt is a 2-row "pale" malt (rather than pilsen malt). 80% base malt, 18% specialty malt, 2% color malt. High SRM.

Over on the west side of the Atlantic, there's Zainasheff' "Evil Twin" recipe (link) which is a 90 min boil and 1st hop addition at 20 minutes.

Does boiling wort without hops (maybe 30 minutes) or boiling wort longer (60 min vs 30 min) add something to darker ales? I think so.
 
philjohnwilliams said:
90 minute boils used to be the norm for beers brewed with pilsner malt, as the less modified malt in the past was supposedly more likely to produce DMS, and the longer boil was needed to boil this off. With better modern modern malt, DMS is much less of a concern, I've brewed dozens of beers with pilsner malt, all with 60 minute boils, and never had a problem with DMS. So if your recipe is a pils, I think you can safely do a 60 minute boil.
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The current issue of BYO Magazine has a short article from Marshall Schott from Brülosophy podcast. He said multiple experiments showed no detectable difference in DMS between a 30 minute boil and a 60 minute boil. In one exBEERiment, a kölsch has no detectible DMS difference between a 30 and a 90 minute boil.

To @Craigerrr's point, he mentioned he would like to test the multi-hour boils used in Scottish Ales.
 
If I am not mistaken there can be some caramelization with extended boils, as mentioned a beer like a Wee Heavy for instance. I'm not sure what other effe is there may be. If the style doesn't call for a longer boil to bring something to the beer, there is no reason to boil longer.
For instance, when I brew a Hazy that doesn't get any boil hops I boil for 30 minutes.
 
Ozarks Mountain Brew said:
I've seen some recipes that use it to add more hop additions, I've boiled for an hour and a half before from sparging too much, I have an idiot mark on my site glass that tells me when to stop boiling, I don't stop till I hit that mark
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I need one of them idiot marks lol!
 
Craigerrr said:
If I am not mistaken there can be some caramelization with extended boils
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I think it's more like the proteins/sugars are getting "darkened" from the maillard reaction, which happens on extended boils and adds flavor compounds.

Caramelizing of sugar takes place at 320F (160C), that's why some take a portion of wort and boil it until the water is gone so they can reach those high temperatures like Maple syrup production to get some caramelization of the sugars, mostly for Scottish ales. I've always wanted to try it to see what it would taste like, but I've read that it's not traditional for Scottish beers. Still would like to try it or just taste the effects.
 
HighVoltageMan! said:
I think it's more like the proteins/sugars are getting "darkened" from the maillard reaction, which happens on extended boils and adds flavor compounds.

Caramelizing of sugar takes place at 320F (160C), that's why some take a portion of wort and boil it until the water is gone so they can reach those high temperatures like Maple syrup production to get some caramelization of the sugars, mostly for Scottish ales. I've always wanted to try it to see what it would taste like, but I've read that it's not traditional for Scottish beers. Still would like to try it or just taste the effects.
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Traditional or not, I'll be doing exactly that on my next beer, a 60/-. I tried this "boil-down" technique on one of the community recipes (a Brown Ale from @jmcnamara). I thought it added a nice bit of depth and maltiness, but without doing a side-by-side, it's really hard to say. I think the interesting lever to pull would be exactly how big a portion of wort to pull and caramelize. It's stuff like this that makes me love this hobby. :)
 
HighVoltageMan! said:
I think it's more like the proteins/sugars are getting "darkened" from the maillard reaction, which happens on extended boils and adds flavor compounds.

Caramelizing of sugar takes place at 320F (160C), that's why some take a portion of wort and boil it until the water is gone so they can reach those high temperatures like Maple syrup production to get some caramelization of the sugars, mostly for Scottish ales. I've always wanted to try it to see what it would taste like, but I've read that it's not traditional for Scottish beers. Still would like to try it or just taste the effects.
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Humbug! I never go over 250 degrees when I make caramels!
 
Yes, I understand. I just like caramels.
I think at 320 I could us them for rail road spikes. But they would be a nice dark chocolate color.
 
west1m said:
Yes, I understand. I just like caramels.
I think at 320 I could us them for rail road spikes. But they would be a nice dark chocolate color.
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I wonder if a guy could caramelize some LME or dissolve some DME and caramelize that a head of time and and dissolve back into a boil later.

Do you think you could make hard candy from LME? It would keep until you needed it.
 
HighVoltageMan! said:
I wonder if a guy could caramelize some LME or dissolve some DME and caramelize that a head of time and and dissolve back into a boil later.

Do you think you could make hard candy from LME? It would keep until you needed it.
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Only one way to find out man :p .

I don't see why it wouldn't work.
For some reason in my mind it seems like you'd get some pretty bad scorching using DME it also makes me wonder why the Belgian monks didn't use DME or Wort and just sugar....
 
I dont know about cooking it but I had two 4 ounce packages of DME vacuum sealed. Both sprung a leak or something. Turned into solid rocks of DME. I still used one of them for a starter and turned out fine.
 
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