Opinions on boil vigor

[BarryNL]

Mostly I've been doing fairly vigorous rolling boils with my wort but I heard something on the Zainasheff show the other day that this may impart more of a "toasty" character in your beer than you really want - and I think some of my beers do turn out a lot more toasty than I would expect from the grain bill. He suggested actually having a boil that was just about turning over - and that this is what commercial breweries tend to do.

What strength of boil to people here use, and how do you think it affects your beer flavour?

[Northern Brewer]

I boil outdoors and can struggle to get more than a gentle turn over in very cold weather. This doesn't seem to affect the beers, which always turn out star bright. I suspect whilst a mere simmer would be inadequate, we actually need a less vigorous boil than we perhaps appreciate.

[adm]

I bring mine to the boild and give it about 10 minutes with a really vigorous boil, then turn it down to a nice smooth rolling boil for most of the time, then crank it back up again for the final 10 minutes.

I don't know how it affects the flavour, but I always get an excellent hot break and clear wort.

[mysterio]

Theres a few academic papers out there on google on the effects of thermal loading on wort. Basically over-boiling and thermal loading can cause some nasty malt and hop derived compounds to develop in the wort, things like Strecker aldehydes and 4VG from the malt and beta demascenone and 3MBT from the hops. All of which you want to keep to a miniumum in the finished beer. The only disadvantages of a gentle boil, I think, are slightly decreased melanoidin/colour formation and slightly decresed hop utilisation. This is just some stuff I read on the internet though, don't take my word for it!

I personally go for the gentle boil

[DarloDave]

I tried a less vigourous boil, with just one element plugged in, but was worried that it wasnt boiling enough, so whacked the second back on..I'll try one again and just leave it, as this drastically reduces steamyness.

[Robdog]

I bring mine to the boil with two elements then bung in the hops and turn it down to one element for the remainder of the boil.

[BarryNL]

Actually, the first beer I made with my new steel boil pot I did on the gas cooker and the flame struggled to get more than a simmer. The beer, however, tastes excellent. As it's a stout I can't really say what the effect is on clarity but my Alt from a week ago was also done with a more gentle boil so it will be interesting to see how that turns out.

[Subsonic]

I used to boil on electric elements but my beer often had a burnt taste so I switched to propane. I still have a Sustronics controller that enables a kettle element to be cycled on and off in an adjustable manner (like a dimmer switch) but - safely! If anyone is interested in a bit of barter PM me.....

[Scooby]

I boil the first runnings (or first batch) really vigorously through the foaming stage, then trickle in the rest in to maintain little more than a simmer.

Interesting, when you say trickle in Chris, over what period is that? Do you still do 1hr boils and how long do you trickle for. (My PSA score was low )

[Scooby]

Yes I can see the reasoning behind it now. I get a vigorous boil for about 10mins on 2 elements, turn off 1 add hops and get
a slow rolling boil with the hops just turning over then whack both on for the last 10 mins.

[DarloDave]

Right so i've tried this one on element, and after coming to the boil I unplugged one element, and the boil came to practically nothing, like seriously a light simmer, is this still fine? or next time should I give it 10 mins with 2, 10 with 1, etc.. opinons?

[DarloDave]

Its the Hop and Grape boiler, TBH i think that next time im going to do the 10 mins on each, cos at times im convinced its barely even simmering, this is a stout so it doesnt really matter about clarity or anything, so if theres any problemes i should get away with it.

[Parva]

I tend to look at the quantity of wort I have left and if I have too much (as I did today) I'll run two elements to boil it off. Indeed I had to run two elements for almost an hour of the 90 minute boil to get my desired quantity and somehow hit the correct quantity and gravity. Wonders never cease.

[DarloDave]

Ive ended up with like 5L too much because of the crap boil and as a result the OG has gone down a fair few points which is a shame, but at least now i know for next time.

[nofe4r]

I boil the first runnings (or first batch) really vigorously through the foaming stage, then trickle in the rest in to maintain little more than a simmer.

It produces great wort clarity and mimimises losses to evaporation.

If you are using whirlfloc/protafloc, little more than a simmer will do the job perfectly acceptably though, some commercial breweries have been working on some really low evaporation rates, 7% and below.

I may try this next time. My boiler has never been big enough to get a good boil going with full volume without risk of a boil over. For some reason I thought it was best to get all the wort added before bringing it to the boil. What king of evaporation reduction are you getting? So I can pre-empt the extra volume.