Accidental Brewing Experiments

[Kinley]

Some may remember my accident a month ago when I blew up my boiler. This occurred at mashing in and as the backup element failed, I had to do everything on the stove top. I followed the hop schedule as planned by boiling half the wort in various pans then strained the hops through a sieve while hot. I had sterilised the cooling coil and started cooling. I then boiled the remaining half of the wort for 20 minutes and added it to the cooling wort. Fermented out in the fermenting fridge and racked to cask. 4 days later I repeated exactly the same brew with my new boiler and usual AG set up, this time getting crystal clear wort on the run off into fermenter. Fermentation was as good as identical (split batch of same yeast; 150 billion cells in 25l).

4.5 weeks later and the beer has dropped bright. Both beers are very similar and clearly the same recipe. The stove top beer is richer, maltier and has a far smoother bitterness than the standard version. Both carry the aroma similarly but the hop flavour is perhaps clearer in the standard. The different components are cleaner, sharper and more delineated in the standard version too. However I prefer the smoothness and richness of the stove top beer even if it is what I can only describe as 'muddy'.

I guess my point is that I am surprised how significant equipment and technique must play in shaping the overall flavour of a beer. In Brew Like Monk, Stan Hieronymus suggests a change in fermenter shape can play a significant part in the flavour outcome. I wonder what effect boiler shape or 'boiling currents' have of alpha acid extraction? Maybe the short boil on half the wort preserved the maltiness better and this 'smooths' the hops. Or perhaps removing the cold break in the standard version cleans the flavour but loses maltiness. I feel more experiments coming on.