Topic: Boiling
Pre-Boil vs. Post-Boil Water Ion Concentrations
MEMBERS ONLYThis is a really good question. Water chemistry is discussed in terms of pre-mash concentrations with minimal attention given to the concentration of ions following mashing (and boil). Perhaps the primary reason for this view is that water chemistry’s greatest influence on beer is through its effect on mash and wort pH. Malt enzymes, protein
How Important is Kettle pH?
MEMBERS ONLYMash pH gets most of the attention when it comes to pH measurement, but there are ideal pH levels at every step of the brewing process and they may get out of line after the mash. The boil pH affects protein coagulation, hot break, and hop isomerization (a higher pH results in a higher hop
Adding Water to a Boil
MEMBERS ONLYBrewers, and those of us brewers who write about brewing, have all sorts of rules of thumb to help guide us through our brewing journeys. Boil time is one such rule. Some brewers say to boil for a least an hour to allow all of the things required in the boil to occur, and others
Maximize Partial Boils
MEMBERS ONLYIf you are an extract brewer, there is a good chance you will hear (if you haven’t already) that you need to be doing full-wort boils (boiling your entire 5-gallon/19-L batch of beer). The recommendation isn’t bad — a full-wort boil is ideal as it results in a higher hop utilization, ensures all of the ingredients
Hit Your Post-Boil Volume
MEMBERS ONLYOne of the biggest challenges for beginner brewers is to end your brewday with the volume of wort in your fermenter that you intended. This is often a big reason for not hitting the target starting gravity and can be frustrating after all your hard work. So it’s time to dial in your procedure so
Boiling & Cooling
MEMBERS ONLYHomebrewers employ a variety of equipment to boil their worts, ranging from pots on a kitchen stovetop to modified commercial kegs heated by propane burners. Most homebrew setups involve a “simple” kettle — one with no internal structures for heating or circulation — heated by an external heating source. Concentrated vs. Full Wort Boils Most
Ramping Up to a Boil
MEMBERS ONLYn a very general sense the time required to bring wort to a boil can cause problems when the time is too long. Holding hot wort for extended time periods leads to heat-related chemical changes, generally termed “thermal stress”. But in a more practical sense this is not normally associated with waiting for the kettle
Ventilation: Proper Airflow in your Homebrewery
MEMBERS ONLYHaving grown up in Northern Iowa I’ve always liked the cold winters, crisp air, and a blanket of snow covering the ground. Northern Indiana, where I live now, isn’t quite as cold but we still get the crisp winters and also the hot humid summers — neither of which are pleasant for brewing outdoors. Like
Maillard Reactions
MEMBERS ONLYBeer contains hundreds of different compounds that interact with our human senses to create the appearance, mouthfeel, aromas and flavors that we experience and enjoy. The compounds that are contained within beer are either derived directly from the raw materials used to produce the beer, or are the result of the malting and brewing process
Better Boils
MEMBERS ONLYThe Wiz gets on a roll discussing rolling boils and sets the record straight on mash pH.
Eliminating chill haze
MEMBERS ONLYChill haze is the product of protein and polyphenol (tannin) interactions in beer and occur when beer is chilled, hence the name chill haze. There are various methods aimed at chill haze reduction and they all either are based on reducing the content of chill haze proteins and/or polyphenols. The first thing brewers can do
Evaporation rates
FREEKnowing the evaporation rate of your equipment is important when trying to brew beer to a target original gravity. There a few things that you can consider to solve the problem you