Good to know. I just opened up at 20 min to make sure the boil was kicking for late hops & Irish moss at 15, I could probably not worry about that.
The wort and resulting beer will taste considerably better with the lower boil off. TBI is real.
It is amazing to see what a minor tweak to procedure can do. Any changes to my physical setup are off the table, so I can’t alter some methods, but low intensity boil is how I go from now on. Period. For next brew day (I brew every 2 weeks) I’ve got Brewtan B on order. Can’t wait to see what another easy tweak will do.
Robert, you seem so enthusiastic, I’ll try a 40 simmer covered/20 open boil on my next pale lager brew. I already use Brewtan B on my palest beers. See if I find an improvement. I had to recalculate my water volume and such, but what the hey
From what Denny said above, you could even go longer low and covered I guess. This was just a random starting point for me. But I sure do notice a flavor difference in the wort, it’s also paler, and by the look when I oxygenated it the foam might be a little sturdier too. I’ve started to notice so many people already swear by BTB, maybe just these two little things will get my Pils over the wall I’ve hit getting it to the next level!
FWIW I do a 60 minute fully covered with 6% boil off. Nearly every one of my beers has a very high% of pils. I have only gotten dms when approaching 4%.
It’s funny to see this being brought up again. We advocated it nearly 3 years ago and everyone scoffed. 
If Denny and Martin and Bryan and Derek ALL say something really works, and all I have to do is move a lid and twist a knob on my existing equipment…
I think we all get spooked early on about DMS, and no lid, and 90 min open boil… but I have never detected DMS in any of my beers. Not that long ago brulosophy did the 60min pils boil test and I recall all the flak they took. Just to be a rebel, I tried it, and have not wasted my time on a 90min DMS fear boil since. I’ll be trying this anti-heat stroke thing too, only because it’s not much added effort. But I disagree with your “proof” standard… I have to read it on brulosophy, lol!
You hit on what got me, not much effort. Why not try? What I learned here on this thread, or was reminded of, is that you aren’t driving off DMS that whole long boil, you have to make it first. So the long way is wasted effort, and now I see it can actually do a lot of harm. Funny thing: When I finally took the lid off today, boom! Really smelled the DMS! And eleven out of sixteen Brulosophy sniffers would have too, but they wouldn’t be able to say what it was.
Ya, who knows. If they hang out with those guys though, they might be a lot more educated on beer than folks are willing to admit. I don’t know them so I’m hesitant to cubby hole them.
This is the problem with demanding proof. It goes both way. We need to avoid blanket statements unless they are complimentary, lol.
Anyway, it was humor that I only believe things if brulosophy prints it. But, the few things that they’ve printed, which I have tried, tend to come true.
The one trouble I see with Brulosophy is the xbmts seem a little sloppy and are one-off, not repeated. So, maybe like my experience today? Not proof, but reason to take a look and try something. One cool thing about something like this forum is, that if one person sees something and tries it, then another and another, and everybody seems to agree on the value, you are starting to build up something like repeated experimental evidence. Why I’m trying BTB for instance.
I’m with ya. We’re tracking. Brulosophy is what it is. They say so too. One of the reasons I like what they do is that it’s thought provoking and you are encouraged to try for yourself. I could easily list some reasons to not like it, but that would be too easy.
I still have no clue how to compute a p value. Never will. Have no desire to.
Any who… sorry to derail.
Interesting discussion on a topic I thought was not negotiable: always boil uncovered. Next brew I’ll leave the kettle covered for half of the 60 minute boil time. Thanks to everyone for weighing in.
A few weeks ago, I went to a brew club meeting. There was a pro brewer amongst us. He brought some nice beers to taste.
When we were tasting everyone’s beer, one person poured a Kolsch (it was well made and tasted great). The pro brewer took a sip and scrunched up his face. He said to the guy who brought the Kolsch, “How long was your boil?”
The Kolsch brewer said “60 minutes.”
The pro brewer with his most professorial tone said, “Next time you should boil 90 minutes to avoid DMS.”
The Kolsch brewer double checked, “Do you taste DMS?”
The pro brewer responded “No.”
An awkward silence followed.
Weigh yourself. Pee. Weigh yourself again. Subtract. Pee value.
Thanks! Now it totally makes sense
There is a long history misinformation promolgated in the homebrewing world that makes its way to the Pro’s. Remember, most of the craft brewers out there just matriculated into the pro ranks without any real brewing education or study. The information I presented earlier in this thread isn’t groundbreaking, its just a simple parroting of existing technical brewing text and journal information.
However, there are cases where it might take 90 minutes (or more) to effectively reduce DMS content when brewing with high Pils content. The differentiator is the wort temperature and in most cases, that is determined by your elevation.
I’m definitely trying this on my next brew. One of my biggest issues has always been trying to hit the “ideal” boil off amount, I was always well under that.
That was me, this did the trick and more . Just have to let go of all your conditioning. A mere simmer and the lid on? Yep. Shows once again that what “everybody knows” is probably wrong.
Brad Smith had a nice discussion on boiling with Charlie Bamforth on the BeerSmith podcast a few years ago. He is not a fan of lid on or weak boil.