30 minute aggressive boils are now used.
Batch brewed today was the 3rd time using a 30 min boil.
This time the stove was at full throttle giving it all she got.
After 30 minutes, placed pot in sink full of ice, stirred creating
a whirlpool, set timer for 30 minutes to check temp later.
After returning it was observed the wort had darkened significantly.
What was that all about ??
Thanks
After the trub settles out, it can make the wort appear darker.
Maybe you got more break material due to the boil … hard to say, but as mentioned when trup or yeast settles it makes the wort or beer look darker when held in larger volumes. Pour it into your hydrometer flask if you are concerned.
First time a 30 min very aggressive boil was done.
I’ll go with more break material. Gunk in
bottom of pot was very light colored, so
I guess that makes sense.
Thanks
I think the high heat boil caramalized the sugars.
Technically, you can’t caramelize in the kettle.
If you boiled long enough - all the way to a reduction - you obviously can caramelize though … right?
Yep…once you boil off the liquid. That’s how you make caramel for cooking, for instance.
That’s what I was thinking but I dunno [emoji2369]
As I said, it wasn’t caramelization. You need temps in excess of 360F for that and you can’t get that high in a kettle of liquid.
Only tangentially related, but has anyone tried boiling some of the wort in a pressure cooker, then adding it to the kettle? I feel like this could be done fairly easily and low-risk in a 90 min boil with, say 2L of first runnings placed in an instant pot for a 30 min high pressure boil, then added to the kettle alongside the 60 minute hops. I would think the added 60 minutes of open boil would provide plenty of time for everything to gas off that needs to. I don’t know what the benefits would be (maybe some additional color?), but it seems like it could be fun to try it out on something like a Scotch Ale or maybe a bock.
I know people who have done decoctions using a pressure cooker.
I haven’t used a pressure cooker for decocting, but I have done reduction boil off of a portion of the wort and added back to the main boil as a syrup. I think there was a Scottish Ale recipe by someone named “Skotrat” for the Traquoir House homage beer. That is what I used the reduction process on and it turned out really nice (my recollection, which could be skewed terribly). But, that was years ago and probably unnecessary now with all of the newer trends available for brewing.
Scott’s recipe is the base of my Wee Shroomy, which I make at least once a year. I’m still doing the boil down. It gives the beer a unique character I don’t think you can get any other way.