So I’m looking at doing a wee heavy as my next beer and I want to get a solid idea of the two methods I can try for the boil.
Boil gallon to a quart, add back. Overall boil time regular
Extended boil time of unspecified length.
On here, I’ve seen people advocate boiling the first 1 gallon of running down to 1 quart. That sounds great and all, but I’d like to also know what the “extended boil” time actually is that would produce the caramelization that we’re looking for in this beer. Some things I’ve seen are boiling 10 gal down to 5 gal, which seems a bit excessive to me right now. Would a 2 hour boil do it? 3? Is it more a function of time or volume?
My set up right now boils off about 1.2 gallons per hour (at work away from notebook right now) with the lid partially on the pot. My usual setup is starting with 8 gallons, boiling for 90 minutes, ending with 6.25 gal after cooling, putting 6 gal in the fermentor, and bottling 5.75 gallons. A two hour boil means I need to collect almost 8.4 gallons, and a three hour would mean ~9.2 which is possible in my 10 gal kettle.
I don’t think you CAN get the same level of ‘carmelization’ or maillard reactions in a full boil that you can get with the 1 gallon. By the time you have boiled that gallon down to a quart you’ve made syrup. The boiling temp has gone way up from 212 at that point because you are boiling something that’s around 1.360 (probably higher) gravity so you get actual carmelization (I think, haven’t actually done the math) at the boil temps you can achieve with that much sugar in the mix.
+1. You’ll get a way better beer reducing the gallon to a quart method. You will get some ‘caramelly’ flavors in a long boil but not of the quality or intensity of this method. It makes an awesome beer.
And I will keep my lid partially on :P, I can’t deal with the amount of boil off I get with it completely off, and the beers come out great with no DMS.
if you’re not getting any DMS then maybe you don’t have to worry but you can control boiloff with flame control as well. I try to keep the surface turning over without having giant foamy rolls trying to leap out of the pot. this also allows be to boil a starting volume of 47 liters in my 50 liter kettle.
That’s about the boil vigor I see with both burners going full, any less and it’d be a simmer. It’s a mighty wide pot, so there’s not a whole lot I can do about it. With the lid partially on, I get 15% loss per hour. I don’t have figures for what it was with it completely off as I calibrated that a long time ago.
I have one change in plan the next time I do a reduced boil, instead of targeting a volume, I am going to target a temperature using a candy thermometer. I think I will target soft ball stage (235 - 245)
I may throw my candy thermometer in the pot and see what it gets down to once it’s down to a quart. Brewing this on the 18th or 19th so I can report back
I found that there is a distinct look that occurs at the right carmelization stage - there are striated bubble seams across the surface. I wish I had taken a picture. I boiled a gallon down to somewhere above a pint, but definitely less than a quart.
Yep, that too ! Man, I haven’t brewed one in a couple years. All this talk is pushing me there. The last one I brewed was a split batch - half as is, the other half got bourbon soaked oak chips in the keg (ala Founders Backwoods Bastard) . Amazing stuff.
I think this is why you don’t get the same effect by boiling 6 gallons down to 5.25 vs boiling 1 gallon down to .25 then adding that to the whole mess. The desired “kettle caramelized” effect happens only after most of the h2o is evaporated. You don’t get there with reducing 6 gallons to 5.25. Now comes the debate on “kettle carmelizing” and how it’s actually melanoidin not carmelizing and all that. Terminology aside, 6 to 5.25 is not the same as 1 to .25, turn adding that to the other 5. Besides, it would be more like 7 gallons total for me…
I have yet to brew this style, though I intend to. One idea that crosses my mind often seems to border on cheating, but I wonder if anyone has tried it.
Rather than taking the first gallon of runnings and boiling it down, I’ve always wondered about mixing up a gallon of wort using DME, boiling that down, and adding that to the main boil. In spirit it seems like a Scottish version of making homemade candi syrup.
I’d love to try it side by side with a batch done the traditional way of boiling down a gallon of first runnings. I can’t make my mind up whether I think that sacrificing the first running to boil down will waste their goodness or put it to good use.