Boiling-Death to outsiders
Brewer's boil their wort for three main reasons:
Brewer's boil their wort for three main reasons:
Hops contain the little yellow Lupulin glands. They produce the resins of life: humulone and lupulone . These resins are what make a beer bitter. Adding hops to your wort at different times produce different results.
The hops you add at the beginning are called the bittering hops because they will have time to form isomers (big word that means they rearrange their organic structure creating different substance with the same organic makeup) which are what drinkers perceive as bitter. 60 minutes is the accepted length of time for these compounds to form. Isomers are all bitter with no flavor or aroma. Most of the time bittering hops are so harsh in their flavor that you wouldn’t want to flavor with them. Theoretically, you can use any hop to bitter a beer. I’m not sure I have had enough experience to say this is true. Hops come packaged with their lab tested Alpha Acid level printed on the bag. Use this number to determine the IBU of your beer. You need to read elsewhere for the equations. My advice is to brew from a recipe for a while before you start making your own. Use the same amount of hops the recipe wants you to use even if the Alpha Acids are different.
Flavor hops are added anywhere from 30 minutes to 10 minutes left in the boil. I usually add mine at 15 minutes. Flavor hops give your beer the desired taste. Again, I would follow the recipe until you understand more.
Aroma hops are added at the end of your boil. Almost all aroma, with slight addition to flavor. I actually wait on my aroma hops until primary fermentation is finished. I then transfer the beer to a carboy with the hops already in them and let it sit for a minimum of two weeks. This technique is called “dry hopping”.
Boiling causes all the enzymes and proteins to denature, gum up, and drop to the bottom of the kettle. This is called the “hot break”. A strong rolling boil will generate the best hot break. You want the proteins to precipitate because they are one of the culprits of hazy beer. The picture is of a 5 gallon Maibock boil. See the white creamy head? That is the hot break. Think of that cap as a lid. Underneath the “lid” is boiling wort trying to evaporate to the atmosphere. The cap will begin to rise. This is your friend the boilover. When the cap forms you can do one of three things: skim it, stir it, or pour water on it. I don’t know any proven advantage or disadvantage to any of the choices. I do know you need to do something or your beer will boilover and make a mess. Usually I stir and pour. After a while the break will settle and the cap will quit forming and the fear of a boilover will subside. I add my bittering hops at this time. Adding hops can make the whole boilover fear start again so watch and stir thoroughly.
Boiling causes evaporation of the water in your wort which concentrates the rest of your wort. Evaporation is system dependent. My brewery looses a gallon in one hour of boiling. I boil 11.5 gallons and end up with 10. Remember to account for unrecoverable wort that gets left behind in the kettle. My offset pickup tube will suck up all but the last half gallon, which usually has all the cold and hot break anyway.
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