Boiling?

This is my first attempt at homebrewing. I have this book I have over 5 times trying to be as meticulous as possible. One question I have is boiling procedures. When I first throw in my hops to my wort it says to boil for 45-60 minutes. I am making a pale ale and the book says to keep the temperature between 150 - 160 degrees to keep the enzymes most active. I kept the temperature at 154 degrees the whole time but by no means was the wort at a "rolling boil". In fact it looked stagnant even though it was hot. Is this ok? Will it make a difference in the beer?

Ummm...somehow you managed to mix up the steeping of the grains with the boiling of the wort. The 150-160F step is known as a mash (which would be odd to attempt on your first try...). After that is completed you then boil for an hour adding the hops at the indicated times.

Most beginners start with a pure extract kit (no grains) which only requires boiling.

Got it. Steep the grains for 15-20mins at 154 degrees, remove the grains boil hops for 45-60 minutes as a rolling boil.

Since I steeped my hops then for 1 hour at 154 degrees should I add hops at the bottom of my second stage fermenter in order to make up for the lost oils when I didn't fully boil my wort or will that just make the ale ruined?

adding hops after the boil will only add aroma. it will not add any bittering elements to the beer.

If the beer is not bitter enough (and since you didn't boil it, it probably isn't bitte enough) you could boil some hops in a pint of water to make a bitter tea out of them and then pour THAT into your beer.

-walker

BrewMeister said:

Since I steeped my hops then for 1 hour at 154 degrees should I add hops at the bottom of my second stage fermenter in order to make up for the lost oils when I didn't fully boil my wort or will that just make the ale ruined?

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You don't (generally) steep the hops with the grains. The hops are added to the boil at various times of boil time left to influence bitterness, flavor and hop aroma.

BrewMeister, Where are you from?

Kai

Were you doing an extract batch? Did you add any malt extract syrup or powder to the water? If you were trying to do an all grain version, that may be pretty tough for the first try. Maybe post the recipe you were doing and we could help out a little more. If you didn't boil the water at all, I must say this beer may not turn out at all. Did you take a gravity reading with a hydrometer? That would be one way of knowing if you extacted any sugars from the grain.

Reasons for needing to get a good rolling boil going are as follows.
Sanitization is possibly the most important reason, and a necessity, for boiling wort. Boiling kills bacteria and fungi that get into the wort either on the malt or some other ingredient or manner (i.e. floating through the air). This creates a stable medium for growth for yeast by removing competition for the yeast and it reduces the potential for spoilage of the final beer.
2. Hop utilization:
Heat is needed to extract oils from hop resins and a combination of heat and pH makes it water soluble through isomerization, which changes the molecular structure of the hops.
3. Volatization:
A vigorous boil will volatize or remove undesirable elements from the wort into the atmosphere (assuming there is no lid on the pot to block volatization). Examples of undesirable elements/characteristics that are removed include dimethyl sulphide (DMS – particularly from Pils and German Pils malt) and some hop elements.
4. Concentration:
Through the evaporation of water, the wort is concentrated and aids in achieving a brewer’s desired starting gravity.
5. Colourization:
Sometimes called caramelization, this refers to the Maillard reaction that goes on during boiling. A chemical reaction between sugars and amino acids, each brought out in the mashing process, occurs through the introduction of heat (boiling). The result is a darkening of the colour of the wort. This can be increased by prolonged boiling.
6. Protein coagulation:
Also known as “trub formation” this refers to the bonding of proteins with each other. As they become less soluble (by bonding into bigger pieces), they dissipate out of the wort as trub. An advantage of this is that tannins can also become associated with these proteins. The more that existing tannins are removed from the wort, the less chance there is of there being astringency in the final beer. This also reduces cloudiness in beer.
7. Termination of enzymatic activity:
The high temperature of boiling the wort ends any enzymatic activity that was occurring in the mash. This reduces the chance of starches being further broken down, which would lead to a thinner beer.
8. Lowering the pH level:
The process of boiling lowers the pH level of the beer. The lower pH level, in turn, assists in the utilization of hops and contributes to a healthy environment for yeast growth.



Here is a great resource for the beginner, and it's free.

http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

Ok, I took the toasted barley and crystal malt and "steeped" them for 20 mins from cold water up to 154 degrees. Once I hit 154 degrees I removed the grains then added the 3.3 lbs of malt syrup and 4 lbs of malt extract and hops (Nothern Brewer) for 60 mins at 154 degrees. With 1 minute left I added Cascade hops as a finisher. I then added that to my 3.5 gallons of cold bottled water. After 2 hours my wort was at 74 degrees. I took my O.G. and it was 1.054 but since it was 74 degrees the real O.G. is prolly more like 1.056 (recipe states it should be 1.048-1.052) so I next time I might subtract 1 lb of malt extract and add 1/2 gal of water to bring the gravity down. I then pitched my Wyeast 1056 smack pack and it has been going crazy!!! I think I might make the "tea" and add some to the second stage just to bitter it up some. I'm in columbus, OH.

Could my gravity be a bit high because I didn't boil off some of the wort?

that would have caused your gravity to be LOWER. what boils off is water, and more water in the beer would have been lower gravity.

-walker

I need a lower gravity I'm high from the recipe by .004

don't worry about 4 points. you'll never know the difference. if it REALLY bothers you, add some more water to it.

This is EXACTLY why I hate hydrometers... they only make you think something is wrong.

-walker

lol, sounds good. What is a good recipe to make that hops tea so I can bitter this up when I transfer it to the second fermenter.

i don't know for sure, but since your original intention was to use the nothern brewer hops as a bittering hop, I would take another ounce of that and boil it in about 1 quart of water for 45 minutes to an hour. Cool. Dump.

(this will also lower your gravity a tad, so that should make you happy)

-walker

Thank you so much! The more I read up on this stuff and the tips and such, the more I understand, the simpler it gets and the more I want to brew. This is going to be bad.

3.3 lbs liquid extract + 4 lbs dry extract should give you an og of 1.059 (the value of liquid being 35 and dry 45)

6 lbs liquid+1 pound dry extract will give you an og of 1.051

yeah... once you get started, it's really hard to stop.

next time, though, make sure you crank up the heat on your kettle after you are done steeping the grains.

also, you might want to consider some way to more rapidly cool your wort. You want to get this done in the shortest amount of time possible, because the sweet liquor is a breeding ground for fungii and bacteria.

Since it sounds like you are only boiling a couple gallons of wort, you can probably make an ice bath in the sink or a tub and set your kettle into it once it is done boiling. That should drop the temp pretty darn fast and it will be ready for your yeast in less than 30 minutes (as opposed to 2 hours like you stated in your previous post.)

-walker

ok, sounds good. If I added the 1.5 gals of wort to the 3.5 gals of cold water then ice chilled that, would that work as well or just ice chill the wort right away?

Greetings fellow Buckeye

I'd say go with the hop tea idea. What IBU level were you going for approximately? If we handle your steeping of the hops as a First Wort Hop, we might be able to guesstimate how much hops to use for the hop tea. But then again I like to complicate things, so...

lol, I appreciate that. I never had an IBU in mind, but I like my beer bitter so the higher the better (as bearable as a Pale Ale will allow without tasting rotten). Should I stick with the Northern Brewers hops? How long should I let this ferment before racking to stage 2. I was thinking 10 days?

NB isn't the best bittering hops.

all hops have an alpha acid content associated with them. these acids are what lends the bitter flavors.

If you like your beer bitter, throw in some Galena or Chinook or something with an AA% closer to 10% than to 5%.

-walker

Norther brewer is fine, but you can use whatever hops you'd like really.

10 days should be good fine.

Thanks for everyone's help!

Try reading this on-line book. http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html it has a lot of good info for a beginner, and advanced alike.