To boil or not to boil.

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Do you boil or not boil

  • Yes, I boil

  • No, I don't boil


Results are only viewable after voting.
Orpheus said:
Might as well ask, "Is your beer infected or not infected?"

No, its a follow up to a boil or not boil thread in the form of a poll.

I've never had any infection issues, just wanted to know what everyones thoughts were on boiling or not.
 
The bottom line is, if you are using pre-hopped extract you can get away with not boiling. Just keeping the temperature of the wort above 150-160˚F for a minimum of 15 minutes or so (pasteurization temps and hold times vary greatly) should be sufficient to kill off most of the unwanted microorganisms.

If you are using un-hopped extract with either whole hops or pellet hops then a boil is required for proper hop utilization. Using un-hopped extracts, selecting your own hops, and steeping some specialty grains for added color and flavor is very easy to do even for the newest nooby.

If you have not checked this out already, I suggest you take some time and thoroughly read through John Palmer's online book How To Brew. It will answer a lot of questions that you may have not even thought to ask yet. It helped me out greatly when I first got started.

John
 
Um, I think the To Boil or not to Boil thread was in reference to Mead - which you CAN in fact either boil or not. I'm not a mead man (yet) but when I become one, I'm probably going to fall into the not-boil category.

Beer is pretty much always going to be boiled and since that's what most of the peeps on this site do, that's what they're going to think this poll is referencing.

Focus
 
Focus said:
Um, I think the To Boil or not to Boil thread was in reference to Mead - which you CAN in fact either boil or not. I'm not a mead man (yet) but when I become one, I'm probably going to fall into the not-boil category.

Beer is pretty much always going to be boiled and since that's what most of the peeps on this site do, that's what they're going to think this poll is referencing.

Focus

Actually it was in reference to THIS thread.
 
Sorry, I was confused b/c to me there's plenty of debate on the mead side, but with beer it's a no-brainer. Sure not boiling your wort would be a gigantic time-saver, but I couldn't imagine what it would taste like if you didn't. There's just too much science (and just PFM) that goes on during the boil to just crack open a can of extract, mix with water, add yeast and let 'er rip. I'd think it would just taste like "barley soda" without any of the distinctive beer character. Not to mention the sanitation which is an equally significant impact of the boil.

Then again, I've never tried it, so I don't know for sure. I just know that brewers have been boiling their wort for centuries, so there must be a time-tested reason to do it.
 
I'm assuming this is regarding the pre-hopped kit beer question. I don't boil the kit unless it says to. If the original poster's not referring to kits, than there's no real question. Even excluding the infection issue, there'd be no hop bitterness if you didn't boil!
 
I can get prehopped malt extract in a can at the grocery store. These do not need to be boiled. It's already been done (no contamination issues)and boiling would change the hop character to the malt. I've used them several times and see no difference between boiling them or not boiling them. When I boil, it's only for 15 mins.
 
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