Lid On or Off the brewpot?

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freeballer

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If quaility and taste are your priorities, and efficiency aside, is it better to brew with the lid on or off the brewpot? Or does it make a difference at all.

Thanks
 
The one big difference is with the lid on, boilovers are more probable to happen. Even with the lid cracked open, when the boilover starts it makes its way to the top much faster (or so I have seen).
 
Leave it off. If you brew with it on you run the risk of DMS not having the escape through the steam it needs. Even with the lid partly on you run the risk of having condesation dripping back into the wort causing DMS.
 
Off, as boo boo mentioned that are some chemicals that you don't want in your ale that are carried off with the steam. This is much less of a problem with extract, since it is heat-concentrated or heat-dried.
 
The only boilover I have experience was when I put the lid on a full 5 gallon boil. I'd leave if off for the most part... I have found that I can get my wort boiling faster though if I put the lid on until I get the roll... Once you toss in your first set of hops, it's dangerous to the cleanlyness of your stove to put the lid on... hehehe Plus there are the schools of thought that say that you prevent the boil off of some off flavor stuff..:mug:
 
Ok, so the issue that I ran into while brewing my first batch over the weekend was that my electric stove simply does not have the firepower (er... "ceramic heating element"-power) to bring the wort to a full, rolling boil. It could bring it up to around 208F or so, it was at what I believe would be called a "soft boil," but could not get over the edge without putting the lid at least partially on.

The executive decision I made was to leave the lid about 3/4 on, enough to get an aggressive boil but still allow some steam to escape. That the right decision? I know the ideal is to not have the lid on, but I believed having the lid partially on was a less egregious violation of brewmaking protocal than not getting a full boil.

Thoughts?
 
How big of a kettle are you using? If you are doing extract and not AG then the issue of having the lid partly on isn't so big an issue.
Trying to boil 5 gallons on an electric stove element is however almost a futile chore. If you are doing a 5 gallon boil you should invest in a turkey fryer setup using propane etc.
 
the_bird said:
The executive decision I made was to leave the lid about 3/4 on, enough to get an aggressive boil but still allow some steam to escape. That the right decision? I know the ideal is to not have the lid on, but I believed having the lid partially on was a less egregious violation of brewmaking protocal than not getting a full boil.

Thoughts?

Get a bigger burner or boil smaller volumes. ;)

As pointed out earlier, boiling is necessary to drive off volatile gases that may lead to off flavors in beer. DMS, which will give the beer a cooked corn smell, is the most prominent of them. A good boil is also necessary for hop utilization and hot break formation. The latter may not be as important for extract brewing.

I'm not saying that you can't make beer with the lid on, I'm just saying that you may create off-flavors or other quality problems. Since you already brewed with the lid on, please keep us updated on how the beer turns out. I'm curious if you will see the problems that have been mentioned.

Kai
 
Well, since it is my first shot at this, I may not have a developed-enough pallate to identify the specific problems, but I'll let you know. I was using a kit (the whole setup was a present from the wife), so it was extract-based, but with some grains and hop pellets. Again, though, I was leaving SOME room for the steam to escape, I didn't have the pot completely covered.

As for volume, the directions that came with the kit told me to do the boil with (gasp) only two gallons. I hesitated, it seems that you usually boil with three gallons, but I figured for the first go-'round I would follow the directions as closely as possible. I can't imagine how much difficulty I would have run into trying to boil three gallons, much less five (to speak nothing of the difficulties of doing a five-gallon boil in a four-gallon pot).

As to the turkey fryer... I can see how this hobby is going to quickly get expensive...
 
the_bird said:
As to the turkey fryer... I can see how this hobby is going to quickly get expensive...
Not only that but you will need a chiller too if you do a full 5 gallon boil. Fun isn't it? :)
 
the_bird said:
As to the turkey fryer... I can see how this hobby is going to quickly get expensive...

I think that my turkey fryer is one of my most valuable brewing tools. I could not imagine brewing w/o one. If you boil only 3 gal of wort, you can use ice to chill your wort and won't need an immersion chiller.

And it is a great multi tasker which justifies the ~$100 price tag for a stainless steel model:

- frying large quantities of food for parties
- great for stir frying
- canning jelly
...

Kai
 
Also, you can emphasize to SWMBO that this will get you and your stinky messy brewing operation out of the kitchen and into the yard.
 
cweston said:
Also, you can emphasize to SWMBO that this will get you and your stinky messy brewing operation out of the kitchen and into the yard.

Well, SWMBO will require that I fulfil my promise of a new digital camera to her before I make any major investments!

She actually didn't mind the "stink." In fact, she's been extremely encouraging of this new hobby.

"You mean, making homebrew means that you'll be cleaning AND sanitizing the kitchen?"

"Merry Christmas, dear... here's your brew kit!"
 
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