Boiling Wheat Beer Wort

Hey guys.

My first attempt at making beer, I decided to go with an American Wheat using cans of extract, in a pre-made kit

I'm boiling my wort, but I don't have much foam at all, so I'm not sure what will indicate the "break". Any ideas? Also, can you damage your wort by boiling too long?


[EDIT:] One more thing. My brewing kettle came with a lid, but the instructions don't mention boiling it covered. Should I?

Thanks a bunch.

1. do not, under any circumstance, cover that pot or you will quickly find out what a "boil" is.

2. if you are at good rolling boil, and i mean a GOOD rolling boil, then put your hops in and start your timer

Foam is not indicative of break, break likely wont be noticed during the boil, as long as you have a solid boil, you are good, and no you can't boil too long. But you will get into evaporation loss issues...

DO NOT cover it while you boil...

Another thing -
I checked the gravity and it was at about 1.035, while the kit said starting gravity should be 1.049-1.051 ...is this bad? And what could have caused this?

warhost said:

Another thing -
I checked the gravity and it was at about 1.035, while the kit said starting gravity should be 1.049-1.051 ...is this bad? And what could have caused this?

Click to expand...

Did you use all the ingredients? It's kind of hard to miss gravity by that much while using extract...

To my knowledge. There wasn't much to work with - just extract and hops pellets. I may have used too much water - or not done a good job scooping out extract that is clinging to the inside of the jars.

So it should still be good to go?

warhost said:

Another thing -
I checked the gravity and it was at about 1.035, while the kit said starting gravity should be 1.049-1.051 ...is this bad? And what could have caused this?

Click to expand...

Do you mean OG (original gravity)?
That is taken after the boil, and before pitching yeast. 1.049 - 1.051 sounds right for a OG.
The term SG can be confused between starting gravity (a term used in mashing and not extract brewing) and Specific gravity (any gravity reading).