Boiling vs Not Boiling

I think I have slipped into yet another parallel universe.

About ten years ago when I started this hobby all of the books that I read talked about the "great debate" between boilers and non-boilers. That some people take their wort to a roiling boil and others maintain theirs at just short of boiling. Since the guy who got me started doing the beer making thing did boils, I boiled and didn't think much more about it.

Until now.

I have done searches on this site and others and have found no references to not boiling. None at all. The books that I bought originally are long lent out and lost. Am I misremembering? Am I insane? Am I a butterfly dreaming he is a man turning into a roach?

uhg.

jw

Well this is the first I've ever heard of not having a rolling boil, but I've only been doing this for six months. On the other hand I've read quite a few older books and I've never heard mention of a 'soft boil.' You need the mechanical action of the boil to extract hop resins and to coagulate protiens.

I don't think you're turning into a roach, a pangolin maybe, but not a roach...

What is the difference between a rolling boil, and a soft boil?

Sumta said:

some people take their wort to a roiling boil and others maintain theirs at just short of boiling.

jw

Click to expand...

Ive simmered wort before, and it works... but boiling is definitley better. for one you get more bitterness out of the hops, and also you get a better hot-break from a boil. Some breweries go further yet and 'agitate' the boiling wort mechanically so as to break up the hop oils even more.(apparently the oils have a tendency to bind together)

There are, even today, no-boil kits. I have noticed better results (all of the above) from a roiling boil (which by the way, will keep about half the surface of the kettle covered with foam. A soft boil generates very little foam.) When you are doing AG, you have to roil the boil to reduce the wort volume.

Yeah, those no-boil kits are supposedly already boiled. Thus by boiling them again you will screw up the hop profile.

The only style (that I know of) that may not require a boil is Berliner Weisse, a German Wheat beer style that is produced by yeast and lactic acid bacteria. The latter would be killed by the boil.

But this is a fairly exotic style which is pretty hard to get right since it is so difficult to get the lactic acid fermentation right.

For all other styles it is necessary to have a rolling boil for getting a hot break and isomerizing the hop resins. But rolling boil is not necessarily having the burner at full throttle

Kai

Around here we can buy a hopped malt extract (liquid) in our grocery stores. The directions simply say to pour about 2 gallons of boiling water in the fermenter, then pour the extract directly in from can (you can warm the can in a pan of warm water to make it pour easier) and then top off with cold water until temp is room temp. Stir in well, cover, install airlock and let sit for a couple of weeks.