If no bittering hops, why 60 min boil?

I've decided to try an extract/steep pale ale with only late addition hops (15, 7, 1 min) to get lots of hop flavour with less IBUs (I read a Zymurgy article by Jamil on late hop addittions: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/attachments/0000/1249/MJzym06_LateHops.pdf). Is there any reason to do a full 60 min boil or can I just add my extract and first hops once the boil is started and turn off the heat after 15 min? I'm not trying to caramelize the extract/wort or anything so what would be the point of a 60 min boil? 15 min should be sufficient for sterilization.

If your longest hop addition is 15m, you can do a 15m boil. 15m is enough to sterilize.

With extract I don't think you need to boil any more than about 20 minutes at most. For All Grain, the boil time also drives of DMS precursors, so many people recommend 60 minutes for 2-row, or 90 minutes for pilsner malt to keep DMS at low levels.

Homercidal said:

With extract I don't think you need to boil any more than about 20 minutes at most. For All Grain, the boil time also drives of DMS precursors, so many people recommend 60 minutes for 2-row, or 90 minutes for pilsner malt to keep DMS at low levels.

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Would DMS precursors be an issue for steeped crystal grains (carapils and crystal 40L)?

brewzombie said:

Would DMS precursors be an issue for steeped crystal grains (carapils and crystal 40L)?

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No.