Do slow boils impact starch conversion?

I have to scale down my new AG electric rig to only a 1500 watt heating element in my BK to protect old wires and a 20amp circuit.

Aside from the time this adds to my brew-day will the additional time it takes to come up to boil impact the starch conversion? Should I adjust my mash times accordingly?

Edit to add: 15 gal keggle for BK. HLT uses tankless water heater.

As far as I know when bringing temp up to boiling you should already have the mash converted so there are no more starches to convert that would be affected by the slow raise to boiling.

How vigorous is the boil with the 1500w element?

There wont be any issues with starch conversion as thats done in the mash.

You could run into hop utilization issues or problems with DMS if your using Pilsen Malt.

Chris

Dirty said:

How vigorous is the boil with the 1500w element?

There wont be any issues with starch conversion as thats done in the mash.

You could run into hop utilization issues or problems with DMS if your using Pilsen Malt.

Chris

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Looks as though the OP is offline for now. To help answer your question about boiling. I have a 1500w element in my HLT. As a test I heated 5 gallons of water for around 55 minutes. Water got near boiling, maybe 210F, and after that period didn't seem to do much but boil water around the immediate area of the heating element. I don't know how much longer it would have taken to actually bring the water to a roiling boil. I turned off power at an hour.

Tondi007 said:

I have to scale down my new AG electric rig to only a 1500 watt heating element in my BK to protect old wires and a 20amp circuit.

Aside from the time this adds to my brew-day will the additional time it takes to come up to boil impact the starch conversion? Should I adjust my mash times accordingly?

Edit to add: 15 gal keggle for BK. HLT uses tankless water heater.

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I don't quite understand what you are asking. By the time your wort is in the kettle all starch conversion should have already been done. Even without doing a mash-out the temperature of the sparge would have denatured the vast majority of any remaining enzymes.

BigEd said:

I don't quite understand what you are asking. By the time your wort is in the kettle all starch conversion should have already been done. Even without doing a mash-out the temperature of the sparge would have denatured the vast majority of any remaining enzymes.

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Ok, Thanks guys. I think that answers my question. It sounds like there is not much enzymatic activity after the Mash. I was worried that there would be additional activity while the wort was off the grain and sitting in my BK as the water gets to boil temp -- leaving me with more short chain sugars and a dryer beer.

If it really takes a long time, you can try to incorporate a mashout. But I wouldn't worry about it. I do 5 gallons batches (~7 gallon preboil) on a kitchen stove, it can take over an hour to come to a boil. I usually don't do a mashout, and I've never had any over-attenuated beers.