Boil Time question

Im brewing a 2.5 gallon oatmeal/milk stout and I was wondering about the boil time, with my hop addition I was wanting to start at 45minutes. I was wondering if a boil time of 45min is fine of if you have to do a 60minute boil?

longer boil time - better hop utilization for bitterness. 45 is probably the minimum...if you're stuck on the 45 min, you might bump up your first hop addition by 20% to match style/recipe (no math employed in that suggestion, just a shot from the hip)

you don't have to do a full 60 minute boil. One worry about doing a shorter boil is that you don't boil off all the DMS. 45 minutes though is probably sufficient for well-modified malts.

However, more hops at 45 minutes vs. less hops at 60 minutes, while giving you roughly equivalent IBUs could result in different flavor/aroma profiles as fewer of the flavor/aroma compounds will be driven off by the shorter boil.

The beer will have slightly less alcohol with a short boil time

Don't know if you're doing extract, partial mash or all grain. If it's extract then your boil times are completely based on your hop additions. Extract doesn't even need to be boiled. If you're doing partial mash or all grain, then DMS is a definite consideration beyond the needs of your hop schedule.

abracadabra said:

The beer will have slightly less alcohol with a short boil time

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How would that be possible? Assuming you plan your pre-boil volume accordingly.

ChshreCat said:

Don't know if you're doing extract, partial mash or all grain. If it's extract then your boil times are completely based on your hop additions. Extract doesn't even need to be boiled. If you're doing partial mash or all grain, then DMS is a definite consideration beyond the needs of your hop schedule.

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All grain, DMS means?

ChshreCat said:

How would that be possible? Assuming you plan your pre-boil volume accordingly.

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Im guessing he's talking about boil off.

bh10 said:

All grain, DMS means?


Im guessing he's talking about boil off.

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All grain is brewing beer starting with the grain, not extract.

DMS = https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/DMS

And yes, I believe he is talking about boil off

Still, length of boil itself doesn't make your beer stronger or weaker. Just wanted that to be clear to any noobies. It has to do with post-boil volume, pre-boil volume and ingredients.

5 lbs of LME added to 6 gallons of water, boiled down to 5 gallons will be the same concentration as 5 lbs of LME added to 5.5 gallons of water and boiled a shorter amount of time to reach 5 gallons.

Yeah yo...derrr! C'mon don't confuse the noobs people! Obviously if he/she planned for a 5 galllon post boil...whether took 2 hours or 10 minutes to get there, the final alcohol should be the same. Stop being crazy!