Is blow off tubing really worth it?

While boiling an American Ale kit from morebeer.com last night, I was reading (to keep me on task) C.P.'s the Complete Joy of homebrewing. He said that using a blowoff tube can help get some bitterness down as well as some oils that will lead to headaches.

Well, I am on my 8 or 9th beer and I have never believed that there was enough bitterness in my more hopped beers and I can't figure out why.

So why would I want to use a blowoff tube?

... on a side note, to try to up the bitterness i put only 2.5 gallons into my kettle to try to get a more lively boil. before when i had added around 4 gallons of water my boil would be just a small roll in the middle with not much action. so i am hoping a better boil helped the hop flavor. after cooling my wort down some i pulled my nylon hop bags and placed them into a strainer and then poured the wort through the strainer into cold water. does anyone thank this will help?

I think if we knew more of your current technique (i.e. what type of hop, what increment, and what times for hops additions) we'd be better able to dial in what you are doing wrong.


In other words, before trying some funky maneuvers, let's get you up to speed on the basics...

Ok this is what I did. First I used Deer Park bottled water which I bought in 2.5 gallon jugs. I put cracked grains in a nylon bag and added the water on top of the grains. I then left the grains in the water for 27 minutes while the water was heating. I removed the grains and soon the water came to a boil. I turned the heat down and added 7lbs of extra light malt extract. then brought the boil back up. i then added 1oz of hops which were placed in nylon hop bag. the AA was %14.4 but i for get the name. at 40 minutes into the boil i added some type of tablet that is suppose to make the beer a little less cloudy (the name escapes, started with a W). Then at 55 minutes I added 1 oz of cascade hops, and then 1 oz in the last minutes. Both were in nylon hop bags. i then quickly put my kettle with the lid on, in cold water in my bath. after it cooled down for about 20 minutes i poured it into cold water. everything ofcourse was sanitized before i started. previously i have had great beers but i was never happy with the bitterness. also, a lot of times it seems i have problems with over cabonation after the beer has aged in the bottles. i am hoping this time after using 1/2 cup of sugar instead od 3/4, the bubbles will calm down a bit. My primary fermenter is a food grade plastic bucket and after 5 to 7 days i will transfer it to a 6.5 gallon carboy.
ok, thanks for reading!

This is one of CP's points that I just don't get. Very few of my ferments have been active enough to blowoff, I think three in seven years. No one I've talked to uses blowoff tubing to reduce bittering, etc., they use one to prevent major messes. Several pros I've talked to said that they wouldn't use blowoff tubes if they believed it would change their bittering targets.

Most everything looks pretty good, I must say. Two things jump out at me just off the bat.

I would ditch the hop bag. You get better hop utilization if you throw them into the boil loose. You can strain them as you dump your cooled wort into your primary.

You missed one of my personal favorite hop additions; at 30 mins. This is the flavoring stage and will allow you to taste more hops. If you don't want to buy more hops, I'd split the last ounce and do a half ounce at 30 mins and a half ounce in the last 5 like you already do.

Those two things will improve the bitterness and the flavor of the beer.


Also, the bitterness that CP was talking about was an astringent bitterness from the grain that is an undesirable bitterness. I personally have never had a problem with or without a blow off tube in this regard. However, there is another reason to use a blow off tube and that's if you have a really active kraeusen it will prevent foam from coming through your airlock, possibly clogging and blowing it off.


Hope this helps...others will be here shortly!

A blow off tube will do nothing to reduce bitterness unless you actually have a blow off (i.e. the krausen is forced into the tube). As David 42 said this can prevent a major mess.

To get the most out of your hops, you need a vigorous boil as you suggested, but reducing the wort size (although it will make the boil more vigorous) is counterproductive as the increased gravity and reduced size of the concentrated wort will reduce the hop utilization.

The best solution is to invest in a high BTU propane burner which will allow you to get a vigorous boil with a full size wort. You should do this outside as propane burners produce a large amount of CO.

Another thing is the type of hops you use. If the recipe is based on hop pellets, but you are using whole hops, you will need to increase the hopping rate by about 10%. If the recipe is based on whole hops, and you are using pellets, you could decrease the hopping rate by about 10%

Using bags to contain the hops also interferes with the utilization as the hops are confined to the bag, and not able to participate in the full joys of a vigorous boil. The one time I tried hop bags was a total disaster, and I had to make a hop tea to correct it. (This was probably because I used bags that were too small.)

Finally, you can always add more hops at the beginning of the boil if that suits your taste, but go gently. Hops are powerful, and a 1/4 oz. increase can make a big difference.

Hope this helps.

-a.

I usually do three additions
30 min. for bittering
15 min. (from end of boil) flavoring
5 min. for aroma

I'm not sure if 40 min boil will start breaking down the alpha acids too much.

Likke AJF said, reducing your boil volume will reduce you hop utilization. Are you using whole or pellets?

I've got a lot of info from Palmer's book. Try bringing the water to 170 and steeping for 20-25 min, you should get better utilization of your grains and minimize the tannins in your wort. Not necessary if your beer is comming out fine, just something you might want to try.
Should probably only change one thing at a time so you know how each variation affects the final product.

yeah what they said.

Plus i would add, since your using bottled water try adding a teaspoon or two of gypsum or burton salts to the brew water. This will harden the water, and in theory accent the hop bitterness a bit. I do this with all my ales.
also try using pellets, and ditch the bag. The obvious solution is to use way more hops, try doubling the bittering hops and see what happens. Lastly try adding the dme late in the boil, add a little in the beginning and then most the last 15 minutes or so. When doing extract beers, the high boil gravity is whats keeping your hop utilization low.

ps on the original question: i use a blow off only when i need one...

How strong the wort boils has only a little to do with bittering. Promash indicates bittering increases with boil time but not alot over 60min. Your bittering hops go in at 60, flavor hops go in at about 20 and aroma in the last 5 or at flameout. The aroma oils boil off of the 60min but the bittering stays. If you are not adding hops untill 30 min you are losing about 45% of the bittering, (according to ProMash) Also the brown stuff at the top of the fermenter , or that goes out the blowoff is just plain nasty. Also, higher carbonation levels can make beer bitter. Use the recommened amout of hops but boil the bittering hops for 60. Bags cut down the the utilization.

The strong rolling boil is to eliminate DMS.

I've used blow-off tubes, but it's because I NEEDED to use blowoff tubes (see david_42's phallic avatar)