Lids

This may be stupid, but when do you guys use lids on your wort pot if ever?

Do you boil with it on, or to you cover with your lid during cool down? I ask all of this becasue I thought I read somewhere that the steam from the pott could cause dylectic (sp?) or some sort of off flavor. On all my previous batches I have never used a lid at all, and I haven't infected anything yet, even with the swine flu going around

I have used the a lid in the past to stop so much heat escaping and to get a more vigorous boil, but have stopped because I've read that it can cause off-flavours - from sulphites if I remember. I (stupidly) didn't keep a record of which brews I left the lid on and which I didn't, so I'm afraid I can't corroborate this.

I usually use a lid on my kettle if I am steeping grains so the heat doesn't escape and I can hold my thermometer in place:



During boiling, I keep the lid off because I also heard it can cause off-flavors..

I believe the off flavor you're thinking of is DMS (dimethyl sulfide). It's supposed to taste like cooked vegetables, but I've never tasted it to my knowledge. I cover my pots most of the way during the boil, because I can't achieve a full boil without doing so. It's still letting off a lot of steam, though, so I think it's ok as far as DMS is concerned. Also, I don't think DMS is present in extract, because they already boiled it once.

To me, the worse danger of covering completely during the boil is the likely chance of boil-over. You'd have to at least watch it like a hawk.

viking999 said:

To me, the worse danger of covering completely during the boil is the likely chance of boil-over. You'd have to at least watch it like a hawk.

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+1, happened to us the first time we used the new banjo burner, it comes up quick, like 5 seconds from boil to boil-over and that was with 7 gals in a 15gal keg.

We do cover it between mash and sparge runnings just to keep random stuff out. (bugs, dirt, critters, kids, flying bottles, etc)

I use a piece of sanitized aluminum foil and cover it 3/4 of the way to retain heat. Also allows me to keep an eye on it ,so it don't boil over.