30 minute boil??

it's my first all grain day and I chose a Blue Moon Belgian White clone from Austin Homebrew. I should have really read through the sheet that came with it last night but I waited until I put my strike water on to browse through it. Now on the instructions it says that once the wort comes to a rolling boil add the hops and set the timer for 30 minutes. Again this is my first all grain and I am a complete noob but I thought a 60 minute boil was semi standard. Maybe it's just me worrying about it too much. Any insight would be welcome.

It is my understanding that the 60 minute boil is for the hops, not for the malt. That being said, a 30 minute boil would be the equivalent of having a 60 minute boil with no early hop additions, adding hops only at 30 mins. My guess is the beer will be a little less bitter than its supposed to be.

You've got that backwards, 60 minute additions are the ones that contribute most of the bitterness. A 30 minute boil will give you the flavors that hop additions during the last half of a 60 minute boil, mostly flavor and aroma. With a wheat beer that 60 minute bitterness addition isn't nearly as important.

Thanks for the quick replies. It makes more sense now.

hmmmm - I better actually read MY instructions - I'm brewing a Bavarian Hefeweizen tomorrow.

Nope -
3/4 oz Hallertau 60 min
1/4 oz Hallertau 5 min

whew

johnnyc said:

You've got that backwards, 60 minute additions are the ones that contribute most of the bitterness. A 30 minute boil will give you the flavors that hop additions during the last half of a 60 minute boil, mostly flavor and aroma. With a wheat beer that 60 minute bitterness addition isn't nearly as important.

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While you've got that right, I'd like to add to that. 60 minute additions are for bitterness, of course. 30 minute additions are going to contribute to bitterness and leave some flavor, but much of the aroma compounds will be lost. The best time to add for flavor is around 15 minutes. For aroma, you go around 5-10 minutes left in the boil.

Now, as for only boiling for 30 minutes on an all grain beer. You want to boil for 60 minutes to drive off DMS. A lot of people will boil for 90 is using pils as a base malt because the levels of DMS can skew higher. So the 60 minute boil isn't just for the hops.

johnnyc said:

You've got that backwards, 60 minute additions are the ones that contribute most of the bitterness. A 30 minute boil will give you the flavors that hop additions during the last half of a 60 minute boil, mostly flavor and aroma. With a wheat beer that 60 minute bitterness addition isn't nearly as important.

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DUH! of course, my bad - thanks for catching that.

I agree with what they said, but have something to add.

If "someone" brewed an unhopped extract for 30 mins instead of 60 all they would have to do is double up on their bittering hops to achieve the same bitterness as with a 60 min boil. See Papazian's TCJOHB Hop Chart.

Also, most HWs only use a bittering hop, nothing else.

homebrewer_99 said:

I agree with what they said, but have something to add.

If "someone" brewed an unhopped extract for 30 mins instead of 60 all they would have to do is double up on their bittering hops to achieve the same bitterness as with a 60 min boil. See Papazian's TCJOHB Hop Chart.

Also, most HWs only use a bittering hop, nothing else.

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yeah, for extract that is ok. It is pretty much ready as is.