Can you "over" boil water?

I know this sounds like a crazy question, but I was brewing with a couple friends at their microbrewery. They have a 7bbl system and started the water the evening before, and it boiled much longer than planned. 40 of the original 350 gallons (about 11.5%) boiled off. They topped off with more water and proceeded with the brew day. But while brewing we were talking about this and were curious if there would be any issues with this happening. I believe the water maybe a little on the harder side, but don't remember the exact water report.

So they were boiling their strike water? Or the wort? I'm confused about the situation.

As long as they re-aerate the wort after I don't see any issues. There may be some crazy mineral type stuff going on that I have no clue about haha

BenS said:

So they were boiling their strike water? Or the wort? I'm confused about the situation.

Click to expand...

Sorry, it was the strike water

Hmmm....I think it depends on their water report. If they have a lot of temporary hardness then they may have made the water less alkaline. Or they may have concentrated things by 11.5%. Either way, I doubt the patrons of the microbrewery will be able to tell a difference.

In a word, "no" with the exception, as noted in #5, that anything that didn't precipitate in the first few minutes (calcium carbonate) or fly off in the first 10 minutes (CO2, Cl2), i.e. sulfate, sodium, chloride, iron...., would be concentrated by an amount proportional to the reduction of volume. A notable exception would be chloramine which, if present, would be largely expelled in an overnight boil whereas a more normal 10 minute boil wouldn't drive off much of it.

This is the same thing that we were thinking, as well. Thanks for the knowledge.