Boiling with the lid on?

[mysterio]

I boiled my last batch with the lid on so as not to lose a gallon through evaporation... However I just noticed the John Palmer website said this will give nasty off-flavours. Do you think this will be noticable or am I being paranoid?

 

[chillHayze]

when I boil w/the lid I get humungous overflow. I don't think the evaporation is anything to worry about as long as you boil at least a gallon and a half. You could add a little water every few minuites if there is concern or your boil is small to begin with.

 

[casebrew]

There's at leat 3 reasons to boil:

1) reduce volume

2) enhance flavor profile by boiling the hops and malt together

3) boil off some stuff you don't want in your beer.

Soo, keeping the lid on will have effects...

 

[david_42]

If you keep the lid on, you can't safely maintain a rolling boil, which is really neccessary to dissolve the bittering acids. All you are losing is water and junk you don't want in the beer. You can add water if you need to in the fermenter.

 

[budbo]

What I generally do is start with 2.5-3 gallons and top it off at each "event" so If I do a 30 min hop I'll bring the volume back up then again at 15 min.... generally I finish with a few cups less than starting boil.

I have also been told this will increase hop utilization as adding more water during the boil allows more of the bittering/flavor oils to dissolve

 

[Kaiser]

I boiled my last batch with the lid on so as not to lose a gallon through evaporation... However I just noticed the John Palmer website said this will give nasty off-flavours. Do you think this will be noticable or am I being paranoid?

Did you notice a green vegetable smell of your wort or beer. This is usually caused by DMS, which needs to be driven out out the wort during boiling.

As the others said, boil w/o a lid on and account for the evaporation loss at the beginning or the end of the boil.

Kai

 

[mysterio]

Didn't notice any smells & I had a rolling boil throughout.

It's packed with centennial so hopefully I won't notice any bad flavours!

 

[Beer Snob]

Hmmm.... I have not noticed any off flavor smells, but boil overs are obviously REAL easy to do with the lid on.

 

[mysterio]

Not with my pot, I could cook a doberman in there.

 

[Desert_Sky]

I boiled with the lid on. But I have a notch cut in the kettle for my chiller. And not to mention the fact that being my first batches, I had the top off every 2-3 minutes just to see what was going on.

 

[SwAMi75]

Did you notice a green vegetable smell of your wort or beer. This is usually caused by DMS, which needs to be driven out out the wort during boiling.

Kai

Yep, or cooked corn. I notice this smell mainly when I'm boiling DME for a starter. I wouldn't want that in my beer.

 

[Mudd]

Did you notice a green vegetable smell of your wort or beer. This is usually caused by DMS, which needs to be driven out out the wort during boiling.

As the others said, boil w/o a lid on and account for the evaporation loss at the beginning or the end of the boil.

Kai

What Kaiser said!
Wet cardboard flavor, especially in extract/mini-mash is enhanced with the lid on..

Boiling W/O the lid,
Larger/full boils,
late extract adds,
& mini-mash really improved my beer.

 

[andre the giant]

All I know is, if I put the lid on, its just a matter of time before I'm cleaning up a boil over.

I don't like boil overs... they make me grumpy.