Minimum boil time for all grain

[simchuck]

I want to get my starter ready for the weekend, but I am out of DME and the LHBS is closed. I do have a pound of pale malt looking for a purpose, so I just put it in the mash tun to get very fermentable extract.

I don't plan on hopping the wort, since it is just going into a starter, so I don't have isomerize the alphas. What is the minimum time I need to boil?

I know I need to let the proteins coagulate and also sanitize the wort, but I don't need to worry about concentrating the wort. I plan to skim the proteins after the hot break.

Can I get away with 15 minutes rolling boil?

 

[hunter_le five]

If all you're worried about is sanitation of the wort, 15 minutes of rolling boil should be plenty adequate.


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[simchuck]

What about the protein coagulation? Is that mostly done with the hot break?

 

[sfgoat]

What about the protein coagulation? Is that mostly done with the hot break?

That's all hot break. 15 minutes is fine.

 

[BWE]

+1. You could even get away with 8-10. I do all my starters no more than 10 minutes and have great results. Like hunter said, sanitize the wort and let it work. I decant all of my starters as well. Can't stand the thought of all that uselessness going into my beer.

 

[Bryceefisher]

What about the protein coagulation? Is that mostly done with the hot break?

I wouldn't worry about hot or cold break for a starter. Boil for 10 min and cool and pitch. You could also skip the grains and do a smaller starter (should ferment out in 12 hours or so) then build it up when your lhbs opens.

 

[Falcon3]

Be careful about boiling for a very short time. With a high portion of 2-row pale malt, you're going to have plenty of DMS if you only boil a few minutes. Now, if it's got a lot of flavored malts (crystals, munich, darker roasted malts, etc...) or lots of hops, the DMS will likely not be that noticeable, but if you're doing a light Pale or Blonde, it might stick out-
I've personally done a 30 min boil with no problems, but that had 5oz of Citra in the last 10 mins, so I think the grapefruit bomb covered up any DMS that might have occurred.

EDIT: Totally missed that this was only for a starter! Just make sure you decant to get rid of any wort-harboring DMS- I only boil my starters for maybe 5 mins MAX most times because I'm lazy.....

 

[dcp27]

you could just go to the grocery store and grab some malta goya to use, its basically what a starter is