Hey Guys! I just finally tried to brew my first batch ever. It is an IPA & I used specialty grains with LME. After I soaked and steeped the grains, I added the LME. At this point, I could not the wort to a good rolling boil. It would boil with the lid on, but I have heard that is bad so I left it off.
I ended up adding the hops for the full 60 minutes, then cooled the wort and pitched the yeast.
Do you think the beer will be ok even though i did not get a good rolling boil?
I appreciate the help in advance!
To prevent wort darkening and potential scorching, it is much better to add only 1/3 of the LME at the beginning of the boil and the remainder 15 minutes before flame out, making sure you get it back to a rolling boil again for at least 5-10 minutes.
I do stove top full batches (6.5-7 gal boil volume) and also have trouble keeping a rolling boil with the lid off all the time. So I keep the lid (partially) on for a while until the rolling boil resumes, then remove it for a while. Then back on, etc. It works for me and I get no DMS.
You can try to get the pot onto 2 burners at the same time. Or boil a smaller amount, and then top up at the end.
Here's what I would do:
You want to boil a smaller amount, say 3-3.5 gallons whatever your stove can handle/boil comfortably with the lid off.
In your boil kettle, first do your steeping in around 2 gallons of water at 150-160°F, followed by a short rinse (dunk and dip) with a gallon of water at the same temperature. When done, remove the grain bag.
You now have about 3-3.5 gallons in your boil kettle, and bring that to a boil. Add some of the LME/DME, perhaps only a quarter of the total. Do all your your boil, spice, and hop additions in there. This is called a
partial boil.
Then, concurrently, using another big pot on a different burner, boil the balance of the water (2 gals) to which you'll add the remainder of the LME/DME. Stir it up really well while giving that a good boil, say 10 minutes, to get your hot break (yeah, you'll get some) and it will also sanitize the lot.
Caution: Make sure nothing sticks to the bottom and scorches. Let it cool off with the lid on.
Then when the main boil is done, combine the 2, mix well together and chill.
Since you have constant boil-off in your main boil kettle. You could keep a gallon or so of boiling water in a 3rd pot and keep topping up your boil kettle to the 3-3.5 gallon mark as you go.
Here comes the important part:
You want to end up with 5 gallons of wort in total. Not more! So keep track of the total quantity in the 2 pots. It's better to be a little short, as it is easy to add (boiled & cooled) water if need be. Not so easy to boil off an extra gallon later.
