Wort boil, lid on or off?

I just made my first brew. It's bubbling away right now. I realized that I did not have the lid on for my wort boil. Is this going to ruin my beer?

No, you did good. Lid off = no DMS.

lid on = boilover and a huge mess

Attentions Noobs! Do not use a lid when boiling your wort! You WILL have a boil-over (well, you will anyway, but it would be worse) and you will prevent the DMS from leaving your wort, thereby making your beer taste bad!

If you don't know what DMS is, RDWHAHB and ask your SWMBO!

Ruh roh Reorge! I had the lid on during my first brew. Oh well, I guess I'll find out how bad I screwed it up in a couple of weeks. Until then, I'm not going to worry about it.

During my First Brew, I had to keep the lid partially on to get the wort to boil well. Otherwise, it seemed my electric range could not keep it hot enough to stay at a boil.

Hope I hope my first brew doesn't taste bad due to my crappy electric range!

I definitely had my lid on most of the time...crap.

Don't worry too much, lid-on boilers. If you used extract, most of the DME will have been driven of when the extract was produced by the maltster. Your beers will be fine.

It's still a good idea to keep the lid off during the boil, especially if you upgrade to partial mashes or all-grain brewing.

no lids
and never boil honey

ArcaneXor said:

Don't worry too much, lid-on boilers. If you used extract, most of the DME will have been driven of when the extract was produced by the maltster. Your beers will be fine.

It's still a good idea to keep the lid off during the boil, especially if you upgrade to partial mashes or all-grain brewing.

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I was leaving it on because I was afraid of contamination...even though the water was boiling. How about when cooling the wort, It's go faster with the lid off but the water is no longer boiling, do I need to worry about that?

Oh crap...Stupid lids...

I need the lid on (but cracked) for full wort boils on the stovetop. I periodically take the lid off, wipe it clean with a dry towel and place the lid back on. I have heard DMS is trapped in the condensation of the evaporated moisture. Along with a long boil (+90 minutes) will this effectively eliminate my DMS?

magnj said:

I was leaving it on because I was afraid of contamination...even though the water was boiling. How about when cooling the wort, It's go faster with the lid off but the water is no longer boiling, do I need to worry about that?

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I usually put the lid back on once the temperature hits about 170 degrees - at that point, there is very little residual DME formation, and you start getting close to the point where bugs can survive in the hot wort.

*rezzes old thread* So I just got my hands on a 32qt pot and have been trying to get a rolling boil going on an electric range for full boils. It'll get to a rolling boil but only with the lid on! I think my solution is to sandwich a folded towel between the lid and pot and leave a small vent hole. My theory is that the condensate (and thus DMS) will absorb into the towel and not drip back into the pot. This will still allow me to cover the pot to a point where a rolling boil can be achieved. Obviously I would monitor the pot very closely. What do you guys think?