Question about when to start timing the boil...

I've got a dozen or so extract batches under my belt... so this weekend I will be doing my first ever all grain batch. It is the Everyday IPA kit from Brooklyn Brew Shop. In their instructions, under "The Boil" section, they say to:

• Heat wort until it boils
• Keep boiling until you've hit the hot break
• stir occasionally. All you want is a light boil
• The boil will last 60 minutes... start your timer and add the rest of the ingredients at these times...

Their instructions seem a little vague as to when to start the 60 minute boil timer. I feel like I remember reading somewhere else that you typically want to reach the hot break BEFORE you add your first hop addition and start your 60-minute boil timer... and that kind of seems like what they are getting at in their instructions, but I'm not 100% sure.

Would someone be so kind as to clarify for me? Do I wait until I reach the hot break, then add my first hop addition and start the 60 minute timer? Or do I start the timer when I reach a light boil?

 

I start my timer when I reach a light boil. Sometimes it's hard to see when I've reached the hot break, as there are no visible hot break particles.

 

I wait until after the hot break, and I've skimmed off the scum. That reduces the boil over risk when adding the first hops.... assuming a 60 minute hop addition.

 

I do like Pkrd says, when I add the hops.

 

yeah start the timer when you add the 60min hops. And do that once it reaches a rolling boil

 

I start after the hot break. Sometimes the break is hard to see, sometimes it goes on for minutes before subsiding. I start the clock and add the 60' hops when there is no more foam generated and the surface of the wort is churning good.

 

I shall wait until the hot break then. In your experience... typically how long after the rolling boil starts before you hit hot break? Is there a window?

 

For me, usually 5-10 minutes after it foams up, the foam has collapsed back into the wort and all that's left is the surface of the boiling wort. That's when I start my timer.

 

As the wort gets closer to the boil, foam will cover the entire surface. This is the time to be vigilant as that foam can crawl up and out of the pot. Have a spray bottle with water in one hand and your spoon in the other. Spray the surface to knock down the foam, it will come back a few more times, but will eventually clear (5-10 mins is about right). Then you should be at a vigorous rolling boil, so adjust the flame down if needed and start the timer.

 

In my experiences, I get the foamy hot break about 3 minutes duration right before it boils with the stove knob on "high". Stirring like mad & a spray bottle of water is about all you can do. Then, after letting it boil on high 2 minutes or so, I turn it down to "8.8" on the dial. This gives a gentle, rolling boil that reduces boil-off a bit. Then add the bittering hops & start the timer on 1 hour.

 

Why would I only want a light boil? I always operated from the understanding that a vigorous or roiling boil was desired.

 

It's not a light boil I get when I say, gently rolling. It's a even. rolling boil without the hard blooping like boiling lava. The boil doesn't need to be that hard. Just evenly rolling, without the blooping.

 

I am a fan of a vigorous boil, but I do have to compensate, knowing that I will boil off more water. Really, as long as the water is at 212 you'll get the hop isomerization the recipe is projected to have. Hence the 60 minute boil and that's why you should start your boil timer when you add the first hop addition.

 

This may be my new favorite term!

I also start timing after the hot break and once i have things dialed in for a nice gently rolling boil.

 

Those bloops can be painful if you like to brew barefoot like me.

Avoid Bloops!

 

It's the only word I could think of to describe the bubbly masses rising up like boiling lava. Blooping...

 

Hot break occurred pretty quickly for me. It seemed to form just as the rolling boil began and lasted no longer than a minute or so. It was pretty thick and very noticeable, but didn't appear like it would boil over. As soon as it cleared up I hit go on the timer and everything went pretty smoothly.

Speaking of timer... this is the first time I've used a multi-timer app and it helped a ton. In the past, I would set a timer for each step and after I performed each step and set a new timer... it would add a minute here or there. It would push my total time by a few minutes or I would forget to set the next timer.

So I found this multi-timer app called Clockwork. Last night, I entered in all of my steps and the time before each step. It worked perfectly. No missed steps... exactly 60 minutes on the boil. It has an elapsed count-up and a full program count-down. I loved it. I'll be using it for future batches.

 

Thanks for the tip on the app

 

Brewpal is great for this...
http://www.djpsoftware.com/brewpal/

 

Thanks for the tip. I'll check it out.

 

I've just been using Siri until now ("Tell me when it's one fifty pm" - "OK, I've set an alarm for one fifty pm"), but I might have to check out those apps.