20 minute boil time

rohanski · Aug 17, 2007

I found a recipe for Cierra Nevada Pale Aly that only calls for a 20 minute boil time. Hops is added at 20 min, 15 min, 2 min, and at the end. Has anyone ever done such a short boil?

Evan! · Aug 17, 2007

What's the recipe look like?

Personally, I never go below 60 mins for my boil. Outside of hop utilization issues, there's also a concern about not being able to boil off all those volatile compounds in the wort that can lend off-flavors to the finished beer.

rohanski · Aug 17, 2007

6.6 lbs. Coopers Light malt extract
1 lb Coopers Light dry malt extract
1/2 lb. Crystal Malt
1/4 lb Carapils malt
1 oz Perle (20 min)
1/2 oz Perle ( 15 min)
1 oz Cascade (2 min)
1 oz Cascade (steeped)
California ale WLP001

Beerthoven · Aug 17, 2007

Are you sure this is correct and not a typo?

I suspect the first hop addition is supposed to be at 60 minutes, not 20 minutes.

A hop addition at 20 mins then again at 15 mins doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Evan! · Aug 17, 2007

rohanski said:
6.6 lbs. Coopers Light malt extract
1 lb Coopers Light dry malt extract
1/2 lb. Crystal Malt
1/4 lb Carapils malt
1 oz Perle (20 min)
1/2 oz Perle ( 15 min)
1 oz Cascade (2 min)
1 oz Cascade (steeped)
California ale WLP001

Yeah...no prehopped extract or anything...that's good. I just plugged that stuff into ProMash...you end up with about 26.3 IBU...the bare minimum level for an American Pale Ale is 30. Also, your color looks a little low (I assumed 30L crystal...if you used 90 or 80, you'd be fine).

OG should be 1.063 with that recipe.

But if I were you, I'd still boil for all of 60 minutes, and add 1.25 oz of Perle at the beginning of the boil, rather than 1oz at 20 minutes from flameout.