2nd Batch Boil has Begun

[Monghetti]

...And I have a quick question. Do you guys usually boil with the pot covered or uncovered? Thanks!

Christian

 

[Loup]

always boil uncovered, otherwise you'll be unable to boil of the DMS and your beer will taste like canned corn

 

[WBC]

Always uncovered once it comes to a boil so DMS is boiled off into the air.

 

[Monghetti]

Thank you! That is what I thought and have been doing.

Do most people dump the hot wort into the fermenter and then cool or do you cool the boil pot with wort inside and then transfer to fermenter? Sorry for the onslought on noob questions, but the directions on the Brewers Best kit are, of course, unclear.

 

[ifishsum]

I assume you're doing a partial boil; what I do is pre-chill my top-off water in the freezer (in gallon jugs) while I'm boiling my wort. Once the boil is finished, I put my pot in the sink with cold water to cool as much as possible, then put a gallon or two of my top-off water into the fermenter first. I like to shake up the jugs to provide aeration for the yeast. After 5-10 minutes and the wort has cooled somewhat, I pour it into the fermenter on top of the cold water. If I'm still under my target volume (and over my expected SG), I add more cold water to reach the right level. Usually this puts my wort temperature at 70 or so and ready to pitch yeast.

If you're doing a full boil, you'll have to cool the whole pot before it goes into the fermenter. Most folks use a wort chiller of some sort to speed up this process. Either way once the boil is over you want to cool that wort down to 70-75 as quickly as you can.

 

[Monghetti]

Thanks. I am doing a partial boil and I only have 15 minutes left boil time. Next time I'll get those gallon jugs in the freezer, but for now Ill just have to try and follow that proceedure without the cold gallon jugs.