Boil time for old ale, 120min WHY?

[TrickyDick]

Hey all,

making a old ale tomorrow. Intend to blend for the "newcastle" clone recipe.

Anyways, calls for a 120 minute boil. What is the point of a 120 minute boil when first hop addition isn't until 60 minutes?

TD

 

[brewvac]

I'm just taking a guess, but it is most likely intended to concentrate the fermentable sugars in the wort. I'm interested in hearing the answer that others have as well.

 

[RonPopeil]

longer boils will clarify better as well.

also curious.

 

[beertroll]

It pushes the OG up and caramelizes some of the sugars.

 

[TrickyDick]

OK, I can believe and understand that it will carmelize the sugars the longer the boil goes, and will be darker.
Can I accomplish the same things with a 60 minute boil though? I can recirculate the mash until its super clear, I can use Whirlfloc, like I always do, and get HUGE protein flakes, and tons of hot break. This all settles out in the primary anyway.

I just do not see what an extra 60 minutes of boiling gets me, other than another hour in my brew day to RDWAHAHB

TD

 

[helibrewer]

Many times a high OG beer requires a sparge volume that fills the kettle above what one would see in a more conventional SG wort. Extra boil time is required to evaporate down to the recipe post-boil OG. I "normally" have about 7.5 gallons going into the kettle but a Belgian Dark Strong I had created almost 10 gallons into the kettle due to very large grain bill...I had to boil that down to my post-boil volume of 6.5 gallons.....that took awhile.

 

[TrickyDick]

OK,
now its starting to make some sense.

I am brewing a 5.5 gal batch, to allow 5 gal of drinkable finished beer, which I can use 4 gallons to blend with a mild ale for my planned re-creating/cloning of a "newcastle" style beer. My mash tun/HLT/BK are all 15 gal. So it seems that I can probably get a high enough OG from the mash and sparge to boil down with only a 60 minute boil, going by the numbers. The carmelization of sugars, etc sounds good, but I don't think is going to be a huge factor. I think I'll stick to 60 minutes and see how it goes...

Thanks

TD

 

[TrickyDick]

Rain delay.