Boil timing question

[Teufelhunde]

This morning, I brewed a 5 gal batch of a Mosaic IPA that was originally a Northern Brewer Recipe done with liquid malt extract. This time I did it with ingredients obtained from my closest (60 miles) homebrew shop, and it was all DME. Part of the Recipe calls for a 10 minute late add of 3lbs DME and 1lb corn sugar. After removing it from the burner and adding everything as quickly as I could, it took me the full 10 minutes to return the wort to a stable boil.

My question is this.....should I pause the boil clock while I am heating it back to boiling temperature and moving it on and off of the burner to get the foam cap to subside, or count that time as part of the boil? Or possibly am I overthinking this, and it doesn't really matter as long as the beer tastes good and I am consistent in the way I do it?

Lon

 

[RM-MN]

Most of the reason for the boil timing is to get the bitterness from the hop additions. Since the isomerization of the hop oils that causes the bitter continues until the temperature falls below about 170F your timing can just continue.

Now for a different thought on that timing, most of the hop bittering (like about 90%) happens in the first 30 minutes. I usually just do a 30 minute boil and get the amount of bitterness I like. The other thing is that you boil off excess water to concentrate the wort. Don't use as much water to start with.