Boil

[Garmoni]

Question on the boil during all grain brewing. Are there any guidelines to how hard you should? My propane burning can create a gentle boil to a roaring one. Not sure what I should be shooting for.

 

[Bellybuster]

A gentle boil is fine, the temp is the same. Biggest thing is to ensure the wort is moving and mixing and that you boil at the same rate every brew. That way you know your losses

 

[beskone]

Yup, just a gentle rolling boil. Too aggressive and you risk over caramelizing the wort and you'll end up with too much boil off.

Should look about like this:

https://vid.me/An5q

 

[andrewf1985]

I have my burner on full to hit the hot break quick and then back it right off to save the propane. Doesnt need to be roaring if you can keep it boiling.

 

[ncbrewer]

Make sure it's actually a boil, and not just a simmer.

 

[Cyclman]

I like to have lots of motion in my boils, keep everything thoroughly mixed.

 

[Subdivisions]

I boil on a gas stove but the pot covers two burners. It gives me enough energy to boil 6.5 gallons of wort. The main thing I see is a good bubbling up on one side and movement of trub across the pot and dropping on the other side. That's pretty much the definition of a rolling boil when you have rolling movement of the liquid. It doesn't need to be a volcanic boil.

The other plus is that I don't get a sh$tload of boiloff. I usually start with about 6.35 gallons and boil down to 5.6 gallons giving me a .75 gallon boiloff rate in an hour. I've found that with BIAB I have a lot of trub and need that extra amount of beer to get a good fill on my kegs.