Did I boil too long? 80 minutes

[2323]

Hello, I ended up boiling my wort from 6.5 to 4.5 gallons over 80 minutes. What impact will this have on the finisheded product? I added half a gallon of bottled spring water to the cooled wort to compensate for the volume boiled off. Did I make a big mistake by adding and/or not boiling the water addition?

Thanks!
Steve

 

[GreenwoodRover]

You shouldn't have any concerns about the bottled spring water as long as it was from a new unopened bottle. When I was doing partial boils I always topped up with spring water and still made some pretty good beer.

The other concern was was the recipe planned for a 60 min boil in terms of your hop addidions? If so and you didnt adjust your bitterness might be off (more bitter)

 

[TexLaw]

Assuming you made your hop additions based on an 80 minute boil, you should see little effect to your finished beer. I might be a little darker, but that's it.

You did not make a big mistake by adding the water, even if you did not boil it. True, there could be some nasties in that water, but they probably will not get a foothold on your wort, especially if you made a starter. Since you only added a half gallon, you probably do not have to worry about chlorine or chloramines in the water. Next time, though, it is a better practice to boil the water and, if necessary, treat for chloramines (campden tablets work fine here).


TL

 

[TexLaw]

The other concern was was the recipe planned for a 60 min boil in terms of your hop addidions? If so and you didnt adjust your bitterness might be off (more bitter)

I meant to explain this one a little more. You will see hardly any difference between boiling hops for 60 minutes and boiling them for 80. However, if you extended your boil after adding flavor or aroma hops, you will not get as much flavor or aroma, and you will get more bitterness.


TL

 

[2323]

Thank you for your replies! I added my last two hop additions with 15 and 5 minutes remaining in the boil.

I pitched the yeast exactly 12 hours ago @ 70 degrees in a plastic bucket and now I'm just hoping to see some activity soon.

 

[david_42]

Since the flavor & aroma adds were timed right, you probably won't notice much, if any, difference in bittering. The utilization difference is only 5 percent or so.

 

[BierMuncher]

Everything sounds fine. Fermentation can take as long as 36 hours sometimes. Other times it can be completed in that time.

I do 75 - 80 minute boils on all my beers and 90+ on anything using pilsner malt.

 

[cee3]

I do 75 - 80 minute boils on all my beers and 90+ on anything using pilsner malt.

Can you explain why the extra boiling time for pilsner malt? Thanks.

 

[EvilTOJ]

there's more DMS in pilsner malt, so you want to make sure you boil that off so you miss out on the yummy cooked cabbage smell in your wort.

 

[Stevorino]

Longer Boils = good. It drives off DMS (which is really only acceptable in a couple of styles like Cream Ale). It CAN darken your wort a bit, but increased melanoids and darkening comes more from an overly aggressive boil than a long boil.

If you went nuts on your boiling AND hit it for 80 minutes, you probably lost some volume, gained some color, and (assuming you left it uncovered), drove off the majority of your DMS (half life of 45 minutes-- drives off 100% at 90 minutes in theory).

If you use a whirlpool chiller then some of what I just said doesn't apply regarding DMS.

 

[Laurel]

Half-lives don't work that way. At 90 minutes 75% would be gone by then.

 

[Stevorino]

Half-lives don't work that way. At 90 minutes 75% would be gone by then.

I didn't think so either, but that's according to Jamil when explaining why 90 minute boils are all you need to drive off DMS.

Jamil > Science

 

[Laurel]

I think it's probably all you need to drive off perceptible DMS. Considering you get decreasing returns in each half-life, boiling for ANOTHER 45 minutes seems pretty excessive, and 75% gone seems pretty good to me!