How long do you boil for all grain recipe?

[brewfarmDan]

My old Dave Miller Brewing books call for a 75 minute boil for the All Grain recipes but I see comments here about a 60 minute boil. Is 60 minutes enough? How long do you boil and how many gallons of water total (Mash and Sparge) do you start with for a 5 gallon recipe?

Thanks Dan

 

[Gavin C]

60 minutes is more common for alot of recipes although many do shorter boils. Some beer styles sucha s Berliner Weisse are no boil. With Pilsner malt heavy grists, longer boils (90 mins) are often listed in recipes. The aim here is to drive off more DMS from the sweet wort which is found in higher concentrations in pilsner malt.

Your water volumes will vary dependent on your equipment setup.

eg for a 5.5gallon volume to the FV

(5.5)+volume lost to boil off+ volume lost to kettle trub, plate chiller, hoses etc. + grain absorption+ mash tun dead space

The boil off will depend on how strong your boil is, ambient temperatures, humidity, diameter of kettle, altitude

Volume lost to trub will vary with a higher hop bill and how much you leave in the kettle. (this can be zero if you pour the entire contents of kettle into the FV)

Mash tun dead space can be zero too if you tip the tun.

Volume to chiller and hoses can be zero if an immersion chiller is used

In summary everyone's system will be different. You need to figure out the variables to get accurate volumes. After a few brews you will know these very well.

I BIAB so my measures are a little different but generally start with 7.5gallons for an 11lb grain bill with a 60 min boil. I just mention it as an example

 

[how1]

60 minute boil, 90 minutes if you use pilsner malt to drive off DMS. I start with 7 gallons, but it depends on your own evaporation rate. I lose about one and a half gallons per 60 minute boil.

 

[fuzzy2133]

I brew BIAB but went to 90 min boil after reading the Extend the Boil Writ up. It has helped keep me from feeling rushed when the boil starts. I normally get 1 gal an hour evaporation rate.

 

[RM-MN]

I've gone to a 30 minute boil with no change in the taste. I will not use pilsener malt with that short of a boil though.

 

[gundarak]

everyone is right here....

I recently realized learning what your evaporation rate is, is very important to accurately predicting the outcome of your beer.

Ive always boiled anywhere from 60-90 mins depending on the grain bill and what I planned for that batch.. but for the longest time, my beers would be too bitter because I would plan for a 60 min boil, and it would go 90 because i didnt know my evap rate.

its pretty simple.. record your preboil vol, and then track the actual time it takes to boil down to your target post boil vol. BTW, I use BeerSmith, so it told me my preboil/postboil volumes, and i just documented how long it took me to get to the BeerSmith's target post boil.. and adjusted my equipment profile to match.

For me, I started with 5.35gal pre boil and had a target of 4.68gal post boil, which was achieved by a 75m boil (target was a 60m boil).

so.. 0.67gal (5.35-4.68) boils off for me in 75m, or a couple other ways to write it..
86(oz)/75(mins)=1.15oz/min ... 1.15oz x 60=68.8oz/hour

I also didnt realize you need to remember that liquid contracts when cooled.. so you need to calculate shrinkage from cooling.. 4% (BeerSmith default) was pretty accurate for me, just about .20gal... that left me at just about 4.5gal to the fermenter, with the expectation of trub loss, im bottling about 4-4.1 gal



Learn your equipment, document your evap, and plan your boil and hop additions accordingly

 

[fuzzy2133]

I've gone to a 30 minute boil with no change in the taste. I will not use pilsener malt with that short of a boil though.

So are you getting all the bittering from the 30 min addition or doing a long whirlpool/hop stand?

I have not experienced it first hand just heard you can get a grassy type flavor from too large of hop additions. Heck it may not even apply at the home brew scale.

 

[RM-MN]

So are you getting all the bittering from the 30 min addition or doing a long whirlpool/hop stand?

I have not experienced it first hand just heard you can get a grassy type flavor from too large of hop additions. Heck it may not even apply at the home brew scale.

I've read that 80 to 90% of the bittering comes in that first 30 minutes. What I didn't mention and should have is that I have started to do no chill. Now that I have done several, I wonder why I went to the bother of worrying about chilling fast enough. The downside to no chill is that the hops will continue to isomerize so your 5 minute flavor addition becomes another bittering addition instead. I work around that by waiting until the wort is below about 175 to add the flavor hop or wait until the ferment is over and dry hop.