Usually I adjust my mash water (BIAB, so no sparge water) by building from RO, and I don’t worry that the volume goes down a bit in the boil. And I know calcium concentration in the mash is what’s important, anyway. Here’s the question: do I need to worry that sodium, chloride, and sulfate will go too high in the finished beer when I’m doing a very long boil with the aim of concentrating 2 to 3 times?
Less Salt for Long Boil?
- Thread starter AlexKay
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
Silver_Is_Money
Larry Sayre, Developer of 'Mash Made Easy'
3-Fold concentration is new territory for me, as a 90 minute boil only results in ballpark 1.20-Fold concentration for my system. To get 3-Fold I'd have to boil for a good many hours. And I'd be left with something nigh-on approaching malt syrup.
Last edited:
Malt syrup — exactly! I’m making a rye barleywine (ryewine?). This is experimental, and I’m trying to see if I get get a lot of Maillard products generated in an hours-long boil.
BrewnWKopperKat
ʘ‿ʘ
@AlexKay : Maillard Reaction: Myth or Real? (link) may be of interest.
Most definitely, you should be concerned with excessively concentrating ions with a really long boil. A high degree of boil off on a homebrew system results in about 15% concentration and a good pro system limits that to around half that.
If you plan to concentrate that much and not eventually dilute the wort back down, I do recommend taking ion concentration into account and start with modest concentrations, if you can.
If you plan to concentrate that much and not eventually dilute the wort back down, I do recommend taking ion concentration into account and start with modest concentrations, if you can.
All right! I should add that boil-off rates are just higher in general with small batches (unless you can score a very tall, narrow pot.) I went with a boil just over 3 hours, which took me from 3.5 to 1.25 gallons in the pot. I kept with roughly equal amounts of gypsum and CaCl2, enough to get my calcium to 50 ppm, but no higher.
Given the gravity, it’s going to be weeks until fermentation is finished and months until it’s appropriately conditioned. But the wort tastes good already.
Edit: just checked gravity, which is at 1.144. Perhaps I will dilute it a little.
Given the gravity, it’s going to be weeks until fermentation is finished and months until it’s appropriately conditioned. But the wort tastes good already.
Edit: just checked gravity, which is at 1.144. Perhaps I will dilute it a little.
Last edited:
