Rolling boil or full blast?

[Kmcogar]

Should your wort be at a low rolling boil? Right at boiling temp?

Or should it be REALLY boiling? I mean enough not to make your brew boil over but....well you know! HOT

 

[Cape Brewing]

decent rolling boil... you don't want full blast because you'll run the very likely risk of caramelizing a fair amount of sugars on the bottom of the pot.

 

[solbes]

Rolling boil for me. I keep the lid off (for DMS reasons). Once it has reached boiling temps, you will not get any hotter by applying more heat. But you do want a good hot break, so the entire vessel should be at boiling temp.

 

[HootHootHoot]

I agree, I leave the lid off. For DMS as well as if I put the lid on I encourage a boil over.

Rolling boil. I would say in between of your really HOT boil and a low boiling

 

[kh54s10]

The temperature of the wort at a rolling boil is the same as "really" boiling. Water only gets so hot then it turns to steam.

What is a concern is that the bottom of the pot will get hotter possibly scorching the wort.

Too much heat might caramelize the wort and also boil off more water than intended.

 

[TopherM]

The more vigorous the boil, the better, but you don't want boilovers, so I always use enough heat to get right to the point of boilover, then back off just slightly for the most vigorous possible controlled boil!!

 

[kingwood-kid]

I think the answer to this question depends largely on whether or not you are a Blue Rhino shareholder.

 

[idigg]

LOL kingwood

 

[billl]

As a purely technical point, sugars caramelize in a low moisture, medium heat situation. In high moisture environments, you get a different set of browning reactions that don't come with the corresponding sweetness.

 

[Calichusetts]

The most important part is following and figuring out which settings work for you. I rock a full blast until I get to a full boil then dial it down 10%. No matter what the weather, I am very consistent on my boil off and have no scorching

 

[CBXBob]

I had my first ever boil over last week end, I was doing a late DME addition, and didn't remove from the heat. Lost maybe a couple cups, it was outdoors, no biggy. My beer will be fine

 

[bleme]

Check out the thread below, especially from post #11 and down.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/zero-foam-head-boil-related-228587/