Home Brew Forum

Malty bitter beers and ales IMO need to be boiled to extract the bitter from the hops and kill off the enzymes and get the beer clear.

However murky (OK hazy) New England style beers with lots of body, mouthfeel, very little bitterness, with lots of tropical hoppy aromas could get away with out a boil... I think.

Is anyone up for having a go?

If you have a recipe you have made before. Ideal. Rerun it but just modify the boil and you know what it should taste like.

I have a recipe I am going to have a go with, which I can share it anyone fancies it?



Look what you started Eric

No

Anyone thinking I might wreck my Big Lump Bitter by making it opaque and spoiling it with horrid hops has neither tasted Big Lamp Bitter where it is brewed at The Keelman in Newburn or tasted my version.
Sorry about the head, could have done with a better pull on the beer engine.

That does look very nice beer Eric , can't beat supping a pint through a nice head and have it lace the glass

Indeed Steve, the difference is in the understanding of proteins. Some think the stuff that rises to the top of the wort as the boil begins is hot break, which of course it isn't, serving as an example of how much there is to learn about brewing.

Insoluble proteins become hot break during a boil that is strong enough, hot enough and long enough. Soluble proteins well boiled will produce ae good head and body. The head of the beer shown lasts to the bottom of the glass.

And the foam holds aroma superbly Eric , just a pain that an extended boil needs a kidney to be sold to pay for the energy used these days .

So, a 90 min boil will produce a better head? Not heard that before.

I've always boiled for 90 minutes and don't have trouble getting a good head on my beers. Several on this forum who have visited here for a beer may wish to confirm that is so, but no, there's a lot more to brewing than boiling for 90 minutes, a good boil plays only part.

Unconverted starch, cellulose, husks and other insoluble matter should be filtered by the mash as much as possible, but there are other items that aren't wanted in the finished beer that the mash won't keep back. The boil should be vigorous for early hop additions and also cause insoluble proteins to coalesce and deposit as hot break. Extra insoluble matter won't aid head formation or retention as some advise and others believe and the better the boil the more such matter will deposit in the boiler or hopback. Many modern breweries boil for 60 minutes and produce clear beer with good heading properties, but many of those boil under pressure at higher temperature than we as homebrewers can.

All beers should produce good heads with the possible exception of some speciality types. If you beer doesn't have a good head, then you have to ask yourself why?

Aren't there regional differences in head retention of beers?

Harvey's Sussex Best or London Pride don't have great rentention, whereas Theakston Best Bitter does. All great beers.

Should an unboiled murky NEIPA have a better or worse head then?

bitter_dave wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 03, 2023 7:48 am

Aren't there regional differences in head retention of beers?

Harvey's Sussex Best or London Pride don't have great rentention, whereas Theakston Best Bitter does. All great beers.

There is a regional difference, but isn't that more to do with dispense? I have two beer engines, one of which has a southern pour.

Have you dispensed the same beer though each engine and got a completely different style?

I have and there are different sparklers too. Originally, beer engines were of a single design by William George Armstrong and had a simple spout, the object being to save the bartender having to go into the cellar for cooler beer. The spout at one time has an internal spiral and the dispense could be controlled by the angle of the glass and the speed of the handle. More recently the manufactures offered a choice necks and sparklers to reduce the skill necessary to pull a decent pint.

As I wrote, I could have pulled that pint better.

There's a lot of information out there for those prepared to look.

Was the beer changed enough to move style?

MashBag wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 03, 2023 1:46 pm

Was the beer changed enough to move style?

I'm unsure if you know what I'm saying.