water..to boil or not to boil?

Discussion on brewing beer from malt extract, hops, and yeast.
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layangman

water..to boil or not to boil?

Post by layangman » Mon Jul 18, 2005 1:56 pm

Hi All,

My first post here!
Probably one of the most basic element in brewing...water.
I have a good carbon block filter that removes 99% chlorine and plenty of other unseen nasties. Does this mean that I don't have to boil my water for the wort? I understand that boiling is due to cold weather in other countries and where I come from, the average temp is about 33*C.
If boiling is not required, then I don't have to dunk the pot of wort into a cold bath to bring down the temp for pitching in the yeasts. Anyone here can enlighten?

Cheers

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Reg
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Post by Reg » Mon Jul 18, 2005 3:59 pm

Hey Layangman... welcome to the forum! Your first post! I hope I'm up to the task.

The primary purpose of boiling is to precipitate out dissolved solids which cna affect the flavour of your extract brewed beers or interfere with your mash efficiency of your full grain mash brews. It also sterilises the water. If your filter removes dissolved calcium compounds then you may not need to boil, but on the whole a boil is always helpful to provide you with a clean, sterile and suitable liquor for preparing your wort.

There is a good post from Jim on this section of the forum regarding other water improvements you might consider... ;)

Cheers!

Reg.

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Jim
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Post by Jim » Mon Jul 18, 2005 4:26 pm

Layangman,

Are you making your beer from malt extract and hops or from a kit?

Your comment about bringing down the temperature before pitching suggests you aren't boiling the extract with hops??

layangman

Post by layangman » Tue Jul 19, 2005 1:20 am

Hi Folks!

I brew from canned beer concentrates (extracts). My first brew was a 1 can affair with a packet of dextrose. Not such a good one as it turned out pretty cidery!

My second batch was also a 1 can affair from Shovel of Australia, but no dextrose or sugar added at all as it a full malt extract (1.7 kg makes 11.5 lit). Now this batch has already been bottled 2 nights ago and now under going bottle conditioning.

Back to the water...based on most comments, it seem likely that sterilisation is the main concern. If so, I think I will just heat up the filtered water so that the extract is easier to dissolve.

About hopping, I would boil separately and add into the cool wort and stir, is this ok?

CHeers

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Jim
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Post by Jim » Tue Jul 19, 2005 6:49 am

Yeah, boiling the hops separately will work OK, but for best results they should be boiled in the wort. Of course to do that you need a 5 gallon boiler.

Are you boiling the hops in a small amount of the wort?

I would recommend using as little added sugar as possible; using a single can for 25l of beer is likely result in a thin beer, lacking body, because you need to add a fair amount of sugar just to get up to a reasonable starting gravity.

Your second batch sounds like a good ratio of malt extract to water; hope it turns out to be a good one!

Cheers,
Jim

layangman

Post by layangman » Tue Jul 19, 2005 7:05 am

Hi Jim,

Yes, the second batch seems ok, at least will know in about 1 week from now when the bottle conditioning matures.
The Shovel's canned extract makes only 11.5 lit, so the beer is good. Due space constraints, I am brewing from a 15 lit fermenter, not the standard 30 lit ones.
My very first brew was fermented in a Mr. Beer (USA) kit and it does not have an airlock, just 2 V cuts into the threads of the screw on lid that allows co2 to escape. The principle of "positive air" forcing out of the 2 V cuts will prevent external or ambient air from entering.
My next brew wil be Shovel's IPA, in a proper 15 lit fermenter with airlock.

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