Graham Wheeler - 2hr boils

[timw]

Just flicking back through the GW book - with all the brews having at least a 90min, some a 120min boil - have others had success with just amending the recipes using Beer Smith or some such to achieve the same IBUs?

I never boil for more than 60mins and still achieve good hot break - and don't have problems with the brew clearing. And seeing as time is always tight on brewday, i don't want to extend it.

Is the best plan to simply use GW's recipes and up the hop quantities in equal ratios, while lowering the boil time, to achieve a comparable outcome?

I was just going to stick the recipes into BeerSmith as described in the book, get the IBU levels and then recalibrate the quantities so they're identical

That work for others?

 

[IainM]

Yeah, that works fine.

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
I found this chart here: http://brewuk.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=47564

It clearly shows that 95% of the "bitterness" is obtained in the first 60 minutes of the boil. The remaining 5% could be obtained by adding a few extra grams of hops to the amount quoted in the recipe, or you may be quite satisfied with 95%.
Either way, a 60 minute boil will be adequate.
You need to consider wort volume - a shorter boil will mean a less concentrated wort and this will have an effect on the ABV of the final beer. Again, you will need to tweak the recipe's liquor volume and/or grain quantity.

 

[peebee]

Something I came across posted elsewhere in this forum:

 

[NIGHTSKY BREWING]

Great stuff...... Vigourous vigourous boil is what it's all about....... any Pic of your boiler ... post here.

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
I found this useful as a visual reference:

 

[timw]

My bog-standard mango chutney barrell boiler achieves a really fast rolling boil just on the one element from start to finish of 60mins, so i'm happy with that. In terms of the recipes, i guess it's time to play around with them.... they never turn out like a real, authentic clone - but if it's tasty drinkable brew, that'll do for me!

 

[Hoppyland]

Vigourous vigourous boil is what it's all about.......

The older I get, and the more brews I make, the more I doubt that this is really true. This year, I went "hi-tech" and bought a Buffalo electric boiler as an expensive, but easy-to-use, replacement for my huge steel pan on a gas burner. My first surprise was that it didn't actually boil the wort - or not for long, at least: the thermostat cut out the element after a couple of minutes of vigorous boil, and it took ages to kick back in (primitive mechanical thermostat, obviously). So, my first reaction (after being surprised, if not horrified) was to consider means of overriding the thermostat and achieving a more controlled boil. Anyway, I went ahead and pitched the "boiled" wort - a beer of my own recipe that I've brewed a lot. To my surprise, it turned out as good, as far as I could tell, as its previous siblings. So, I shelved my plans for re-wiring and brewed a few more batches - ranging from stouts to my usual light-bodied hoppy ales. All were great. Last week, I had the last pint of "Mr Hoppy", the absolute favourite of my recipes, which was pitched on 25th July and put into keg on 23rd August (another new thing for me instead of bottling!!). So, around 3 months after kegging and it was still superb (so much so, I told my wife that I really didn't want to drink it, as I'd be so sad when it ran dry! .... which I was).
So, no science here; no blind tasting; no replication - but I'm not going to re-wire my boiler, because I reckon the regime of starting to boil vigorously, then remaining v hot for an hour whilst coming to the boil at brief intervals, doesn't seem to make any difference over my previous regime of boiling vigorously.

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi @Hoppyland
Interesting! Not the perceived wisdom, but there are a few "sacred cows" that have fallen by the wayside recently and it obviously works for you.
Do you add more hops than usual and do you end up with more wort in the FV?
I use a Buffalo boiler but modified it to allow for a continuous boil.

 

[Hoppyland]

Yes, it seems to work for me. Although, there's always the caveat that my beer might have been even better if I'd given it a huge vigorous boil. No way for me to tell.
Do I use more hops: No. But, my way of brewing is not orthodox. I put a small amount of high-alpha hops in the boiler for 60mins to give bittering. After 60mins I switch the boiler off and add my "steeping" hops (these have to be quite low-alpha (typically Wai-iti, Ahtanum, possibly a few Lemon Drop) because they stay in there overnight as the temperature slowly drops. The last lot (or lots!) of hops are dry-hop.
Do I end up with more wort in the FV: Again no, and again down to my peculiar system. I only boil what I decant and sparge from my mashing tun (a posh name for a picnic cool box - no modification, I simply ladle the mash out into the sparging bucket wih a jug!). By the time I've finished sparging, then I typically end up with 15-20l of runnings (for an intended fermenting volume of 20-28l). So, I boil the runnings, pour the liquid into the FV and then top up to the desired volume by adding extra water to the fermenter. In fact, when I want to brew 28l, then I'd only have 25l in my primary fermenter (to allow headspace for my top-fermenting yeast), and then dilute to 28l in secondary, when dry hops are added.
I've been reading this today:
http://brulosophy.com/2017/05/29/boil-vigor-weak-vs-strong-exbeeriment-results/
which of course must come with the usual brulosophy caveats - but at least seems to offer something I can't - a comparison between pretty much the same beer produced under two boil regimes. How similar the two beers would have been after my normal maturation time - at least a month - is a somewhat different question! Although, as time goes on, I'm increasingly convinced that the biggest player when it comes to the stability of my homebrew is oxygen, and that thoroughly purging all headspaces with CO2 keeps my beer at excellent quality for months.