Why Boil?

I am not a new home brewer but just recently have tried to build my knowledge of the art past "adequate".

I know now, after reading many threads here, that malt does not need to be boiled to be fermentable. That begs the obvious question, "Why boil at all?"

I have also read about no boil or short boil beers that are fermented readily. Many threads address late addition of DME/LME, or even as late as flame out. Hops also can be dry hopped or added late for aroma mostly and maybe mild flavor.

Is boiling really only required for hops as they deal with bittering? Just curious to learn...

So your saying boiling is not needed?

If you are using a prehopped kit boiling isn't necessary. But you can only extract bitterness from the hops (IBUs) if they are boiled.

And I always read. Take hops and grains out before boil. I can't remember why. But, if I don't need to boil. Hmmm. I'm curious.

Dry hopping really just adds to aroma, not much to flavor and fades pretty fast. So if you were to skip the boil, your beer would have very little bitterness, unless using a pre-hopped LME as mentioned above. I guess you could use hop oil instead...

No. I don.t use prehopped. I'm tring to find my own recipe.

Don't boil grains.

Do boil hops.

You remove the grains before the boil so you don't extract tannins from the grain husks. Hops are added at the begining of the 1 hour boil for bittering.
Flavor additions start at 20-25 minutes left,aroma additions at 3-5 minutes or flame out. You have to use boiling wort to do hop additions properly. Pre-hopped extracts should never be boiled,or all the flavor/aroma additions boiled inot it by the maltster will turn into bittering.

25518 said:

And I always read. Take hops and grains out before boil. I can't remember why. But, if I don't need to boil. Hmmm. I'm curious.

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Where have your ead take hops out before boil? Take them out of what? Are you hopping your mash? I take them out of the freezer and measure them to go into the boil, but I am curious what resources are telling you to take hops out before the boil.

Also, I would think that an unboiled wort would have a significantly higher chance of infection...

I don't know much about dry hopping. Haven't looked into it. But, I'm trying for bitter. Not a I.P.A. But a little bitter. I was actially trying to find out about buckets from home depot discudsion. But your no boil discussion intruiged me.

Maybe just the few different thing I.ve read. I agree with baurfessor on the infection part.

I realize you talking extract but when using grains boiling also drives off unwanted compounds such as DMS.

catdaddy66 said:

I am not a new home brewer but just recently have tried to build my knowledge of the art past "adequate".

I know now, after reading many threads here, that malt does not need to be boiled to be fermentable. That begs the obvious question, "Why boil at all?"

I have also read about no boil or short boil beers that are fermented readily. Many threads address late addition of DME/LME, or even as late as flame out. Hops also can be dry hopped or added late for aroma mostly and maybe mild flavor.

Is boiling really only required for hops as they deal with bittering? Just curious to learn...

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This will answer your question:
http://thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/600

What everyone else said, plus boiling is fun. Standing around the kettle stirring and watching all the action is probably my favorite part of the process.

If you use any grain of any kind, steeping or mashing, you need to boil. All the lacto and wild nasties on the grain will turn that wort putrid quick.

There seems to be some misconnect here.

If you buy malt extract, it has been boiled already. Boiling it again will sanitize it, but that is all.

If you buy malted grains and mash them, you NEED to boil that. It will be completely full of bacteria etc. It will also be full of a variety of proteins that will coagulate during the boil and subsequent cooling. It will also be full of DMS that needs to be driven off during the boil.

To get any substantial bittering from hops, you need to boil them - or at least get them above 185 degrees for an extended period.

There is also beergeeknation. I'm sure a .com. But, I first saw it on youtube.

25518 said:

So your saying boiling is not needed?

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Not saying anything. Just asking for information to confirm or refute what I've read or heard.

billl said:

There seems to be some misconnect here.

If you buy malt extract, it has been boiled already. Boiling it again will sanitize it, but that is all.

If you buy malted grains and mash them, you NEED to boil that. It will be completely full of bacteria etc. It will also be full of a variety of proteins that will coagulate during the boil and subsequent cooling. It will also be full of DMS that needs to be driven off during the boil.

To get any substantial bittering from hops, you need to boil them - or at least get them above 185 degrees for an extended period.

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Thanks, bill! That gives a lot of great reasons to boil which answered my questions perfectly.

BlackGoat said:

What everyone else said, plus boiling is fun. Standing around the kettle stirring and watching all the action is probably my favorite part of the process.

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You're right! The boil is the social part of brewing as well. Gives something to do as we quaff a cold one...

catdaddy66 said:

You're right! The boil is the social part of brewing as well. Gives something to do as we quaff a cold one...

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Homebrewing is different things to different people, some want cheap beer with minimal hassle, some want to produce a specific beer profile that they can't buy anywhere else, but for me its about wasting a day staring at boiling liquid that will ultimately get people drunk.

Just understand, that there is an exception to every rule...

One of the guys in my brew club has a Berliner Weiss on tap right now that he made using a sour mash process, and no boil. When he first described the process, I was a little doubtful about the eventual results. But I've had it a couple times now, and if you're into tart beers, this one's fantastic. But it's definitely a case of inviting in a controlled infection - you're basically guaranteeing that the lactobacillus bacteria on the grain husks are going to take over and sour the heck out of your beer. If you use grain in any part of your process, and you don't want that sour quality, then boiling is a necessity.

Charlie Bamforth at UC Davis has said that the proteins in the malt that are responsible for head retention and foam have to be denatured by the boil. So head is another reason to boil.

billl said:

If you buy malt extract, it has been boiled already. Boiling it again will sanitize it, but that is all.

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It's my understanding that LME (including pre-hopped kits) have already been pasteurized. That's why the tubs of LME and cans of malt extract kits can sit on store shelves for months without exploding from botulism. It's not necessary to boil them.

Now, DME is a different story. I don't know if it gets a sterilization treatment, since it's less of a risk of becoming contaminated, because it's dry. So I always boil my DME, but I'm less concerned about boiling LME.

kombat said:

It's my understanding that LME (including pre-hopped kits) have already been pasteurized. That's why the tubs of LME and cans of malt extract kits can sit on store shelves for months without exploding from botulism. It's not necessary to boil them.

Now, DME is a different story. I don't know if it gets a sterilization treatment, since it's less of a risk of becoming contaminated, because it's dry. So I always boil my DME, but I'm less concerned about boiling LME.

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While working for a candy manufacturer, I learned that high solids sugar syrups do not require pasturization because the water activity is so low that it doesn't support microbial growth. Think maple syrup. It won't even grow mold unless it somehow gets "wet". The same would apply to dry foods.

BlackGoat said:

What everyone else said, plus boiling is fun. Standing around the kettle stirring and watching all the action is probably my favorite part of the process.

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You forgot the most important part ...... the SMELLS! MAN I love the smell of boiling wort.

I'm totally with you on that. If you think that smells good, try to make your own crystal malt sometime - smells even better than brewing.