Long boiling technique

[bloke]

I like to do a very long boil on my next imperial porter brew. A boil time for at least 3 hours.

Should I mash/sparge a larger volymenand cook it down to right OG or mash as normal and compensate the boiloff with water?

Cheers

 

[schokie]

The latter. Larger mash volume with longer boil will just concentrate the wort and make for a higher OG. Mash for your final volume and top off with plain water to compensate for expected boil-off volume.

Curious though,why the longer boil?

 

[orionol73]

It depends on the purpose of the long boil.
Are you trying caramelize the sugars in your wort or are you trying to get as much efficiency/as high and OG as possible?
If you are just trying to caramelize sugars I would suggest doing a decoction and boil that down hard and add back into your main boil as this would be faster and likely yield better results. If you are increasing OG, then sparge more to account for the evaporation over the longer boil period

 

[bloke]

Thanks for the quick replys! Yes I curious about what the maillard reaktion / caramelizing would do to the beer.
Yes as third option I was thinking of the decoction method and yes it somehow seems like the most logic way to go.
I have heard that many breweries boil for rediculous long times these days. To get fullbodied thick-fat-yummy porters. Maybe it's just a hype. I don't know

 

[deepbluegroove]

I would just go with darker malts. Find some recommended recipes on Homebrewtalk.

 

[Smellyglove]

I don't know if you need the decoction, although I've never tried one on a big beer. A big guy with porter-malts usually holds enough maltiness, so I feel. I've boiled a RIS for 6 hours and it was thick as sirup (not exactly, but it was the thickest wort I've ever seen). I sparged with more water to compensate for the lower efficiency with a larger grainbill, then boiled it down to end up on target OG and volume.

 

[DurtyChemist]

I have done one batch with a 3 hour boil. I aimed to have my pre-boil volume compensate for boil off of the 3 hour boil. Hope you have something to do during the boil because it's a long time and you'll end up checking the boil every 15 minutes or so to make sure it's still going.

 

[dmtaylor]

A very long boil definitely CAN add a very interesting slight burnt caramel flavor to the finished beer that cannot be duplicated by other means. If you want something different, it is worth trying. But you do need to boil long enough. A friend of mine boiled his Burton ale for 4 hours and the slight pleasant burnt character was noticeable but also subtle to those who might not be looking for it. I think you might pick up just a touch after 3 hours, but 4 hours did in fact work quite well.

 

[Morrey]

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