Couple Of Nitpicky Questions

[aurelius121ad]

With a bit more experience and procedure for what I have to work with I am producing decent results but I got I have a couple of nitpicky questions that I am hoping will help me make some minor improvements:

1. For a partial boil recipe (in Beersmith) what is my actual partial boil volume? I usually go with 12 liters but is that 12 liters of water then add half my malt on top of that? 12 liters including the malt at the beginning of the boil? or 12 liters at the end of the boil (after a bunch has evaporated due to the hour long boil)? Or is the volume I lose during the boil insignificant. I estimate I am losing between 3 and 4 liters.

2. While I cool my boil I have been covering it (I leave it uncovered during the boil) to avoid unnecessary exposure to the air and whatever may be floating around. Should I be leaving it uncovered while cooling?

3. I have to use bottled water for my brews. The tap water here is absolutely awful, besides tasting like rusty metal it is not recommended you drink it without boiling it. Should I use mineral water or distilled? I am guessing mineral water, actually I am almost positive it should be mineral water now that I think about it but I thought I'd ask.

[Slash]

I always cover the wort whilst cooling, better safe than sorry I say.

[damian44]

I brought a $30 filter you attach to the tap. Im sure it improved the tast of the water.

[Bizier]

Hey aurelius121ad,

You should brew and drink Belgian "table beer" - solves your water problems, and gives you an excuse to drink beer for breakfast, lunch and tea (stuff vegemite)

I'd look at the mineral composition of the mineral water to make sure it is not going to Bogart your brew. An idea might be to use distilled and add yeast nutrient.

[warra48]

The boil volume is the volume at the start of the boil, including your malt. The boil off you usually achieve is entered in your settings when you click on Details to set your equipment in your recipe. 3 to 4 litres loss out of 12 litres seems high to me. Remember that you do not need a vigourous boil. So long as your boil breaks the surface, you have convection in your wort, and it's all you need.

Covering your wort once you finish boiling is a good idea. Anything we can do to avoid picking up nasties is good practice.

BeerSmith has a water profile tool. You can enter the composition of your mineral water, and compare it to the water profile you wish to target, although this is aimed primarily at AG brewers. If you are brewing with only malt extract, I don't see why you couldn't use distilled water. I'd think the mineral water is also OK, but you'd need to look at just what minerals are in there to ensure it won't negatively affect the flavour of your beer.

[aurelius121ad]

3 to 4 litres loss out of 12 litres seems high to me. Remember that you do not need a vigourous boil.

I have been doing very vigorous boils for the most part and my measurements are estimates. It looks like quite a bit of water is evaporating... last boil was less vigorous and I lost much less. I remember reading somewhere, I think howtobrew.com, that you want a very vigorous boil, it lets something (dont remember what) escape from the malt

Thanks everyone!

[warra48]

It's DMS they talk about escaping from the boil.
I wouldn't worry about it, it's trumped up to be much more of a problem than it is, and again, it's really only a problem for AG brewers. If you are using malt extract, the boil has already been done by the maltster, so there is no need for you to have anything like a vigorous boil. The boil for you is only to key in hops you are using, and to sterilise/sanitise your malts etc.
I'd just go with a boil as I said earlier.

[Trough Lolly]

I certainly is DMS and it is a byproduct of boiling the wort....it is also present after the boil and by keeping a lid on the pot after the boil you deny the DMS an opportunity to exit the wort, returning in the steam that drips down from the lid into the pot. I would keep the pot uncovered until the wort temp drops below 70C, unless you have really dirty air in the room.

You can detect DMS in your beer if you notice a steamed vegetable / cabbage flavour in the final product...

Cheers,
TL