Boiling?

[Cookie]

I've just been re-reading simple things that make HB better, and I spotted this:
"5) Do a stove-top boil.

Save yourself from dancing around the brewing area with a boiling kettle in one hand, a hot can of concentrate in the other, and your thermometer in your third hand, trying to wash the last of the concentrate out of the can, mix in your malt, and hope that the brew is the correct temperature to pitch your yeast.
Put it all (not the yeast!) into a big pot on the stove, leasurely scrape out the can, gently stir in your malt, sit back and have a beer whilst it heats up. Then when you are ready, add your steeped specialty grain (point 6) and your extra hops (point 7).
Easy."

Does this mean that the whole wort should boil prior to adding to fermenter and water? I've only been waiting until I think it has all sufficiently dissolved. Should I boil?

[rwh]

Does this mean that the whole wort should boil prior to adding to fermenter and water? I've only been waiting until I think it has all sufficiently dissolved. Should I boil?

You should boil everything except the kit can. Add that at the end. A few minutes is all you need unless you are adding hops, in which case you need to start thinking about timings and alpha acid isomerisation which is a whole different discussion.

[Kevnlis]

Well Cookie, if you are just using kits then you should not boil them. Tins of extract should be boiled if adding hops, otherwise just dump them in with the kit.

If it is dry extract or sugar you technically should boil it for 10 min or so before adding it to kill anything that may be in it.

I don't bother...

[Cookie]

Tins of extract should be boiled if adding hops

What do you mean by this? When I've used hops (teabag style) I have placed them in a mug of boiling water and left for 30mins prior to adding to the wort. I prepared the wort to be ready coinciding with the hops

Should I be doing something different? E.g. boiling the malt extract with hops added?

[Kevnlis]

When using the sachets for aroma additions what you have done is correct. If you want bitterness then you need to boil the hops in the malt and water for an hour.

[Cookie]

Is that a different type of hops (i.e. not teabag)? Perhaps pellets? Or will the teabags work in the same way? I'm really keen on making a more bitter beer.

[Kevnlis]

Depends how old the sachets are and how they have been stored, but you should still be able to get a bit of bitterness from them.

[rwh]

Hops - How Are They Used?

[Trough Lolly]

Tins of extract should be boiled if adding hops

What do you mean by this? When I've used hops (teabag style) I have placed them in a mug of boiling water and left for 30mins prior to adding to the wort. I prepared the wort to be ready coinciding with the hops

Should I be doing something different? E.g. boiling the malt extract with hops added?

G'day Cookie,
The important point to note is that kits have pre-hopped malt extract in them. They were bittered, flavoured and had aroma additions done by the kit manufacturer. By boiling a kit, all you'd be doing is knocking out the volatile flavour and aroma compounds. On the other hand, tubs of non-kit malt extract (dry or liquid) from the HBS aren't hopped and therefore in order to maintain a balance between the bitter hops and sweet malt in the final product's overall flavour profile, we need to add some hops and boil the malt extract and hops in a volume of water before cooling and adding to the fermenter. When I did kits, I used a kilo of malt extract and the required amount of hops in a stock pot with at least 4 litres of water added to the stockpot. The minimum boil duration was 20 minutes - but typically I stuck to a 1hr boil.

It is possible to extract a small amount of bitterness from teabags of hops, but you will get vastly superior results if you use fresh hop pellets / plugs / flowers when you do the boil.

Cheers,
TL

[Longwood-65]

Bugger,
Reading this thread reminder me that I forgot to add hops in yesterdays brew

I was in such a hurry to make my next batch and get a few other things done before my ride picked me up for the footy I forgot the hops.

I should never try multitasking when brewing.

Ron