Boiling kits before fermenting

[trustyrusty]

Hi There,

I know this has been covered a bit but I could not find definetive post...

I was reading a toucan recipe and some said they boiled kit for 60 min?

There might have been an hop addidtion in the begining but did not say but was one a 5 min...

I was also looking a youtube channel once and the guy boiled all kits, also for the fermentables, I assume but he

did for 30 mins and there was no hop addition.

but some people seem to boil kits and some don't - I am not sure what it achieves or does. I assume the kit has

been boiled already to get to goop stage...

 

[brewgasm]

I think people boil the sterilise the goup. I think that the result generally is more bitterness even without additional hops and a darker colour.

 

[brewgasm]

Personally I don't think it's worth doing it unless you want to or that's what the recipe calls for. I think if you want to boil you would be better off doing a side boil /full mash/mini mash

 

[trustyrusty]

I think if you are adding hop additions maybe - but 3 ltr of hot boiling water should sterilize?

 

[brewgasm]

If I wanted to do a hop addition on a can kit I boil 200-300g dlme in 2-3l of water and do my hops in that which is usually only a flame out addition after a 10min or so boil but I do love my beer very bitter so I may do a bittering addition and boil longer

 

[MHB]

Problem with looking for a "Definitive" answer is that there isn't one.
Not all kits are created equal, had a look at how Coopers make theirs, talking about their Pale Ale, they say its the same wort that goes to the fermenter to make Pale Ale, so its a fully hoped, boiled, whirl pooled... wort that is then vacuum evaporated to make a concentrate.
I cant think of many reason to spend the time and expense in doing a full boil.

Read about a survey of some kits available in the US (some time ago), one of the parameters they looked at was the amount of key proteins that only come from malt, this tell us how much malt was used to make the kit - one of the well known kits had ZERO! It was a fake, made up of sugar syrup, various dextrins and caramel and hop extracts.
No amount of boiling is going to help you there either.

Malt extract can be divided (loosely) into Brewing and Baking grades, some of the baking grades are pretty crude, they are also a lot cheaper and do end up in some of the "value" kits. A lot aren't really malt extract being made of industrial enzymes acting on raw barley and/or what ever else is cheap.
Boiling one of these would be very much in your interest, you will see a hell of a lot trub (hot break) formation and I suspect you will always know that you chose price over quality (well every time you have a taste)

If you are using a decent quality kit and want to do hop additions, you don't need to boil all of the kit.
Just make up a couple of liters of water and extract that is close to the target gravity and boil that with the hops you want to use.
Pour it through a strainer and this can then be the "hot water" that you use to makeup the kits.

If you take some of what we learn on a going AG journey (more good yeast, some hops, temperature control...) and apply it to kit brewing. I think a lot of people would be surprised at how good a beer you can make.

You will need to look at what you are brewing with, where you want the beer to go in terms of flavour aroma, and just how much time and effort you are willing to put in to it before you might as well go AG (which offers more choices if nothing else).
Mark

 

[Armstrong]

As a kit manufacturer I would definitively say, Do not boil kits ... I'm sure there would be exceptions internationally, but it serves no purpose for the vast majority of kits available in Australia.

Boiling kits will actually change the favour profile of the kit ... kits manufactured using hop oils to enhance flavour and aroma will have a decrease in hop flavour as these oil are boiled off (Not unlike getting little flavour and aroma from Bittering hops in a boil). Kits that include hop pellet in the can will not only loose the flavour and aroma characteristic, but will also increase the bitterness due to the alpha acids in the pellets.

Only those who describe the contents of a can as "GOOP" would suggest you boil a can.

 

[brewgasm]

As a kit manufacturer I would definitively say, Do not boil kits ... I'm sure there would be exceptions internationally, but it serves no purpose for the vast majority of kits available in Australia.

Boiling kits will actually change the favour profile of the kit ... kits manufactured using hop oils to enhance flavour and aroma will have a decrease in hop flavour as these oil are boiled off (Not unlike getting little flavour and aroma from Bittering hops in a boil). Kits that include hop pellet in the can will not only loose the flavour and aroma characteristic, but will also increase the bitterness due to the alpha acids in the pellets.

Only those who describe the contents of a can as "GOOP" would suggest you boil a can.

Haha how would you describe it?

 

[brewgasm]

There are kits that you can get that are not pre bittered so they are great if you want to do a little boil and play around with it