Extract Brewing--Boiling
Extract Brewing--Boiling
Should I boil the water (around 3 gal.) that will be used to top off the carboy.
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- Pale Ale
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As in many things in life, it depends.
Obviously, if you add hot water to the carboy, it will take longer for the wort to cool to pitching temperature.
There are some advantages; if the water is chlorinated, then boiling it will help drive off some of the chlorine than can form some nasty tasting phenols. If you're on well water you don't have to worry about chlorine, but for both well and municipal water, boiling it will drop some of the temporary hardness, which could be good or bad, depending on the style you're trying to make.
Todd
Obviously, if you add hot water to the carboy, it will take longer for the wort to cool to pitching temperature.
There are some advantages; if the water is chlorinated, then boiling it will help drive off some of the chlorine than can form some nasty tasting phenols. If you're on well water you don't have to worry about chlorine, but for both well and municipal water, boiling it will drop some of the temporary hardness, which could be good or bad, depending on the style you're trying to make.
Todd
- billvelek
- Imperial Stout
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I agree ... but ...
I agree with 'brewer13210' for reasons to boil, although he didn't mention sanitation, but I would add that you can cool your water down long before you need to add it to the fermenter, so it needn't lengthen your cooling period, and in fact it can be used to help cool down your wort faster, too. It sounds like you are doing concentrated boils and know in advance about how much water you need. You can boil that much the day before and let it cool off to room temperature in the covered pot; of course, as it cools off it will draw some air past the lid that could contain microbes, but this is unavoidable, and I've never had any problems with my primers or stepped starters which I do the same way, although on a smaller scale. That is, when doing that, I use water that has been boiled and cooled in a covered pot. If anyone knows of a practical way to do that and make it safer, I'm open to suggestions. I guess I could pour the boiling water into a flask and add a stopper with tubing that draws air through a sanitizing filter, but I don't consider that practical, personally. And I've never had a problem doing it like I do. Anyway, I digress. In addition to cooling your boiled water to room temp, you could also put the pot in the refrigerator or freezer for awhile, if you have room. That will obviously help you cool your wort even faster.
As for sanitation, chlorinated water is probably sanitary to begin with (don't know about well water), so I don't really know if it's necessary to boil tap water first to sanitize it, but the way I see it you already have other good reasons to do it ... and why take the chance if I'm so anal about sanitation in every other way. At the very least, you'd want to sanitize the pot that you are going to put your tap water into. I guess part of the reason I also boil for my starters and primers is that I'm dissolving and sanitizing the DME or sugar, too.
Cheers.
Bill Velek
As for sanitation, chlorinated water is probably sanitary to begin with (don't know about well water), so I don't really know if it's necessary to boil tap water first to sanitize it, but the way I see it you already have other good reasons to do it ... and why take the chance if I'm so anal about sanitation in every other way. At the very least, you'd want to sanitize the pot that you are going to put your tap water into. I guess part of the reason I also boil for my starters and primers is that I'm dissolving and sanitizing the DME or sugar, too.
Cheers.
Bill Velek
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