Experimenting with shortened boil/mash times

[Chris Craig]

I'm sure I've brought this up here before, but I can't find it for the life of me.

Last summer, I brewed a pale ale and only did a 45 minute mash and 45 minute boil.  The beer turned out fine, and I intended to see how far I could push it, but just never got around to it.

My question:  Have any of you tried a 30 minute boil?  If so, what kind of beer was it, and what was the impact on the beer (if any)? 

I'd really like to try this again.  Perhaps at the Mash Occur this Saturday...

[Two Wheeler]

I was thinking about this the other day... I think the only thing to consider is you'll need to use more hops with a shorter boil. 15 mins will pasteurize it... not sure about DMS though

[Al-Loves-Wine]

Most of your mash conversion happens after 30 minutes I thought I read in John Palmer's, how to brew book online? I suspect it would be an interesting experiment Chris. Temp would probably play the biggest part on how well it converts. As long as its not a pilsner malt, I'm sure you could get away with a 30min boil.

[Jake]

I did a pale ale a while back with a 30 minute boil ... I upped the hop bill and it turned out good. I don't think you'd have too much to worry about with DMS assuming you're using 2-row and you get a strong boil going. Coupled with a short mash, could make for a short brew day on Saturday

[jamie_savoie]

Overnight mash is also great to save time.  I did overnight once but most of the time I mash on my lunch break and start sparge after work.  roughly a 5h mash

[Chris Craig]

Overnight mash is also great to save time.  I did overnight once but most of the time I mash on my lunch break and start sparge after work.  roughly a 5h mash

This'd be great for a dry beer, but it's too long to mash for anything else, I suspect.

[fakr]

I'm going to assume that a 60 minute mash was picked as a standard in order to ensure proper conversion of any adjunct you throw in the mash...especially un-malted ones.

I'm also assuming a 60 minute boil was picked as a standard for nothing but the hops.... to distinguish between the bitter\flavor\aroma additions.

that being said, it would be awesome to do a 30 minute mash with just 2-row, then a 15 minute boil with 2 hop additions for a simple pale ale....man that sure would reduce the brewday!

[Chris Craig]

Ima try 30 minutes for the boil.

[fakr]

Ima try 30 minutes for the boil.

Yeah, I'm sure there's more to the 60 minute boil than just hop additions....probably why city boil orders vary in required boil times....

[DandyMason]

Ima try 30 minutes for the boil.

Probably worth a try. Ive read that 7-12% volume reduction during boil should be targeted, lower or higher apparently isnt good... that being said im doing a red ale right now and im only going to boil for 45 minutes, no idea where that leaves me for % reduction

[Chris Craig]

Um...25% less boil off?

[DandyMason]

Um...25% less boil off?

hahaha good point... Im a few deep

[Chris Craig]

Well, I kegged the on Friday and gave it a try yesterday.  It tastes great.  No DMS that I could detect.   I'm going to try again on a pale ale this week.  I'd like to shorten my brew day when I brew on weeknights.

[Two Wheeler]

Short mash too?

[Chris Craig]

No, I ended up mashing for 60 minutes because my sparge water wasn't ready in time.