No Boil?

[Jake]

I discussed this today with sdixon at the gym. So I know that the boil will get the flavours out of hops, and plays an important role in boiling off DMS.

I have a bunch of asshole BMC douchebag friends, that hate any flavour in beer and I had a thought today. What would happen if I mashed then straight into primary without a boil. How obvious would the DMS be? I was thinkin you could just dry hop it after fermentation with a couple oz of say cascade for a little aroma/flavour, but hardly any bitterness.

I tried to see if there was anything online about doing so, but couldn't really find anything. I know pilsner malt has alot of DMS, but are their any base grains on the other end of the spectrum with little to none?

Would this be a disaster? .... may call for a little experiment if nobody can outright tell me this is a terrible idea. It'd take all of like 2 hours to do

[Dean]

what would happen if your asshole douchebag friends just bought their own beer?  :roll: then you could continue making kickass brews for yourself ...

and us  

[Kyle]

well, you'd need to heat it to about 180F to kill off the mashing enzymes and pasturize it. The hops isomerization would be virtually nil, but I have no idea how the product would taste.

Why not try a 2 litre sample of it the next time you brew (boil the rest of the batch as per normal).

[Jake]

I'm just looking for something to try. I read that pasturization takes place around 160, so assuming I heat my strike water up above that, it could work. I know that the hops wouldn't likely come through, but I'm more curious than anything.

What about steaping hops in a litre of boiling water for an hour or so and adding that to the primary? This could be done during the mash to cut down on time.

I've had a pretty slow day at work and have done a fair bit of reading around the subject. I don't think I'll try right away, but maybe in the coming weeks I'll give it a go. Another thing with the hops, it would be a batch I'd have a couple friends over for and it would likely last a night, so not too worried about the hops fading, which usually happens pretty quickly when dry hopping ... so as long as they can drink it fast enough

[Kyle]

you need more than 160F to kill the enzymes from the mash

I'd be interested to try the product, but I don't think it will be very good.

[Richard]

You need a boil, as kyle suggests, to kill off both the enzymes and any other critters hanging about. I'd suggest at least five minutes rolling boil. I suspect clarity would also suffer, as you would not have the hot break if you didn't boil.

As for steeping the hops, so far as I am aware the sugars in the boil are an important part of that process, and boiling hops in water will not isomerise them so quickly.

Moreover, the boiling process actually reduces the flavour from hops - noble hop flavor/aroma (i.e. what they'd be getting in their BMC) is the result of a vigorous boil removing all volatiles.

I would suggest that instead of this experiment (which I'm 99% sure will produce the fabled asswater), you produce a SMaSH with the lightest base malt you've got, don't overdo the OG (1.045 perhaps), a really low mash (148-ish), only 15 or so IBUs of the cleanest bittering hop you can get your hands on, and a pound each of rice and sugar to really dilute and dry the hell of it (keeping that in mind when performing your mash to reach the mentioned low OG).

[Dave Savoie]

If your looking for a BMC beer for your friends this would hit their taste buds very well

6.25 Lbs 2 Row
1 Lbs Vienna
1 Lbs Wheat Malt
1.5 Lbs Flaked Maize

0.5 OZ Cascade @ 60 min

US-05

[sdixon]

I'm all for experimenting! What Kyle and Richard say is true, but it would still be interesting to taste the result. Who knows? Hey the first guy that threw hops in a beer to help it preserve the beer might have been considered crazy. And what about the first Belgain to throw a handful of coriander in his beer? I say go for it... worst thing that can happen is your out about $10. I'll try it :-)

[Dave Savoie]

before you try check this out

http://brianbeer.blogspot.com/2008/03/i ... -boil.html

[JohnQ]

Excellent Link Dave.
JQ