How long to boil the wort?

Jan 31, 2019
130
Kevin

How long to boil the wort?

Boiling your wort is an extremely important step.

Typically the boil should last at least 60 minutes, however depending on ingredients and the target beer it can last in excess of 120 minutes. Boil time is critical to the end beer and it is important to understand how long you plan to boil so you can plan the starting volume. For example, if you are targeting a post boil volume of 5 gallons and you average an evaporation rate of 9% per hour (which my system does) you should have around 5.49 gallons pre boil for a 60 minute boil but 5.78 gallons for a 90 minute boil. Knowing the pre-boil volume is critical to sparging and boiling, but you must first learn your system and its evaporation rate. Programs such as Beer Smith give you starting points depending on your kettle.