Is it essential to boil wort?

[robintes]

@Yooper well thanx for the heads up I had missed the tab on calculators. I am now truly humbled down to the dummy class

Interesting the Brix/SG conversion calc. I knew that the refractometer was affected by ABV and so was in accurate towards end of brew, but I can now see how to put that to use thanx 10^6

 

[Minbari]

@Yooper well thanx for the heads up I had missed the tab on calculators. I am now truly humbled down to the dummy class

Interesting the Brix/SG conversion calc. I knew that the refractometer was affected by ABV and so was in accurate towards end of brew, but I can now see how to put that to use thanx 10^6

Ya, the refractometer can be used with the formula to correct it. I don't trust it for true accuracy.

What is can be used for, even uncorrected, is trending. At the end of fermentation, you take a reading, record it. Take another 3 days later. If the reading is the same, the active fermentation is done, even if the value read is wrong.

 

[Brew Cat]

Well to answer your question. No you don't need to boil wort to make beer. Sanitation is not really an issue if you're using clean water, doing a mash with a hot water mashout. I've made plenty of drinks from fruit using spontaneous fermentation. Beer was made before hops were used using spices so that's that. However what you make may not be to your taste . So I would say depends on what you're making.

 

[robintes]

Well to answer your question. No you don't need to boil wort to make beer. Sanitation is not really an issue if you're using clean water, doing a mash with a hot water mashout. I've made plenty of drinks from fruit using spontaneous fermentation. Beer was made before hops were used using spices so that's that. However what you make may not be to your taste . So I would say depends on what you're making.

Yes this is what bothers me. Ale was first brewed without hops. Hops were added ca 200 years ago as it was found to be an excellent preservative for Ale which went sour (from natural yeasts within 3 days). Hops thrown in plus a higher abv ca 5% made beer which lasted much longer (in cask) say 7-10 days).
Ale preservatives used spices eg Cinnamon bark, cloves, Bay leaves, Ginger root

I guess that the bittering factor came as a gradual antidote to sweetish Ale - in UK

Notice that EU farmhouse Ales referred to hops as the English weed. See how the application of hops has become something of a pretentious fetish IMHO. Out in the far east hops were not used. Asahi (Japanese old and highly respected product and now the owner of my birthplace beer Fullers) used 30% sticky rice (ie short grain) as well as wheat to make their classic Dry Lager (ie no sweetness)

 

[Brew Cat]

Once i brewed a smoked beer By throwing an red hot rock in the mash for a mash out. That would take care of sanitation concerns. And get the malliarde reaction desired. It was a fun brew day.