Is there something special about boiling?

[simon12]

Just wondering if there is something special about the water boiling when brewing or cooking or to ask it another way if you are brewing or cooking at an altitude where water boils at 85C would the resulting beer or food be the same as if you did the boil or cooked at 85C at sea level when the water isn't boiling?

 

[NPi]

Supposedly so, the mountaineers climbing Everest always complained of crap cups of tea...

 

[Zephyr259]

A lower boiling point would affect things to a reasonable degree as temperature affects the chemical reactions involved. For things like tea and coffee you need temperature to extract the soluble material, if the water is too cold then the components extracted change and you get a naff cuppa. If you can't get wort above 85c (for example) then you'll probably get very poor hot break as the proteins won't fully denature or will do so very slowly and with less temperature the isomerisation of alpha acids will be slower so you're bitterness calculations would need to be altered.

 

[umfana]

https://brulosophy.com/2018/07/02/the-no-boil-effect-exbeeriment-results/
Here is some pseudo-science on the subject of boil vs no boil.

Is it different - yes
Yes the difference large - no

 

[foxy]

Just wondering if there is something special about the water boiling when brewing or cooking or to ask it another way if you are brewing or cooking at an altitude where water boils at 85C would the resulting beer or food be the same as if you did the boil or cooked at 85C at sea level when the water isn't boiling?

I don't know about the altitude, but there is a reason for boiling. Tim O'Rourke a British master brewer who teaches brewers wrote this.
http://www.ibdlearningzone.org.uk/article/show/pdf/493/

 

[simon12]

Cheers for all the interesting replies.

https://brulosophy.com/2018/07/02/the-no-boil-effect-exbeeriment-results/
Here is some pseudo-science on the subject of boil vs no boil.

Is it different - yes
Yes the difference large - no

I think that pretty much confirms it as most likely the beer was slightly different due to the lower temp. not the lack of boil.