[TXFlyGuy]

sure, i was just replying to that particular person.

i know people brew for very different reasons including myself. the main reason i keep detailed notes (which have become less  unnecessarily detailed since when i started) is so that if i make something good i can recreate it, or if something is wrong i can try to pinpoint it and remove it from future brews.

And therein lies the secret to repetition. Just like the big brewers have a staff of scientists on their payroll to ensure that the next keg of (your favorite beer) tastes exactly like the last keg.
While my beers were always pretty good, exactly replicating any one beer was challenging.

[brewsumore]

For me it depends partly on the beer style and final results I'm looking for, but in general at least 1 hour.  For beers where I'm looking for a slightly higher degree of wort caramelization (such as wee heavy, dark strong Belgian) it might be at least a 2-hour boil.

Wee Heavy was a single beer produced by Fowler's in Scotland and not a style. Its proper name was Twelve Guinea Ale but referenced as a "wee" heavy in their advertising materials. It also needs to be pointed out that it is a myth that Scottish brewers used long boil times to caramelize the wort. Brewing records show that at times the Scots boil times were shorter than their London counterparts. At other times their boil schedules grew longer but overall Scottish boil times were no longer or shorter than any other brewery.

http://www.bjcp.org/style/2015/17/17C/wee-heavy/

Also, see https://www.traquair.co.uk/brewery/ and scroll down to "How the Beer is Brewed"  It shows a "2 hour boil."  Admittedly, 2 hours is not necessarily long enough to caramelize the wort very much.

Time marches on.

Note that I did not say that wee heavy is not now a recognized style. I said it "was a single beer..." Past tense.

Traquair was and is a very small, provincial brewery. The fact remains that the written records of the major Scottish breweries show boil times of 60 to 120 minutes... most of the time. And in my original post I did said "at times" Scottish boil times were shorter. I also said that at other times they were longer.

If you want to boil your strong Scottish ale for 2 hours or more and call it wee heavy then by all means do so. Just recognize that there are some accepted practices when it comes to Scottish brewing that are pure myth.

Gotcha.  Thanks Kevin.  I misread that.  Interesting history - thanks for sharing it! 

And, most certainly, those of us who brew the Skotrat Traquair House Ale clone, or similar recipe, boil down a lot of mash runoff into a little syrup and re-add to the kettle, so caramelization by boiling down is a huge part of that.  And whether or not it's traditional to Scottish brewing methods, it makes a rich, satisfying, wonderful wee heavy.

[ynotbrusum]

That reduction process is well documented.  I have done it with success, but I have judged competitions where entrants scorched the reduction to a point where the entry was not pleasant to drink.  I rarely go that route due to the extra effort, but it can produce an outstanding Wee Heavy, for sure.