Full 5 gallon boils

bluelou6 · 10-24-2007, 01:00 AM

I just got my hands on a keggle. I was wondering if I needed to do anything different regarding the full 5 gallon boil? I am used to doing a 2-3 gallon boil and adding that to cool water in the fermenter. Do I need to adjust the amount of grains used, or can I do a full 5 gallon boil and chill with and immersion chiller?

**Kayos** · 10-24-2007, 01:03 AM

No need to adjust the amount of grain or extract, but your hops utilization will be different. Get some brew software like brewsmith or beertools or promash. Free trial versions avail, too. Best $20 I ever spent on brewing. Fun while I am at work to play on 'em, too.

wanagohueco · 10-24-2007, 02:09 PM

You definitely need to reduce the amount of hops since you'll get better utilization. I assume that you are using specialty grains with the extract... in which case you should steep the grains in 1.5 gallons of water... remove them... then add that to the main brew kettle for the full 5 gal boil. Reason being that steeping grains at high pH ( > 6 or so) will extract tannins and cause an astringent flavor to the beer. Steeping the grains in 1.5gal of water allows the water to get more acidic ( ~pH 5.5) whereas diluting that with an additional 3.5gal of water will raise your pH. Hope this helps.

bluelou6 · 10-24-2007, 02:37 PM

thank you for the info.

Should I boil 6 gallons down to 5, or do a 5 gallon boil and add whatever water is necessary to bring it back to 5 gallons after evaporation?

**Kayos** · 10-24-2007, 04:37 PM

6.4 usually boils down to 5 within an hour on a good vigorous boil. That is what you should be shooting for.

tandpbrewing · 10-24-2007, 10:11 PM

Also, depending on if you just added the top off water directly from the tap or if it was preboiled you may have to worry more about getting oxygen to the yeast, boiled water/wort doesn't have much if any oxygen in it.

malkore · 10-25-2007, 12:39 AM

its better to boil down IMO.

and since you can boil that much liquid, its time to start moving to all grain. it is more work, but its worth it.

bluelou6 · 10-25-2007, 02:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by malkore

its better to boil down IMO.

and since you can boil that much liquid, its time to start moving to all grain. it is more work, but its worth it.

Yeah, definitely leaning towards all grain. When I was brewing about 10 years ago, I was doing all grain. I want to get a few batches under my belt before I get back into all grain again.