How big of a boil?

When doing All grain I have a 7 gallon brew pot and propane heater (cheap walmart turkey deep fryer kit). Using beer smith I have calculated that Edwort's Stone IPA clone needed a 6.4 gallon preboil amount to make a 5 gallon batch. I set my evaporation at 11% not really knowing where it should be. I ended up with about 5.5 gallons and that reduced my OG a decent amount.

For those who use propane burners how high do you set them? If I had a 10 gallon brew pot I could leave it on high and not boil over but I have to keep a very close eye on it(I still boil over) to maintain a boil without spilling. Is this effecting my beer at all? Will a higher rolling boil allow a better taste or does it not matter? Where do you all set your burners?

A high rolling boil will increase hop utilization, as well as drive off DMS better. Strive to get it boiling as hard as your pot will allow without actually boiling over...kind of tricky with a 7 gallon pot!

Ferm-Cap would be helpful in this situation, it pretty much eliminates boilover risk.

buy a bigger pot and boil as hard as you can...might cost more money but i think it will be worth it in the long run

I have a 9gallon pot, and get boilovers, even with ferm-control added. YMMV...and I have a burner that basically is too much for my kettle.

I'd suggest 15% for evaporation per hour...you'll want 7 gallons of wort pre-boil.

the current kettle you have would be good for a hot liquid tank though.

Yeah I'm looking for a 10 gallon SS pot on craigslist and I saw one too for $35. But someone, prolly someone else here got to it before I did. I just can't pay over like $50 for it, if anyone knows of any available I would be happy to hear about it.

BlindLemonLars said:

A high rolling boil will increase hop utilization, as well as drive off DMS better. Strive to get it boiling as hard as your pot will allow without actually boiling over...kind of tricky with a 7 gallon pot!

Ferm-Cap would be helpful in this situation, it pretty much eliminates boilover risk.

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+1 to this advice. I do boils within 1.5 inches of the rim of my pot without any worry of boilover.

malkore said:

I have a 9gallon pot, and get boilovers, even with ferm-control added. YMMV...and I have a burner that basically is too much for my kettle.

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Sounds like you got some old or poor quality ferm-cap Malkore. Quality (and fresh) foam control drops should entirely eliminate boil-overs, even with a really vigorous boil. I honestly could never boil over my pot no matter what I tried with the stuff I have (bought from PaddockWood in Canada, and then from Morebeer).

I have the same setup as you, the 7.5 gal + propane burner... I set my evap rate for 9%, and I pretty much hit my marks. I have to sit and constantly adjust the flame to keep it at a boil where it's about to boil over. It's not a hard enough boil, it's very obvious, but it's how it's going to be until I get a bigger kettle.

Edit:
Oh and I always set my final volume for 5 Gal, so my preboil would be 6 Gal. 6.4Gal in a 7.5Gal pot is way too close. I never understood why people set it for 5.5 anyway, 5 Gal batches always give me more than 48 bottles when all is said and done.

I never understood why people set it for 5.5 anyway

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A buffer for trub loss and hydrometer samples.

flyangler18 said:

A buffer for trub loss and hydrometer samples.

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That is why I do it.

bull8042 said:

That is why I do it.

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Like I said I always wind up with more than 48 bottles.

To each his own, I need a smaller boil anyway.

Yunus said:

For those who use propane burners how high do you set them? If I had a 10 gallon brew pot I could leave it on high and not boil over ...

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HA! Hubby managed to boilover ~ 6.5 gallons of wort in a 13 gallon pot. You just need to watch it carefully. When I see it start to "grow" in the pot on approaching boil, I standby to turn the gas down and stir stir stir.

I'm going to invest in some anti foam solutions as you all have mentioned, sounds like the best option. Might cost more but it will save beer so I call that a good deal.

Plus the craigslist ad I found had a no show and emailed me back, I got a 10 gallon heavy duty brew pot now Of course I just brewed yesterday so it will be a couple weeks before I get to use it.

I started with the smaller enameled canner, for my boiling pot. I was only doing extracts, and partial mashes then. When I got more into AG, I found a large enameled canner, at the local hardware store. It has an 8 gallon capacity. I was finding my batches getting larger, and larger. Pushing the volume limits of my kettle. I have since acquired an empty keg, and modified it into a keggle. It works great, and sits perfectly on my turkey fryer burner.

As far as the number of bottles goes, 5 gallons comes out to ~53 bottles. That's 2 cases, and a 5-pack. I used this as my gauge as to how close I actually was to my 5 gallon sizing on the boil. Now thinking about it, 5.5 gallons makes more sense to shoot for, with the trub loss, and hydro readings, etc., I can judge how well I did as to how many bottles I finally end up with. Hope that makes sense.

Anyway, back to the 7 gallon pot issue, it will work, but it will be too small once you get into the heavier beers. I would it for extract batches, and extra sparge water, etc. I would get a larger kettle, personally.

Just a suggestion here, why not go to the local liquor store and ask if they have any empty kegs that you could buy ?? I asked what the deposit was on a 16 gallon keg, and it was only 35 bucks. If they are unwilling to sell you one, order a keg of your favorite beer, drink it, and there you go. One keggle almost ready to go.

if you live in the DC area and listen to DC 101.1 you have prolly heard of Easter kegs. They hide hundreds of painted empty kegs throughout the DC area. Well your supposed to turn them in for concert tickets but I think next year I know what I'm going to do

Yunus said:

if you live in the DC area and listen to DC 101.1 you have prolly heard of Easter kegs. They hide hundreds of painted empty kegs throughout the DC area. Well your supposed to turn them in for concert tickets but I think next year I know what I'm going to do

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Hahaha.

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As far as the number of bottles goes, 5 gallons comes out to ~53 bottles. That's 2 cases, and a 5-pack. I used this as my gauge as to how close I actually was to my 5 gallon sizing on the boil. Now thinking about it, 5.5 gallons makes more sense to shoot for, with the trub loss, and hydro readings, etc., I can judge how well I did as to how many bottles I finally end up with. Hope that makes sense.

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I understand the theory, I'm just simply making the point that I have never wound up with less than 48 bottles, which to me is a nice even number when it comes to storing & conditioning. 5 Bottles worth (60 oz) of loss due to trub/samples etc seems a bit much, which is why I never ended up with less than 48 bottles. In fact, I use this to my advantage. I leave the last few oz of fermented wort at the bottom of my primary/secondary as not to disturb the yeast cake & have it wind up in my bottles. Yet still I get around 50-52 bottles every time.

That's all I'm trying to say

JMD87, I completely understand. I do the same thing.

Yunus said:

Will a higher rolling boil allow a better taste or does it not matter?

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You have to find a balance - to small boil will not drive-off all DMS and other nasty stuff. Too hard boil encourages millard reactions and caramelization, that can alter the taste of your beers in an unapriopriate way.
I use 1.5h of steady, rolling boil, evaporation rate ~10%/hour.

Congrats on the new kettle from CraigsList! Hoorah for the other dude not showing up!

JMD87 said:

I never understood why people set it for 5.5 anyway, 5 Gal batches always give me more than 48 bottles when all is said and done.

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I set for 5.75 gallon batches so I compensate for trub loss, can fill a keg and still have some for a sixer or two to stick away.

I'm getting ready to do my first all grain and I also have a 7.5 gallon pot and a turkey fryer, which is making me a little nervous about boil-overs. As I'm reading this post I'm wondering if I started out with say 7 gallons of wort, what if I just started boiling 6 gallons in the beginning and just gradually added the other gallon as it boils off? I know this would change hop utilization but other than that, is there any reason I couldn't do this?

MN_Jay said:

As I'm reading this post I'm wondering if I started out with say 7 gallons of wort, what if I just started boiling 6 gallons in the beginning and just gradually added the other gallon as it boils off? I know this would change hop utilization but other than that, is there any reason I couldn't do this?

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I did something similar a few times, but instead boiled the extra wort on the kitchen stove in a small pot, and added it to the turkey fryer once there was room. It worked out fine, with no noticeable change in hop utilization.

MN_Jay said:

I'm getting ready to do my first all grain and I also have a 7.5 gallon pot and a turkey fryer, which is making me a little nervous about boil-overs. As I'm reading this post I'm wondering if I started out with say 7 gallons of wort, what if I just started boiling 6 gallons in the beginning and just gradually added the other gallon as it boils off? I know this would change hop utilization but other than that, is there any reason I couldn't do this?

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I'm not trying to push a 5 gal batch, really, as it seems like I'm the only one that does it... but trust me when I say you'll want to be as far away from 7 gal as possible. I start with 6 and boil to 5, end up with 50 bottles after all is said and done and I'm happy. When I first get it up to a boil, the 6 will boil over no problem, however I babysit it for the first 20 minutes and haven't boiled over yet.

Just scale your recipe's in beersmith for a 5 gal batch with a 8-9% evap. rate, and you'll be fine.

Has anyone suggested aiming for a higher gravity wort at a lower more manageable volume, then diluting down to the target gravity at the end of boil?

Example:

With a 7.5g pot if you were worried about boilover you could target 5.5g pre-boil (adjusting hops as needed to hit IBU target). Aim for a higher gravity wort after 60 min. boil down to 4.5g post boil.

If your target is 5.5g into fermenter at 1.050 you could aim for 1.061 at 4.5g postboil.

Then dilute with 1g water to achieve both the 5.5g into the fermenter and the target gravity of 1.050.

Yunus said:

For those who use propane burners how high do you set them? If I had a 10 gallon brew pot I could leave it on high and not boil over but I have to keep a very close eye on it(I still boil over) to maintain a boil without spilling. Is this effecting my beer at all? Will a higher rolling boil allow a better taste or does it not matter? Where do you all set your burners?

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I've got a 10.5 gal pot and start with 7 - 7.5 gal for a 5.5 gal batch. I just got a Bayou Classic sq14 propane cooker because I'd read it will get a batch to a rolling boil quickly, and actually "sounds like a jet." Well my experience with it has not been anything like that. The only time it sounds like a jet is when I turn it way up, in which case half the ports have no flame. And it's anything but quick to boil. I've got it adjusted so that the flame is blue except at the tips. Now, this thing came with a 10psi regulator. Would a higher psi improve the quality of the flame.

cee3 said:

... sq14 propane cooker because I'd read it will get a batch to a rolling boil quickly, and actually "sounds like a jet." Well my experience with it has not been anything like that. The only time it sounds like a jet is when I turn it way up, in which case half the ports have no flame. And it's anything but quick to boil. I've got it adjusted so that the flame is blue except at the tips. Now, this thing came with a 10psi regulator. Would a higher psi improve the quality of the flame.

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Glad to know I'm not the only one experiencing this symptom!!!!

Chriso said:

Glad to know I'm not the only one experiencing this symptom!!!!

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I have the sq14 and it screams when you get the air adjusted correctly. I leave the air adjustment a little loose, because one setting doesn't work for both low & high flame. I do find myself constantly adjusting the air mix setting, but it's a trade off for a nice blue flame on a $40 burner.

It's not my air adjustment, because I keep it loose, and fine-tune throughout my boil. I think it's an issue of a minority of us getting either defective burners or regulators. Because I know what this burner "should" be able to do. And I know that my standard cast 55k turkey fryer burner can beat the everlovin' pi$$ out of my SQ14.

I'm doing further testing next time I brew. (Same burner with different regulator, then same regulator with different burner.)