First Full Boil

DutchK9 · 07-01-2008, 12:29 AM

I did my first full boil yesterday in my converted kettle with a Sierra Pale Ale kit. I figured I would get one gallon of evaporation, so I put 6 gallons of water in the kettle at the start. After cooking the wort, I chilled it, siphoned it into a 6 gallon carboy and only got 4 gallons instead of the 5 I thought I would get. When I took my gravity reading prior to transfer, I tasted the wort and it seemed pretty bitter. I ended up adding another gallon of water to the carboy prior to putting on the blow off tube and after pitching the yeast.
My question is, do you think the beer will come out too weak and watery tasting?
My recipe was;

8 oz Caramel 10L, 8 oz Carapils (pre-mixed) - steeped for 30 min
3 lbs Gold LME - 60 min
2 oz Perle Hops - 60 min
2 oz Cascade Hops - 10 min

SG was 1.042 but that was before I added the extra gallon of water and yeast.

Tankard · 07-01-2008, 12:52 AM

Did you take a gravity reading after you added the water?

If it tasted super bitter at 4 gallons, it is probably because the OG is too high. Adding a gallon of water to top off to 5 gallons would decrease the OG and *should* get it close to what the recipe called for. So it shouldn't taste watery or weak.

You did the right thing.

What OG did the recipe call for? If you took a reading after you added the water, what was your OG?

DutchK9 · 07-01-2008, 02:50 AM

Okay thanks. I did add the gallon of water, but didn't take another reading.

Can you still take a reading after adding the yeast? I added the yeast and then decided to top it off with another gallon of water. Wasn't sure if I would get a correct reading after pitching the yeast.

cclloyd · 07-01-2008, 12:16 PM

Are you sure you posted the recipe right? I just ran it through a calculator and it came up with an OG of 1.023?? Four pounds of grain is a very light bill - something doesn't add up.

ChuckMoney · 07-01-2008, 12:30 PM

That seems very light. Are you sure its not 3 KG? 6.6lbs ~ 3Kg gives me an OG of 1.048 in beersmith.

Regardless, I'm going to be doing a stout today in my first full boil. wish me luck.

DutchK9 · 07-02-2008, 03:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cclloyd

Are you sure you posted the recipe right? I just ran it through a calculator and it came up with an OG of 1.023?? Four pounds of grain is a very light bill - something doesn't add up.

My bad.

I split the LME and poured half in at the beginning and half during the last ten minutes making 6 lbs in all. I thought it might help with color splitting it, but now I think it was a stupid move and part of the bitter hop problem.

powderbock · 07-09-2008, 10:29 PM

How long you boil your LME shouldn't really make a big difference as to how much bitterness your tasting, the bitterness comes from the hops, which if your boiling 2oz of perle for 60 minutes will tend to make your beer quite bitter. That shoud even out with aging your final product. Adding the additional water will tame the bitter, but also drop your SG, ultimately decreasing your ABV.
You just need to get used to your equiptment and adjust accordingly.

I'm still trying to figure out how much I lose in my boil as well, in extract brewing I lose a gallon, in all grain I seem to lose a lot more. I have no idea why.

DutchK9 · 07-09-2008, 10:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by powderbock

How long you boil your LME shouldn't really make a big difference as to how much bitterness your tasting, the bitterness comes from the hops, which if your boiling 2oz of perle for 60 minutes will tend to make your beer quite bitter. That shoud even out with aging your final product. Adding the additional water will tame the bitter, but also drop your SG, ultimately decreasing your ABV.
You just need to get used to your equiptment and adjust accordingly.

I'm still trying to figure out how much I lose in my boil as well, in extract brewing I lose a gallon, in all grain I seem to lose a lot more. I have no idea why.

Have to agree with the testing. Just finished my second full boil and this time I put in 7 gallons of water which turned out perfect! Thanks for the response.