I just brewed a 1 gallon kit. I started with 1.25 gallons, as per the instructions, followed the instructions to the T, and the wort boiled down to half a gallon. WTH? I'm so disappointed, I was really looking forward to brewing this product.
1 gallon brewing problem
- Thread starter JuneHawk
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Unless this is 100% extract, don't do this; as you won't boil off the DMS precursors in the wort. You need to boil with the lid off so that they will be carried off with the steam.
Rather, you need to start with a larger preboil volume. You could add top-off water to get to the appropriate final volume, if necessary. You don't mention the recipe or your process, so if you were to provide more information, a lot of brewers with more knowledge than me can surely help you out.
sumbrewindude
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Couple things come to mind -
1) how vigorous of a boil did you make? 1.25gal is real easy to get just churning away, which does great things for evaporation but really isn't necessary for making beer.
2) Did you do a practice run ahead of time to see how much water you'd actually boil off? Unfortunately, there's really no hard/fast rule for how much evaporation you'll actually have, so the 1.25gal in the instruction is more of a reference point.
On the positive note, what you've done is just concentrate the wort. You can easily add some water back in the fermenter to make up the difference. You may have caramelized the wort a little from the reduction, but you'll still have beer.
As terrible as it might seem, it's actually not that bad.
1) how vigorous of a boil did you make? 1.25gal is real easy to get just churning away, which does great things for evaporation but really isn't necessary for making beer.
2) Did you do a practice run ahead of time to see how much water you'd actually boil off? Unfortunately, there's really no hard/fast rule for how much evaporation you'll actually have, so the 1.25gal in the instruction is more of a reference point.
On the positive note, what you've done is just concentrate the wort. You can easily add some water back in the fermenter to make up the difference. You may have caramelized the wort a little from the reduction, but you'll still have beer.
As terrible as it might seem, it's actually not that bad.
I boil off over a gallon per hour when I brew on my stove top. It sounds like you do too.
no problem- just start with more wort. If you boil off 1.0 gallon per hour, start with 2 gallons of wort simply by sparging more (rinsing the grain). No problem, and it will make a great beer.
For now, just add .5 gallon of water or whatever you need to get back to one gallon. No issues at all.
no problem- just start with more wort. If you boil off 1.0 gallon per hour, start with 2 gallons of wort simply by sparging more (rinsing the grain). No problem, and it will make a great beer.
For now, just add .5 gallon of water or whatever you need to get back to one gallon. No issues at all.
