5 gallon boil test

I was wanting to start doing 5 gallon boils and before that I thought of experimenting first.
What I was thinking is boiling a measured 5 gallons of plain water for 60 min at a rolling boil. Then getting a measurement after to see how much is lost to evaporation and keep notes.
Would wort have much of a difference in evaporation then plain water?
Also, I was going to build a wort chiller and keep notes on how long it would take to chill the water to a pitchable temp. Same question as above, would wort chill at a different length of time then water? Or would this experiment just get me in the ballpark on the times?
BTW.. this would be done with an extract brew when I do brew.
Thanks!

I've seen a general rule of thumb of 10-20% loss, depending on how hard the boil is. That was the big key- how much heat you put in controls evap rate, and you have to avoid a boil over (which won't happen on a pure water test).

This is the most uncontrollable variable- if you figure out the evap rate for a boil, assuming a certain amount of heat- and it turns out you'd have a boilover with wort, you'll have too high of a volume and a lower gravity when it's done.

It is much easier to add boiled water to a wort to bring the volume back up where it belongs then to run a longer boil and screw up the hops calculations.

I was wondering these same things myself, as I was doing my first full boil last weekend.

What I did, though, was to mark my pan on the outside for gallon and half gallon levels, and used an engraver to make it permanent.

I started my boil around 5.75 gallons (Guestimating on the 15%), and adjusted the heat during the boil to pay adjust the evap rate. I had to turn it down just a bit in the last half hour, and it came out to exactly 5 gallons just by paying attention and adjusting the heat accordingly. I was assuming I needed to get to 5 gallons or just slightly under.

As for the wort chiller, depends on the design, but the difference between water and wort will be only slightly different, I would guess. With the higher gravity, I would assume there's a higher retention of heat, but the rate at which an IC chills wouldn't be affected much. They're fairly quick. The bigger variable would be the length of the coils in the wort (assuming an IC) and the temp and flow rate of water thru the IC.

Also, side notes on homemade IC's, as I've monkeyed this up before a couple of different ways, and have had to rebuild and re-engineer from hard won knowledge.

The one I'm currently using is built from coiled copper tubing, vinyl hose, stainless steel clamps, and adapted it to 3/4 garden hose fitting. I also have an aerator adapter for my faucet that goes to 3/4 hose- so I can either use it outside for large boils on a turkey fryer, or in my kitchen when doing smaller experimental batches or partial boils on the stove without making a mess and annoying SWMBO.

The vinyl hose and stainless clamps avoids soldering and/or compression fittings that tend to leak right at the copper tubing (which you don't want to contaminate your wort), as does the hose connection- you're shocking it with temperature extremes, so why add headaches? The vinyl tubing solution has worked great without concerns or leaks, and provides the flexibility to use inside and out.

First time you use it, it comes out shiny as heck in wort. Which means the slight acidity cleaned it up, dumping copper oxides into the wort. Didn't ruin the wine that I built it for, but I didn't like that idea. A suggestion- boil it in a distilled vinegar and water solution first. It cleans it just as wort does, and it also gives you a chance to see how fast it cools boiling water.

Wash it when done, dry it, and store it in a cool dry place. Shouldn't have to re-clean it this way unless you haven't used it in quite awhile.

Don't store it outside- IE garage, in my case- especially if you experience freezing temperatures. I split one years ago by doing that- even a small amount of water will ruin the copper in no time flat, and at a minimum expand and weaken the tubing even if it doesn't split the copper. You can't ever get all the water out of them.

Much of this would also apply to a counterflow, though I haven't built one of those before.

Drifting off of OP's questions but to add my own experience to Vhampyre's, I used 3/8 tubing and an old washing machine hose cut in half hose clamped right onto the 3/8 tubing. The washing machine hose already has the female hose connection built into it.

One tip I would recommend is bending the tubing back down over the edge of the pot where you make the hose connection. That way if the connection does leak or drip it will run down the hose instead of into your kettle.

Would 3/8 od tubing make a decent chiller with the vinyl hose and stainless hose clam set up?

Dawggy_Stile said:

Would 3/8 od tubing make a decent chiller with the vinyl hose and stainless hose clam set up?

Click to expand...

That is exactly what I use. Works great!

From my experience, chilling boiled water (h20 only) with a wort chiller will cool to 75F in about 6 minutes. For a wort, the wort chiller will chill to 75F in about 10 minutes. Wort is thicker so I guess that's the diff in time.

My $0.02