davebstock

Recipes 

Is it ok to do a full boil ending with 5 gal. When the kit specifies using 2.5 and adding water later?

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1 Timothy 5:23

yewtah-brewha

Recipes 

most prefer a full boil. Your kit says 2.5 because most beginers dont have a pot large enough for a full boil. You will be fine! More important, what type of water did you use? tap water is ok, but its recomended to let the water sit overnight in an open vessel to clear any chlorine. I tried pre-boiling and I like it, but it is a time consuming process. my next batch is getting Spring water from a local spring in Salt lake!

Upthewazzu

Recipes 

Would it be beneficial to use one of those Brita or Pur filters that attached directly to the tap?

jasonsbeer

Recipes 

Mantra is "if it's good to drink, it's good to make beer with". Throw a 1/4 tablet of campden in before the boil to get rid of chlorine and chloramine.

If you have odd flavors, a filter should help. But, having a filter in line may remove minerals, you need minerals in the wort for healthy yeast and proper flavor. You may need to add some back in when using a filter. There's plenty of info around here that should help with this decision.

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There are a terrible lot of lies going around the world, and the worst of it is half of them are true.

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billl

Recipes 

Before you dump any extract in, do a trial run. Most stoves won't boil the 7 or so gallons it takes to end up with 5.

twalte

Recipes 

Good point...I have a fairly heavy duty gas stove in my kitchen and I was struggling to get 4 gallons boiling. If you can get your kettle over more than one burner you may have a chance.

Or just recognize that you are in for a long haul and start looking for a propane burner. This "hobby" quickly becomes an expensive obsession.

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"You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline – it helps if you have some kind of football team, or some nuclear weapons but at the very least you need a beer"
- Frank Zappa

histo320

Recipes 

I have done this before with no ill effects.

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Bottled - Yellow House IPA
Bottled - Citra IPA
Bottled - Redlight Ale (American Amber Ale)
Bottled - Pineapple Ale

HeadyKilowatt

Recipes 

Not only is it okay to do a full boil, but your beer will actually be better for it. However, bigger boil volume = better hop utilization, so you'll squeeze more IBUs out of your hops. Your beer will be more bitter than the kit/recipe is designed to give you. You can adjust for that by scaling back your bittering hop amounts. If you don't have BeerSmith or similar brewing software to help you do this, just post the recipe and I'm sure somebody on here will run the numbers for you and help you out.

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You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer. -Frank Zappa

davebstock

Recipes 

Thanks for all the advice. I have read about water quality. First batch was at a friends with city water. I live on an acreage with well water. Doing a milk stout from Brewers Best next. Debating on using the hard water (no softner installed) or going with distilled from the store. I am going to check the hardness in ppm to see how much calcium I have. I will be buying a turkey fryer for heating the water so I'll go full boil.

Any thoughts on well water use? I know it depends on quality of my specific water. Pretty sure it's mostly high in calcium. If I'm mostly doing darker beers, it sounds like up to 300ppm could be benificial?

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1 Timothy 5:23

schittbreff

Recipes 

Just one small thing worth mentioning here. If a kit is designed for a partial boil then the hops that come with it will need to be adjusted, (you will need less) for a full volume boil.