Problems with smaller boil volume?

After going through my first brewing experience about a week ago, the biggest problem I ran into was boiling my wort. I don't know what it was — the pot, the stove, etc. — but I could never get a steady, consistent boil.

For my next time out (which may be tomorrow), would I see any big changes in the final product if the pre-boil volume was less than a recipe suggests? I want to be able to get a good boil going, and it seems that would be the most effective way to do it with my current equipment. (I don't think I'm getting a new stove.)

Any other tips would be great. Thanks, beer drinkers.

pick up a turkey fryer. they work wonders

You will need to dilute if you choose a smaller boil.
Maybe this will help. Your also probably going to have to change your recipe a little.
http://jimsbeerkit.co.uk/calc.html

In general, you can do a partial boil with nearly identical results. You can try adding the bulk of the extract late in the boil to avoid some of the mallaird reactions you can get with a partial boil, and that makes a big difference. But overall, you can expect similar results.

Yooper said:

In general, you can do a partial boil with nearly identical results. You can try adding the bulk of the extract late in the boil to avoid some of the mallaird reactions you can get with a partial boil, and that makes a big difference. But overall, you can expect similar results.

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So if the recipe says I should have, say, 4.27 gallons of pre-boil volume, but I have 3.5/3.75, that shouldn't make a huge difference?

RCBIV said:

So if the recipe says I should have, say, 4.27 gallons of pre-boil volume, but I have 3.5/3.75, that shouldn't make a huge difference?

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No, not really. Unless you were making something like an IIPA with 100 IBUs then the diluting might affect it a tad.

Yooper said:

No, not really. Unless you were making something like an IIPA with 100 IBUs then the diluting might affect it a tad.

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That sounds good to me. I think I'll see what I can do to play around with the recipe, but if all else fails at least I know it won't make that big of a difference.

Thank you, Yooper, and everyone else.