Considering Full Boils, any benifits?

I am a new extract brewer who is now considering going to full boils.
Is there any benifits to this, I know it will require more equipment, is there a significant difference in taste by going to this next step? I understand I will need to adjust my recipes for the full boil.

Any help would be appreciated.

Better hop utilization and less chance of getting nasties in your beer from adding water (and potential contaminates) once the wort has cooled.

I did two partial boils and then went straight to full boils. If your pot can hold it, you don't need more equipment and you shouldn't need to adjust your recipes by much. Just enjoy more hops!

If you are still going to do extract brews, there's a couple reasons. With a full boil, the gravity will be exactly what it is, without having to account for adding water to the fermenter. You can just take a sample at the end of the boil and then measure it. Also, because of the lower gravity of the full boil you won't get as much carmelization in the kettle, making ligher brews easier. Third, you'll get better utilization from the hops, so you'll use less. Also, moving to all grain is less of a jump.

You also get less caramelization of the wort. This is important if you are trying to brew a lighter colored beer. That's the first thing I noticed with my first full boil batch. The beer was much lighter.

Depending on your method, aeration might be more difficult. If you use the 'carboy shake method', you'll probably have to use 2 carboys to get better aeration with more airspace.

RichBrewer said:

You also get less caramelization of the wort. This is important if you are trying to brew a lighter colored beer. That's the first thing I noticed with my first full boil batch. The beer was much lighter.

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True, although you can also maintain a light color by doing a late-extract addition.

For extract, I don't see a ton of benefit outside of hops utilization, at least enough to offset the fact that you need to have some form of wort chiller (ice baths won't cut it) and you need to be more careful about oxygenating the wort.

If you're looking to improve the brew without going AG, I'd take a look at some of the threads about doing partial mashes, so that you can get an arguably fresher flavor and so that you can start using different types of specialty grains. Modest investment in equipment, big increase in results.

I think full boil is the way to go. Less nasties attacts,and all the others reasons. The only things you would need are a pot 6 gal or better and a wort chiller. And then like Bird said AG is Only a step away!!!

late addition of extract can make the beer just as light.... and i've brewed many batches without infection. Proper cleaning, good aeration, and a healthy dose of yeast immediately will take care of those water born nasties.

I wouldn't do it unless I was training for AG or double batches AND I have to have confidence in my wort chilling ability/equipment (water bath won't cut it anymore for example) and oxygenation method (O2 tank or air pump).

wow, two threads, same topic: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=23898

Probably different answers too.

oh ****, two threads.....

IMO...I find that I get significantly better protein break from full boils...rolling boils that still boil over a 10 gallon pot with 6.5 gallons of wort - but my beers have been noticeably clearer....my hop utilization has been higher also, but I knew to account for that going in...

I went from hazy, cloudy beers to crystal clear beers by not being afraid of that foam creeping over the side of my brewpot...... of course, 50 degree well water with a counterflow chiller doesn't hurt, either....

YMMV

Peace, love and spare beer,

Chris (aka hippiefreak)

http://db.etree.org/chorner