most of my kit instructions tell me to boil only 3 gallons of water but i have been boiling 6.5 gallons to get a 5 gal batch. does boiling all my water give me any advantage to the taste or aroma of the beer or should i just save the time and boil only the 3 gallons.
full boil brews.
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narl79 said:
I think it will be better with full boil. I suggest plugging the recipe into an online calculator to check how the change will impact hop utilization. You may end up wanting to adjust the schedule a bit.
IME, a full boil doesn't make a beer any better (even with AG). about the only difference is increased hop utilization & maybe less maliard reactions. a high IBU beer (i.e. IPA) is a different story tho as you may not be able to get the necessary IBUs without a full boil.
There is a downside of full boils to consider (above the extra time/energy required), and that is boiling your water removes most of the disolved o2 from solution. Making the leap from partial to full boils requires you to re-oxygenate to keep your yeast happy when you pitch. You can accomplish this a number of ways from simply splashing the wort, up to fancy o2 bottles, but it's something you have to consider.
All that said, I'm an all grain brewer who hasn't done a partial boil in ages.
All that said, I'm an all grain brewer who hasn't done a partial boil in ages.
JehovahsWitnessProtection
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Good point. With partial boils you have a couple gallons of top-off water to bring in some O2. I just switched to full boils last batch (new 10gal kettle), and realized I needed to spend more time agitating the wort after it cooled.
beersmith and brewtarget are good software choices. I use beersmith personally.
I originally switched to full boil because I thought it would lighten my extract beers. I then learned the best way to lighten my beers was to add the majority of my extract at the end of my boil. Now that I brew all grain, my pots are all too big to even consider a partial boil if I did an extract beer (6 gallons to reach the thermowell)
I use a strainer I got at walmart that has extendable arms and after my work cools I dump it back and fourth a few times to get all the hops out and to airate . You cant have too much o2 before putinf in the fermenter can you
You really cant, at least not using that technique. There have been some studies done showing the effectiveness of various aeration techniques. Short of going to a pure O2 bottle, it's almost impossible to get past 8ppm. See: http://www.wyeastlab.com/hb_oxygenation.cfmPersonally I use an aquarium pump and stone, and my yeast have been happy. After reading the above though, I learned that my previous habit of aerating for 20minutes was just a waste of time. I've cut it back to ~5 minutes now and as suggested by the data, haven't noticed a bit of difference in yeast health.
Your method sounds like it'll do just fine. If/when you are doing larger batches (I often do 10 gal for example), you'll find that you might need a new method though.
I use Beer Alchemy because it works well on macs and iphones but Beersmith is probably the standard.
Just to try it out like I was suggesting you might want to check out
http://www.brewersfriend.com
It seems to be a pretty impressive tool, and free to try. Will end up costing if you decide to subscribe but I think you can use it for what you need without subscribing.
In my opinion, a full boil of extract batches makes a better beer, always. I think it has less of a "cooked extract" taste, and a fresher finish.
If you have a way to chill a full boil, I highly recommend doing it!
If you have a way to chill a full boil, I highly recommend doing it!
Cool thanks guys. I use a wort chiller and luckily the water here in the mountains is cold enough to bring it fron boil to 74 in 15 min. Should I cover the pot if possible when chilling or let the heat escape?
narl79 said:
I cover during chilling but give it a stir every few min to help things along. I put the spoon I will be stirring with and the immersion chiller into the brew kettle when there is about 15 min left of the of the boil to sanitize them.
You don't want to cover, at least in all-grain brewing, due so the formation of DMS in the steam droplets. You an with extract I guess, but I don't even have a lid for my brewpot!
I think this might be directed at me. If so, this is the pump I use.
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_33_352&products_id=10800
+1 to this. If you move up to all grain beer, and especially if you do less than 90 minute boils, keep the lid off even while cooling. Most of the DMS should come off during the boil (especially if 90 minutes), but there is still stream rising from the liquid during cooling..
Nevermind the fact that the lid will reduce your cooling efficiency.
I understand the thought of wanting to keep your wort covered to keep nasties out, but this is a small risk compared to the very real downsides associated with keeping it on (for all grain brewers especially)
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