Brewing up BierMuncher's Cream of 3 crops later today and have a question. I've done my due diligence (searched the forums) but could not find an answer to my question.
I'm limited to a 7.75 gal brew pot (converted 1/4 keg). I am shooting for 5.5 gal in the primary. I lose @ 2 quarts to the kettle/equipment (no drain valve; have to siphon into the primary) and @ 1.5 gal per hour to the boil. Even if I start with a pre-boil volume of 7 gallons, which leaves a very good chance of a messy boil-over with such a small headspace, after 90 minutes I end up with 4.25 siphoned into the primary (1.5/hr boil loss x 1.5 hrs + .5 kettle loss = 2.75 gallons).
My question is this: Is it better to add small volumes of water to the brewpot during the boil so that I end up with 6 gallons at flame-out or should I just top off the primary with 1.25 gallons of water to bring things up to the 5.5 target? Or does it really matter which way I do it?
I'm limited to a 7.75 gal brew pot (converted 1/4 keg). I am shooting for 5.5 gal in the primary. I lose @ 2 quarts to the kettle/equipment (no drain valve; have to siphon into the primary) and @ 1.5 gal per hour to the boil. Even if I start with a pre-boil volume of 7 gallons, which leaves a very good chance of a messy boil-over with such a small headspace, after 90 minutes I end up with 4.25 siphoned into the primary (1.5/hr boil loss x 1.5 hrs + .5 kettle loss = 2.75 gallons).
My question is this: Is it better to add small volumes of water to the brewpot during the boil so that I end up with 6 gallons at flame-out or should I just top off the primary with 1.25 gallons of water to bring things up to the 5.5 target? Or does it really matter which way I do it?
