Funkenjaeger
Well-Known Member
I should have a keggle soon so this will be a moot point for me personally, but I wanted to ask about it anyway because I've always wondered.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see anything particularly wrong with adding some water during the boil, if for example you notice your boiloff rate is much faster than usual, like on dry and/or windy day if you're doing AG outdoors.
This can be even more important to extract brewers doing partial boils - if you start with only 2 or 3 gallons of wort, having a half gallon or a gallon boil off on you during the boil can very significantly increase the gravity of the boiling wort, which is just going to lead to excess caramelization. So it seems that it would make sense to boil up some water in a smaller pan alongside it, and add it in as needed to keep the wort topped off during the duration of the boil. I just couldn't stand seeing all that empty space in my brew pot when I knew how important it was to have the wort as dilute as possible during the partial boil.
I ask this mainly because it has always made sense to me to do so, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone else suggest it - for that matter, I don't recall ever seeing it mentioned at all.
And, for those of us who do AG and use turkey fryer pots which are JUST big enough for a 5 gallon batch, it doesn't seem like a huge problem to me if I can't quite fit all of my wort in the kettle initially, and I simply let it boil down a bit (or at least let it get past the big initial hot break) before adding the last of it. After I add the last bit, it seems to have another (much smaller) hot break as expected, and then continues as usual.
Now, of course it's best to let your wort boil for the full 60 minutes, but it doesn't seem to me to cause any huge issues if 10% of my wort (or so) only boils for 45 minutes or so.
So... are there any glaring issues with either of these practices that I've somehow missed?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see anything particularly wrong with adding some water during the boil, if for example you notice your boiloff rate is much faster than usual, like on dry and/or windy day if you're doing AG outdoors.
This can be even more important to extract brewers doing partial boils - if you start with only 2 or 3 gallons of wort, having a half gallon or a gallon boil off on you during the boil can very significantly increase the gravity of the boiling wort, which is just going to lead to excess caramelization. So it seems that it would make sense to boil up some water in a smaller pan alongside it, and add it in as needed to keep the wort topped off during the duration of the boil. I just couldn't stand seeing all that empty space in my brew pot when I knew how important it was to have the wort as dilute as possible during the partial boil.
I ask this mainly because it has always made sense to me to do so, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone else suggest it - for that matter, I don't recall ever seeing it mentioned at all.
And, for those of us who do AG and use turkey fryer pots which are JUST big enough for a 5 gallon batch, it doesn't seem like a huge problem to me if I can't quite fit all of my wort in the kettle initially, and I simply let it boil down a bit (or at least let it get past the big initial hot break) before adding the last of it. After I add the last bit, it seems to have another (much smaller) hot break as expected, and then continues as usual.
Now, of course it's best to let your wort boil for the full 60 minutes, but it doesn't seem to me to cause any huge issues if 10% of my wort (or so) only boils for 45 minutes or so.
So... are there any glaring issues with either of these practices that I've somehow missed?
