First extract brew questions....

I'm brewing my first extract batch this weekend. I went over to a friend's house Sunday to help him do a batch and learned quite a bit.

My question is this: He did a full 5 gallon boil. I've only got a pot big enough for a 3 gallon boil. Would I add 3 gallons of water and then add my extract and steep?? I do plan on adding some late extract. Any other things I should know before doing a 3 gallon boil??

Also, he has offered to let me use his pot but I'd prefer to use the equipment I've got to keep from being dependent upon him. Should I just break down and use his pot and forget about my 3 gallon??

It would be better to do a full boil, but not necessary. It also depends on your stove top and whether it has the capability to boil 5 gallons of wort

You dont really need to use a 5gal pot for extract brews, just steep your grains and then add the extract. All you have to do is top up to 5gal in your primary. Just make sure you use ice cold water and you should be ready to pitch your yeast in no time. I did extract brews for 2 years using that method until I went all grain with full boils. You should be just fine.

How big is your pot? You said it's big enough for a 3 gal boil, so you would not want to start with 3 gals of water, otherwise it will be too full when you add your extract. Also, I believe you will want to steep any grains in your water prior to adding any extract, usually ~150 F for 15-30 mins, then turn the heat back on until your water hits 170 F and remove the grain bag.

Be careful when you get that wort boiling, it is extremely easy to have boil over. You will be suprised how quickly it happens and how much foam is created. After the initial foaming, there is not much chance of a boil over, so you are safe after that.

Most extract brewers stove top brewers boil approximately between 2 and 3.5 gallons of wort on the stove than top it off to 5 or 5.5 gallons (depending on the recipe) in their fermenter, but when you do that you have to mix thoroughly (like at least 5 minutes) to integrate the water wort if you want an accurate hydrometer reading. The wort tends to fall to the bottom. This won't affect the making of the beer, it gets mixed up by the yeasts during fermentation but will throw off the original gravity reading, which freaks out a lot of new brewers.

Since it's an extract batch you are doing, as long as you follow instructions and top off to what it says in your instructions (5 or 5.5 gallons) the recipe will tell yuo what the original gravity is anyway....it's pretty foolproof to brew extract.

So if it's a 3 gallon pot you have (I got a 5 gallon at Dollar General for about 10 bucks) you would probably want to fill it to 2.5 gallons of water and it will boil down to about 2 gallons and you would to off with 3 or 3.5 in your fermenter.

You can also consider getting some fermcap foam control agent. I use it and can conforatably boil 4.5 gallons in my 5 gallon pot without worrying about boil overs.

Your extract is likely going to add about a gallon of volume, and you need to leave some space so it doesn't boil over the second you stop stirring.

If your pot is only 3 gallons, I'd probably only put 1 or 1.5 gallons of water in it and definitely do a late extract addition.

I have a 4 gallon pot, I usually put 2 gallons of water in it and don't bother with late extract (because I am lazy, care nought for color, and enjoy the more melanoidin rich flavor of the beer).

Thanks for the quick responses.

I think I will try to start off with around 2 gallons w/out the steeped water and the extract.

I'll also check into the 5 gallon pot for $10 bucks. We actually have a Dollar General in this tiny town podunk town of ours.

One thing to remember is 5 gallons takes a lot longer to get up to temp.

I went to Walmart and got a set of three pots 2 2.5 and 3g for $20. Extra pots are nice and handy.

I would go with 2.5g without the steeping grains - they will soak up water also.

Plus remember a 3g pot will hold more then 3g - it's not like the 3 gallon mark is at the very top.

to heat water i use an electric kettle. heats up half gallon pretty quickly. when the first half gallon is heated up i add it to the 40qt kettle. add another half gallon and start to add heat ill add half a gallon of water waiting for the other half gallon to come up to temp and add the boiling water. and proceed till i have the water where i need. this gets me up to temp pretty quickly and this past weekend i was able to get 4 gallons up to 200* by doing this. basically boiling 2 gallons in the electric kettle and 2 gallons in the pot at full blast. this also let me get the extract out of the bin and not worry about scorching the extract. when i was done with my 90 min boil the pot came out clean with no marks at the bottom. BTw the electric kettle came from big lots for a lump sum of a tad under 10 bucks. ;-)