First full boil, in cold weather, with propane

I just finished a few firsts.

My first full boil.
First time I used a propane burner
First time I brewed outside, and it is winter.

I think it went pretty well though not perfect.

This burner puts out a ton of heat so that is great brought my water and steeping grain up to temp much faster than my stove.

I added my extract while the pot was on the burner, won't do that again. I have some evidence that some of it sank and burned. The wort smells okay so I'm hoping that nothing worse that a little smokiness will come of it.

So lesson 1, take the pot off the heat to stir in the extract.

It was a nice day in the upper Midwest, around 20 and partly cloudy. But is was windy and the wind managed to blow out my burner twice. The first time I was attending something else for 30 seconds and found it when I got back.

So lesson 2 stay close and pay attention.
2.5 find a more sheltered area. I didn't want to try this the first time in the garage, but I gathers others brew there.

I cooled the wort in a snow bank. That took much longer than I expected, over an hour. (it was 19 degrees outside by then!) But it was my first full boils so I guess I have to research cooling times more.

To aerate I trickled the wort into the carboy and then shook the carboy well.

I have one question though, how much stirring do you do during the boil?
I usually stir on the stove but this boils was MUCH more vigorous than I have done on the stove and didn't stir at all.

A fun day indeed. I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out. ?I chose an Amber for this because they mature a little quicker.


Regards

Did you change your hop utlization according to your wort gravity since it is a full boil?

I too do full boils outside and the only time I stir is after I whisk the DME into the pot. As you've seen the vigorous boil takes care of the rest. BTW, I add my extract to the pot after it's removed from the flame.

Congrats!!! Sounds like a great day!!

Yep, I remembered to use 85% of the bittering ( The recipe specified that for me) hops (A touch less actually using the "estimate, squeeze the bag and shake method)

beersydoesit said:

Yep, I remembered to use 85% of the bittering ( The recipe specified that for me) hops (A touch less actually using the "estimate, squeeze the bag and shake method)

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did you use a kit? The kit specified the amount of hops according to the amount of water and extract, by increasing the amount of water you lowered the gravity which in turn you will have to add more hops to get the same utilization. It is the same thing as you do late extraction you have to change your hop utlization and run it through Beersmith from what I heard. This is just from what I read so take it for what it is

I brewed last night in 30 degree temps, definitely need to add ore water--even during the boil---to maintain 5 1/4 gallons, seem to lose a lot more through evaporation in the winter.

Kryolla: I used a recipe. It calls for 15-25% less bittering hops for a full boil. I think full boils need less hops, not more.

Beernewb: Yeah, I wondered about that, I did need a lot of make up water.

yeah I think you are right. Less extract and the same amount of hops will make it more bitter. Good luck and let us know how it taste.