I used too much water for my boil! now what?

I have been loosing about a gallon of water to evap during my boils, yesterday, I started with 6 gallons thinking I would loose atleast .5 to 1 gallon, It seems I didn't loose any, I added my sugars and malt as soon as it became rapid, and at the end I still had what I began with,

what can happen other than loss of alchahol content? I really dont care If I get the 5.0 just so long as I get atleast 3.2 witch is what our stores are forced around here.

My OG was 1.034 I may add some more corn sugar to increase the AC if I dont get 3.2

It is totally impossible to boil for an hour and not lose volume. (unless you are capturing the steam and returning it to the pot.) You do know that the level of hot wort will be higher that cool wort??

More water with the same ingredients = lower gravity. How much depends on a lot of factors.

My suggestion: let this one finish as is. Read up and make corrections for the next batch.

What OG were you shooting for? Can you put it back on the burner and boil more?

kh54s10 said:

It is totally impossible to boil for an hour and not lose volume. (unless you are capturing the steam and returning it to the pot.) You do know that the level of hot wort will be higher that cool wort??

More water with the same ingredients = lower gravity. How much depends on a lot of factors.

My suggestion: let this one finish as is. Read up and make corrections for the next batch.

Click to expand...

The instructions on the coopers are weird to say the least, It suggests boiling 2 liters of water or hot tap water may be used. mixing ingredients and then filling the bucket the rest the way with more hot tap water, I dont know why they do it this way as boiling is the only way to kill any contaminents.

I only boiled for a max of 45 minutes, and I did not know that hot wort has more volume than cool wort. thanks for bringing that to light.

I will let this one finish out as it is fermenting just fine!

arturo7 said:

What OG were you shooting for? Can you put it back on the burner and boil more?

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I always like to get as much alchahol as possible with out comprimising the number of bottles I can produce. I have been getting 47 bottles when I see others are getting 55. some people that do get the 55 say they are boiling 6 gallons and end up with 5.5 witch gives them the 55 bottle count.

I guess I was shooting for og 1.048, but I guess I should say i was shooting for a AC of 3.2 minimum, I dont know where the FG will be but I guess 1.00 is what I am hoping for. I have been getting 1.048og and finishing at 1.010 that has been giving me 4.7 roughly.


If it hits 1.010 ill have 3.15 witch is good enough, I care more about the taste than the amount of alchahol.:rockin:

Did you include the volume of the malt extract in your calculations?

It was about 2 liters or so, I didn't acount for that, most people say to add 5 gallons to extract, I have been doing that, but have been getting less than 5 gallons with trub deduction. I was hoping for end result of 5.5 with extract, but ended up with more like 6 total with extract, time will tell.

kh54s10 said:

It is totally impossible to boil for an hour and not lose volume. (unless you are capturing the steam and returning it to the pot.) You do know that the level of hot wort will be higher that cool wort??
More water with the same ingredients = lower gravity. How much depends on a lot of factors.

My suggestion: let this one finish as is. Read up and make corrections for the next batch.

Click to expand...

I didn't. How does one create a measuring stick to know when you have boiled down to the proper level?