Full boil in a 5.5 gallon pot?

Alright, I'm still fairly new to all this (about to bottle my first batch and brew my 2nd and 3rd )

I'm planing a Stone IPA clone next and all the partial boil hop utilization issues between the increased gravity and dilution from top off is driving me nuts. What about attempting a 5 gallon boil with a little fermcap? I could keep another pot of water boiling at the same time and keep topping off every 15 min or so. What do you guys think?

I would love to go with a turkey fryer, but at this point it's not a possibility.

With fermcap I can boil five gallons in a six gallon pot without any near risk of boilover, but at if I had a 5.5 I'd really feel I was cutting it close. I'd suggest going more with 4.5 gallons and then adding a little more if you're comfortable with the space you have.

If you really want a full boil, just make a smaller batch. I do 3 gal. AGs on my stovetop w/ a 5.2 gal. kettle.

I use a 22-qt stockpot that I fill to within an inch or so of the rim for my beers. Defoamer 105 (similar to Fermcap-S) makes sure that it won't boil over. You still have to keep an eye on it as the hot break develops and when you add hops.

You don't quite get 5 gallons in there, but it's pretty close (I end up with just under 4 gallons post-boil, with most trub left behind in the kettle). So you'll still need to top up a little bit, but the difference in hop utilization is fairly small.

I agree with ArcaneXor. I have a 5.5 gallon pot and I estimate that I boil about 4.75 gallons. I'm not as risky as ArcaneXor, so I usually keep it about 3 inches below the top . By the time is all said and done, I top off with about three quarters of a gallon for a 5.5 gallon batch.

ArcaneXor is right that the utilization difference is small. Just use more.

Let us know how it goes.

I will. Hoping to brew tomorrow. Just tested my stove with water and I'm able to get a solid boil with about 4.75 gallons. After trying that I think 5 gallons, even with the fermcap would be pushing it.

Will I gain anything by topping off with boiling water throughout the boil? I want to capture every single bit of hoppy goodness I can

Don't take any advice from me since I'm new, but I just made my first brew in a 5.5 gal pot today. Filled it with about 4.5 gal and had to top off after the boil with somewhere around a gallon to get the 5 gal mark.

Worked pretty well, although it did take a while to get it up to temp. Only time will tell how it actually turns out, but doing about an 80% or so boil wasn't too bad with the 5.5 gal pot other than the initial lead time needed to get things cooking.

I don't top off with boiling water throughout since I'm afraid to slow my boil down. If you're confident that you'll still have a furious boil when topping off, then I don't see a reason not to. Remember that if your boil slows down, you'll also lose some isomerization.

Just a tip if your stove is a fairly weak electric like mine. I need to have my pot covered about 80% to get a good boil. Be careful that your pot isn't covered too much since the dimethyl sulfide (DMS) is being released in the steam. DMS can impart a creamed-corn smell or the taste of cooked vegetables to your beer.

How much is too covered? I don't know, but I usually try to strike a balance between a good boil and an uncovered pot.

I'm assuming you're doing extract or at least partial boil? You can get rid of your utilization issues if you do a late extract addition. I just ran an Arrogant Bastard clone through beersmith and converted it from an all grain to a partial mash. When I first put everything in and adjusted the grain down and added LME to replace it, it gave me half the IBUs. Instead of adjusting hops, I made the LME a 10 minute addition and it brought the IBUs right back where they should be with the same amount of hops.

If you are planning on a 5 gallon batch, you can't do a full boil in a 5.5 gallon pot.

For a 5 gallon batch I want to end with 5.5 gallons. I expect a 1 gallon boil off in an hour to 90 minute boil. That means I'm starting with 6.5 gallons in the pot, and I do this in an 8 gallon pot and it's ok with no baby laxative added. I'd prefer at 10 gallon kettle, but 8 has worked with no boil overs.

For my first batch I used the glass top stove in my house and about a 3 gallon boil. I didn't test it's heating capacity with water first and it was a disaster. Took an hour to even get to 155F to steep, and it could only keep a boil going if it was covered. I have read Palmer's book but had forgotten the bit about not keeping the pot covered. We'll see how it tastes in about another 3 weeks.

For this batch I'm using the old electric element stove in our guest apartment and it works much better. Tested with water and it was able to keep 4.75 gallons at a nice full boil with the lid completely off. I would be able to get a smaller pot with the lid on even hotter so I can't see that the top off water would slow it down at all. If anything it might even help get it going again after hop additions. Only down side it trying to cool it down with out an IC.

This will be an all extract brew with steeping grains and I will adjust the LME to run most the boil at the target OG, the add the rest for 10 min. Seams like the density compensation isn't that hard to deal with.

I was more worried when I read this thread (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/full-boil-vs-partial-boil-hops-utilization-88417/). From what I understand, the max IBUs any wort can hold is 100 before the wort becomes saturated and the alpha acids will no longer dissolve into the liquid. So for example, say you're doing a partial boil for a recipe calling for 80 IBUs and only boiling 2.5 gallons. Even if you add enough hops to theoretically bring you boiling volume up to 160 IBU, the wort can only actually hold 100 IBUs max. So when you top off with another 2.5 gallons your diluted wort is only at 50 IBU, missing the mark buy 30 IBUs and significantly throwing off the bitter to malt ratio.

Am I understanding this correctly? I'm a major hop lover and am just trying to get the best beer out of my current system.