Boil volume question (1st brewing attempt)

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TekelBira

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The Man in Brown showed up today with six boxes of goodies. Now I am ready for my first brew and even before started I have a couple of questions.
I elected to do an IPA (Brewer's Best) to start for alleged simplicity besides I like IPA.
My first question is about the crushed malts. Kit came with two (Crystal and Victory). Recipe says to put crushed grain (singular) into the sack and step it but not squeeze it at the end. I'm curious to know what happens if I were to squeeze?
Second, recipe requires to start with two gallons and three gallons after the boil. I cannot refer to where I read it but I recall it's being better to do the full volume boil for better results(?). I have acquired a 30qts SS kettle to be able to do full boils. I made an immersion chiller (two stages - first on in the ice bath, second in the wort). Do I really start with two gallons and use the other three to help chilling? If I can do full five gallons, how much do I need to start with to take the evaporation into account?
I think I ended up asking more than two but I hope you forgive my enthusiasm.
Thanks in advance....
:mug:

PS. In celebration fo rthe delivery of my goodies, I shared a Christine Haley Biere D'art bottle with my wife.
 
If you squeeze the grain bag you will burn your hand.:D

I wouldnt squeeze, but "sparge" with a gallon or two near boiling water to extract some remaining sugar. I put my grain bag in a collander that rests on the lip of my brew kettle, and slowl pour the water through. BTW put both those grains in the bag.

It is benificial to do full boils, but If you are working in the kitchen, that may not be possible. I think it would be better to do a partial boil, and keep it at a vigorous boil, than a full, weak boil. Most people who do full boils use a propane burner.

Welcome to the hobby and good luck with it

- magno
 
When you squeeze the grain sack you'll get tannins (from the grain) and your beer will not taste as good as if you just sparge (rinse) the grains with water. It could even taste burnt depending on the grains used.

Trust us on this one...;)

I do "late boils" where I boil 1.5 gals of water and only 1 lb of malt and the recommended hops for 45 mins. Then I remove it from the heat and add the remaining malts. Dissolve the malts and return it to a full boil. Boil until you get another hot break or boil for 15 mins whichever comes last.

The late addition of malts does not allow time for the malts to carmalize and darker the brew resulting in a lighter colored beer.

I also chill my wort with 4 gals of water that I placed in the freezer several hours prior to brew time.

But, that's my method.:D
 
I think magno has it on the money but still can't help from adding my take on the matter. Back in the day when I brewed extract, grain bags were not used like they are today. You just dumped the grains in a pan with water and steep. Then transfer into another pan catching the grain with a colander. Then pour some hot water over the grains in the colander to collect the remaining extract. I can't help but to feel that one is cheated when they leave the grain in the bag. Squezing the bag will subject you to extracting unwanted matters. You can't convince me you get a good extraction with grain confined inside a bag. But enough on that.

As mango mentioned, if boiling on a stove you are at the mercy of the stoves limitations. In which case I would start with boiling 2 gallons and add small additions of water, bringing back to a boil. Stop the addditions of water when the quality of the boil starts to take a dramatic drop. At the end of the boil, top off to 5 gallons and chill. Now you just have to add a valve to the pot and life is great.
 
Thank you all for the replies. You may think I am nuts but I am going to do a simulated run first to learn about my stove (I am going to buy a burner but wanted to hold on that till I have my first one), pot, and other siphon thingies and stuff with water. Boil will not be the same w/o malt but I'll get a chance to see quantities in action and boling/cooling times, etc.
Thanks again.
:mug:
 
One other thing to keep in mind...

The utilization rate of bittering hops increases dramatically as the boil size increases. To make a long story short, you'll get more bittering from the same anount of hops if you do a larger boil.

If you did a 1.060 original gravity IPA, and used 3 ounces of Northern Brewer hops for 60 minutes in a 2 gallon boil, you'd get about 48 IBUs of bitterness.

If you left everything the same, but increased the boil size to 5 gallons, you'd get more like 80 IBUs!

(This is because the alpha acids of the hops are extracted more efficiently when the boil liquid is less dense. Same amount of malt sugars + more water = less dense liquid).

It's good that you got a bigger pot to do bigger boils. I might suggest just following the recipe exactly for the first batch. When you're ready to increase your boil size, you can use the Beer Recipator (http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator) to adjust your bittering hops so that you still hit your target IBU for the recipe. The flavor and aroma hops (the later additions to the kettle) do not need to be adjusted.
 
This is what I understood in terms of boil quantity but I probably should start with a smaller amount to be able boil it hard on the stove top.

I used the recipe calculator. Thanks for the great link, btw. If I use the suggested 2 gal boil with 55min Northern Bittering hops 2oz pellets and 5min Cascade (6% alpha acid) 1oz, I get only 31 IBU. If I increase the volume to 3 gallons, IBU goes up to 47 which I believe expected range for the IPA. I think my stove can boil 3 so, should I start with 3 gal then?

I realize I am far from understanding the whole mechanism and the chemistry of brewing but I feel amongst friends here already with the help I am getting.
:mug: to you all.
 
TekelBira said:
If I use the suggested 2 gal boil with 55min Northern Bittering hops 2oz pellets and 5min Cascade (6% alpha acid) 1oz, I get only 31 IBU. If I increase the volume to 3 gallons, IBU goes up to 47 which I believe expected range for the IPA. I think my stove can boil 3 so, should I start with 3 gal then?

47 sounds like a better number for an IPA, but it also depends on the gravity of your beer. Beer styles are defined largely by the ratio of IBUs to gravity points. A classic IPA ratio is something like .8, although many American IPAs have higher ratios (more like 1).

So if your starting gravity were 1.060, a .8 BU/GU ratio would be 48 IBUs.

31 IBUs does seem low, unless it's a lower-than-usual gravity for an IPA.

I'd be very surprised if your stove can't give a good full boil w/3 gallons.
 
While homebrewer99 and cweston good points, you kind of don't want to do both. If do a full boil, do not do a late addition. If you leave out most of the extract the hop utilization will be increably high if you do a full or large boil. When you do a full boil put in all the extract, in a full boil carmalaztion is much less. If you do a two gallon boil put in about 1-2lbs of extract in before the hop additions. Boil for 45 mins and then add the rest of the extract.
 
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