Quick question before I brew tomorrow

I have a 30 quart aluminum turkey fryer and I'm making a 5 gallon batch. I'm using a stove-top gas burner that takes about an hour (or a little more) to get to a full boil.

I don't know my evaporation rate so my question is: for those who've had experience with a 30qt on a gas stove top (or others who have better insight than I do), do you think I'll boil off 1/2 a gallon (i.e. use 5.5 gallons of wort at beginning of the boil) or do you think I'll lose a gallon (i.e. use 6 gallons of wort at beginning of the boil)?

In the summer, I boil off close to a gallon but now I'm boiling off about .5-.75 of a gallon. This last time, I started with 6 gallons and finished with 5.25.

I use a 30 quart aluminum on a stovetop, and I never start with a full 5.5 gallons of wort. What kind of brewing are you doing? Extract I assume? You will only need 2-3 gallons of wort for the whole boil. Add water on the back end while cooling. It is also a good idea to add the majority of your malt extract at the end of the boil if you want to keep the color down. For the water, go head and boil it for sanitation of you want, or rather go buy some nursey water or just gallon jugs of water and get them close to freezing. This will help you cool your wort, along with a nice ice bath, assuming you do not have a wort chiller or heat exchange of some kind.

Kerberbb said:

I use a 30 quart aluminum on a stovetop, and I never start with a full 5.5 gallons of wort. What kind of brewing are you doing? Extract I assume? You will only need 2-3 gallons of wort for the whole boil. Add water on the back end while cooling. It is also a good idea to add the majority of your malt extract at the end of the boil if you want to keep the color down. For the water, go head and boil it for sanitation of you want, or rather go buy some nursey water or just gallon jugs of water and get them close to freezing. This will help you cool your wort, along with a nice ice bath, assuming you do not have a wort chiller or heat exchange of some kind.

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Why would you do that, if you have a big enough pot and a good enough burner to boil the whole batch? I guess if you don't have a wort chiller, it is really hard to chill 5 gallons of hot wort but the beer with a full boil is so much better, it's worth it!

YooperBrew said:

Why would you do that, if you have a big enough pot and a good enough burner to boil the whole batch? I guess if you don't have a wort chiller, it is really hard to chill 5 gallons of hot wort but the beer with a full boil is so much better, it's worth it!

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Tru.dat. I'm actually doing a partial mash w/ 4 lbs of grain. I'm doing a full boil.

I'll probably stick with 5.75 gallons then and if I have a little more or less than what I wanted, no big deal.

DavidSteel said:

I'll probably stick with 5.75 gallons then and if I have a little more or less than what I wanted, no big deal.

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That's probably a good plan- and if you boil off too much, you can always add a little water to top up. Better than having too much wort, with a too-low OG.

YooperBrew said:

Why would you do that, if you have a big enough pot and a good enough burner to boil the whole batch? I guess if you don't have a wort chiller, it is really hard to chill 5 gallons of hot wort but the beer with a full boil is so much better, it's worth it!

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No I do have a chiller, I just have read a couple of articles in Brew about how to make light colored extracts. This was one of their tips. I think it just depends on what you are brewing. Carmelization leds to higher SRM, which I have been making alot of wheats lately. If its not as big of an issue, say if you were making a stout, then I am all for it.

Oh, I'm all for adding extract late in the boil for partial boils, too! Don't get me wrong- I've done that myself in the past and highly recommend it!

My point was, if you CAN boil a full boil because you have a big enough pot and a strong enough stove, that's the best option as long as you have a way to chill the wort. No reason to do a partial boil and top off with water, if you can boil the whole batch. The reason people boil 2-3 gallons of wort and then top off with water is usually because they don't have a big enough pot, or they don't have a good burner to boil that much wort. My stove is great, though, so I can boil 6 gallons no problem right on my kitchen stove.

Adding the extract at the end of the boil is the next best thing, though, if you have to do a smaller boil. Otherwise, I think a full boil is the closest way to mimic an all grain batch. The OG and consistency of the wort would more closely approximate the all grain batch. The partial boil with late extract addition would be my second choice, way above a partial boil with all of the extract, though!

Well, I ended up using about 6 gallons (tried to get 5.75 but I ended up adding more). Since I was using a gas stove top, I ended up not boiling off much at all. I pretty much ended up with what I started with, which isn't that bad of a thing beer-wise. I was trying to make 5 gallons of an Oatmeal Stout at 5.63% but I ended up making 6 gallons of Oatmeal Stout at 4.72%. The up side: 10 more bottles of beer, still fits in official requirments for an Oatmeal Stout, and I got 75% efficiency doing a partial mash. The down side: less abv per beer. No big deal, more beer is always good lol. I might consider upgrading to a propane burner next time.