Full 5 gallon boil...how much evaporation should I expect?...And Irish moss question.

About to do my first full boil batch in a 10 gal pot with a propane burner...anyone with experience with this know how much evaporation I should expect...and accordingly, how much water I should start with? Hoping to end up with just over 5 gal, as I always loose a little bit when transferring to primary and then from primary to secondary...

Irish Moss:

Any one have a preference between regular Irish moss and the Supermoss? And whats the best way to add this in? Just dumping it in during the boil?

Thanks...

Beersmith has a water evaporation calculator. I think promash does as well.

It's also somewhat dependent on altitude etc. But in average I lose 7L from a 47L boil. Whatever that is in gallons. Thats for a 1 hour boil.

Has Denny said, it depends on many factors. Personally, I loose about 15% with a 1 hour boil.

For people like me who are mathematically challenged (percentages, and liters), I think it'd be good to plan to lose about a gallon an hour, more or less. So, if you start with 7 gallons, boil down to 6 gallons and leave about .5 gallons as trub losses, that may be just about right.

HA...that's why I let BeerSmith do the math for me!

Kilted Brewer said:

HA...that's why I let BeerSmith do the math for me!

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Me, too, actually! It gives me the amount of mash water, sparge volume, temperatures, etc, so I don't have to do much math beyond decided how many gallons to make!

Altitude (air pressure really), ambient air temp, humidity, and vessel opening size all come into play.

I think I'm at 9% per hour. Yooper is at 15%.

Only one way to find out.

EDIT: Keep in mind that it will look like you have a larger volume when the wort is hot. 4% larger at boiling than at room temp or something like that.

Oh, and we never answered the Irish moss question! I've never used Super moss, but with the Irish moss, it works best if you rehydrate a teaspoon in 1/4 cup water during the boil. With 15 minutes left in the boil, just add it to the wort.

Wow, I've never rehydrated Irish Moss, just tossed it in with 15 minutes to go on the boil. I'll have to give that a try tonight when I brew up the EW HPA!

I read a while ago that it is better to add it around 5 min beofre flameout. Just enough time to let it disolve.

I buy all of my brewing water due to an insane amount of iron in the ground water here in SW lower MI. Six gallons almost always gets me where I want to be using exclusively DME and up to three lbs. of grain.

Obviously if you're using a lot of whole hops, a lot of grain, and a ton of wind with a 90 minute boil you'll need more. You'll learn where on your pot you want to be to get 5.5 in the fermenter. Don't be afraid to add a little top up water to the primary until you get a feel for your system.

I've yet to use finings so I can't comment on the moss. Fortunately the above posters are veterans!

I live in NJ I use 6 gallons for a 1 hour boil. I have been coming out with 5.5 gallons in the end IF and only IF I get a boil rolling quick, with the burner all the way up (pot covered), then with the boil started jack the flame down to keep it rolling. Like everyone is saying in here your equipment (I have an alum pot)and location are huge factors. I marked my carboy to 5 and 5.5 gallons because when I was keggin stuff it was glaringly obvious that I did not have 5 gallons in there. Also now I can tell by looking at the level in my pot when it's boiling where I'm at. Being you live in Denver you should boil faster and need less water then others, but IMO trial and error will be your guild.

The boiling point is the temperature at which the vapor pressure is equal to the atmospheric pressure around the water.[6] Because of this, the boiling point of water is decreased in lower pressure and raised at higher pressure. This is why baking at elevations more than 3,500 ft (1,100 m) above sea level requires adjustments to recipes.[7] A rough approximation of elevation can be obtained by measuring the temperature at which water boils; in the mid-19th century, this method was used by explorers.[citation needed]

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