pre-noob?

Hey all, I just ordered a kit from Williams Brewing(the brewery kit with a 40 qt pot. German ale). I brewed 3 kits back in the late 80's. Back then it was a a pre hopped kit(1 can). 1 was good, 1 was ok and the last one, looking back I did not wait long enough and got that green apple taste. I can do a full 5 gal. boil with the pot. My question is about the hops. I have read that the hop utilization may be low if the instructions having you do a partial boil. If I add half the lme(no dme included/specialty grains) at the boil and then add the rest 10 mins. from flame out would that hurt or help out the hop utilization? Keep in mind it will be my 1st batch and I am not expecting an award winning beer. I just don't want to make crappy/ok beer.

Many people add most of the DME/LME toward the end of the boil, mainly for 2 reasons. One is hop utilization. You will get better utilization because the gravity of your boil will be lower. The other reason is wort carmelization/darkening. Since the extract is already mashed and boiled, further boiling of it carmelizes and darkens the wort. I would go so far as to suggest only adding about 25% of the extract at 60 min and the rest at 15 min or so. Good luck! Welcome to the hobby!

gcdowd said:

Many people add most of the DME/LME toward the end of the boil, mainly for 2 reasons. One is hop utilization. You will get better utilization because the gravity of your boil will be lower. The other reason is wort carmelization/darkening. Since the extract is already mashed and boiled, further boiling of it carmelizes and darkens the wort. I would go so far as to suggest only adding about 25% of the extract at 60 min and the rest at 15 min or so. Good luck! Welcome to the hobby!

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You could even add the last of the liquid extract at the time you turn the heat off. That way there is no chance of scorching while you mix it in and the wort will still be hot enough to pasteurize it.

Thanks for the advice. I was thinking of starting my 60 min boil with 6 or 6.5 gal. to finish the boil with 5 or 5.5 gal. or should I top off after the boil?. Any advice about what amount of water to start the boil with?
cheers,
Ed

Full boil is always better IMO so if you can do it go for it. Boil off depends on a few things, mainly the geometry of your kettle but also the vigor of the boil. I would do a test and boil some water, cool it down and check the loss.

I think your pot is big enough to start with 6.5 gallons without much chance of boil-over but you will have to watch it as it approaches boil and be ready to turn the heat down/off until the break subsides. Then bring it to a slow rolling boil. As you near the end of the boil you will need to look at what is left in the pot and decide if you still have the 5.5 gallons you want to put in the fermenter so you get your 2 cases of bottles. If it is low, now is the time to top up so your top up water is pasteurized and mixed well with the wort.

Thanks all, i will give the brew pot a test to see how much loss i get.
cheers