ToastedPenguin
Well-Known Member
My inaugural brew day was this past weekend, I brewed 2 extract with speciality grain kits, 5 gallons each. At the moment I am doing indoor kitchen boils on my gas stove with a heat stick and the setup works great. To account for boil off I ended up using 6 gallons of water, 5 to steep the grains and 1 gallon @170 to sparge them as they are removed prior to the boil. When all was said and done I was just under 5 gallons in the fermenters so I only had to top off 2 quarts to reach the 5G mark and the expected OG.
My boil was pretty vigorous which probably accounts for the amount of boil off I experienced since both batches were identical. I have read/watched some videos of other brewers doing a gentle boil to minimize boil off. Anyone using this technique and if so are there any trade-offs I should be aware of if I go this route? My other option was to increase the boil water the 2 quarts I added prior to pitching the yeast so I'd like to understand what my other options are and what to expect.
Thanks!
My boil was pretty vigorous which probably accounts for the amount of boil off I experienced since both batches were identical. I have read/watched some videos of other brewers doing a gentle boil to minimize boil off. Anyone using this technique and if so are there any trade-offs I should be aware of if I go this route? My other option was to increase the boil water the 2 quarts I added prior to pitching the yeast so I'd like to understand what my other options are and what to expect.
Thanks!