everyone's wort sizes

About how many gallons does everyone use during the boil for an extract brew?

a lot of people say a lot of things.

how do the people in this forum weigh in?

the reason i asked is for my short extract batches i have been doing a one gallon boil and using the 4 gallons to cool it

what if anything does the low volume boil do other than save time
(boils quicker cools faster)

i assume more flavor will be left behind from steeping grains in larger volumes?

When I was doing extract batches I used to boil 12L (~3 gallons) because that was all my crappy apartment stove could handle.

I boil 5.5 gallons and end up adding just a little bottled water to the wort after transfer to get it up to 5 gallons.
Once I get a bigger pot I'll start with 6.5 gallons.

i started following the recipe kits boiling 1.5 to 2.5 gallons, I have a 5 gallon pot and biggest I boiled last time was 3.5 gallons on my stove it came to a boil almost as fast as the 2.5. I had plenty of room for boilover on the last batch so I might try and up it to 4 and watch it very closely and use some foam control.

I got a 8 gallon keg I have to convert from a freind that I have to cut the top off and what not so I can start full boils.

FSR402 said:

I boil 5.5 gallons and end up adding just a little bottled water to the wort after transfer to get it up to 5 gallons.
Once I get a bigger pot I'll start with 6.5 gallons.

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is this on the stove or turkey fryer?

SWMBO says it's not the size of the pot but how vigorous you can boil....
but I think she just says that to make me feel better

Before she kicked the brewery out of the house I was doing approx. 3 gal boils.

If I'm making 5 gals I do a full boil, and I just brewed 10 gals by boiling 6 gals, splitting it between 2 fermenters and topping off.
My first batches (pre turkey fryer) were 2-3 gal boils.

mot said:

is this on the stove or turkey fryer?

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Turkey fryer with a 7.5 gallon pot.

I boil 1.5 gals and top off to 5.25.

I have a 22 qt brewpot that I can boil up to 4 gal of wort, but I keep a close eye & a quick hand to prevent boilovers. Boiling that volume & using the extract-late method, I can get really decent hop utillization.

I did, however, just brew a super-easy hefewiezen using Homebrewer 99's recipe I found in this thread, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=31675&highlight=hefeweizen. Thanks 99!

Boiling such a small amount of wort made it quick to boil, quick to cool. I was done cleaning up before noon

I boil about 2.5 gallons right now. I could probably go 3-3.5, I have a 4 gallon pot, but I figure less hot liquid = shorter ice bath before getting into the fermenter and since I can't go to a full boil I don't think the extra gallon or so would do that much good.

At some point soon I plan to invest in a 10 gallon SS pot and turkey fryer so that I can do full boils and start building my equipment for AG.

I boil 2.5-3 gallons depending on when I shut the faucet off. I have a couple of 15 gallon kegs I'm gonna convert as soon as I can afford a decent angle grinder and some parts for a keggle plus an IC.

Really, right now I'm happy doing extracts so not in much of a hurry to convert them.

Southwood said:

I did, however, just brew a super-easy hefewiezen using Homebrewer 99's recipe I found in this thread, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=31675&highlight=hefeweizen. Thanks 99! Boiling such a small amount of wort made it quick to boil, quick to cool. I was done cleaning up before noon

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How'd that work for you? How's the beer tasting?

I do a three gallon boil, cool it with 2 bags of ice, then top off with spring water to get 5 gallons.

I typically do 3 gallon boils as that is all my stove can handle. Then I top off to 5.5 gallons. Just remember if you use a different amount than your recipe calls for to adjust your ingredients accordingly.

We use a 5 gal pot, which is too small for full boils. I generally formulate recipes for 3.4 gal concentrated boils, since that's about how much we can comfortably boil in the pot (though we've done probably up to 4.25 gal when we did a partial mash).

We cool the concentrated wort by putting the brewpot into a keg tub full of icewater. I'm pretty sure that if our wort were any bigger we'd no longer be able to use this method.

I've been formulating recipes for a finished wort of 5.5 gal, but have been thinking of going more toward 6.0 gal since we primary in a 6.5 gal carboy and always use a blowoff (which hasn't really had more than just a tiny bit blow off with 5.0 and 5.5 gal batches).

2.5-3gal boils.

I start with about 6.25 gallons of wort for a 5 gallon batch. I use the turkey fryer pot on my kitchen stove. I LIKE brewing inside in my kitchen, even though I have a turkey fryer for outside. I brew when no one else is home and I clean it all up before they get home. If my husband saw the kitchen in the middle of my mashing, he'd have a fit! I've got the hoses for the wort chiller, all the "stuff" for the beer, the equipment, etc, spread out all over the kitchen. Usually, I spill a ton of water and/or wort, too. I use a bar stool and the kitchen island and the floor for my "tier" set up.

Yooper Chick said:

I start with about 6.25 gallons of wort for a 5 gallon batch. I use the turkey fryer pot on my kitchen stove. I LIKE brewing inside in my kitchen, even though I have a turkey fryer for outside. I brew when no one else is home and I clean it all up before they get home. If my husband saw the kitchen in the middle of my mashing, he'd have a fit! I've got the hoses for the wort chiller, all the "stuff" for the beer, the equipment, etc, spread out all over the kitchen. Usually, I spill a ton of water and/or wort, too. I use a bar stool and the kitchen island and the floor for my "tier" set up.

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I think we are going to need a picture of this.. LOL

the reason i asked is for my short extract batches i have been doing a one gallon boil and using the 4 gallons to cool it

what if anything does the low volume boil do other than save time
(boils quicker cools faster)

i assume more flavor will be levt behind from steeping grains in larger volumes?

~3gal boils, top off w/ tap water

2.5 - 3.5 gallon boils, depending on sugars (high gravity can get very viscous)

i top off with tap water, but have very VERY clean water. sanitize by boiling or at least check out your water before topping off with tap water.

I boil 3 gallons. I'd love to do more but that is the limitation of my stove/pot currently. Even 3 gallons is pushing it on higher gravity beers leaving very little wiggle room before a boil over :/

What is the advantage of a higher volume boil?

I do full boils, starting out with 6-7.5 gal depending on the boil time

Muss said:

What is the advantage of a higher volume boil?

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Bacteria is present in many water systems and full volume boils eliminate infection from water sources as well as you get better hop utilization from alpha acids. Also improves color, flavor of your beer and helps avoid off flavors.

i don't think there really are advantages to full boils with extract as long as you sanitize your top-off water and account for hop utilization

homebrewer_99 said:

How'd that work for you? How's the beer tasting?

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I just brewed her last Fri, pitched a 1L starter & had a fantastic show for the first 36 hrs! Tomorrow I'll take a reading & a taste. I havn't decided if I'll give it a week in secondary or go straight to bottles.

Cheers!

Southwood said:

I just brewed her last Fri, pitched a 1L starter & had a fantastic show for the first 36 hrs! Tomorrow I'll take a reading & a taste. I havn't decided if I'll give it a week in secondary or go straight to bottles.

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As long as the gravity has dropped 75% it's good to bottle. Keep me informed.

A secondary is not necessary, but I always do one if I'm bottling because I like less sediment in the bottle.

If anyone has ever made a HW that was slightly over bitter, this may help: when leaving about 1/4" of beer in the bottle to swirl, sample what's already in your glass. If it tastes fine then pour only 1/4 to 1/2 of the bottle solution then sample again.

In addition to the yeast in the bottle there are some bitter flavors. By adding only a small portion of the yeast (to make the beer cloudy again) from the bottle you can reduce some of the bitterness in the glass.

PoweredByHemi said:

Bacteria is present in many water systems and full volume boils eliminate infection from water sources as well as you get better hop utilization from alpha acids. Also improves color, flavor of your beer and helps avoid off flavors.

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Aaah, so could I get lighter brews by doing higher volume boils?
Does the color tend to go draker in a smaller and denser boils?

2.5 gallons

I have a small pot (4 gal) and when you add 2.5 gal of water and 6-10 lbs of LME that's about all it can handle and I have to be very diligent to avoid boilovers.
I have a flattop stove in my kitchen and fortunately the sugar from any boilover cooks hard and is easily removed with a razor blade :}

i use 3 gal. and it takes for ever on the electric stove, but it works...