Minimum boil size for a DME/LME?

Hello all,

I'm soon going to be embarking on my first DME/LME beer (recipe is in the intro section). Problem is I only currently have a 1.5 gallon pot.

I've looked on the web for a 3 or 4 gallon pot (which would seem sensible) but they are fetching well over £35 (about 70USD) and that's a lot of money to find out if DME/LME recipes are for me.

I have read up on hop utilisation etc. and while most is going over my head at the moment, the general theory seems to be that it's the OG that will determine the hop utilisation.

So my question is, if I boiled the hops seperately to the malt (i.e., boil the malt to hot break, empty into the fermenter, then do a fresh boil for the hops only) would I escape that problem and get by with my pretty small pot for now?

Thanks.

Your idea will work just fine.

david_42 said:

Your idea will work just fine.

Click to expand...

Thanks.

david_42 said:

Your idea will work just fine.

Click to expand...

But remember, you'll need to use more hops. Your utilization won't be as great in that amount of water.

BYO - Extract & Hop Extraction: Mr. Wizard

This article goes into a lot of stuff, but there's part on combining the ingredients just like you outlined in there.

carnevoodoo said:

But remember, you'll need to use more hops. Your utilization won't be as great in that amount of water.

BYO - Extract & Hop Extraction: Mr. Wizard

This article goes into a lot of stuff, but there's part on combining the ingredients just like you outlined in there.

Click to expand...

Thanks - I'll check that one out too.

It gets pretty wordy, but there are some concerns about ph levels of plain water in regards to bittering hops. So I would take that into consideration.

Check out Papazian's Hop Utilization Chart.

I brew 1.5 gal boils all the time. Use 1 lb of DME in the boil for 45 mins remove the pot form the heat and add/dissolve the remaining malt and steep for 15 mins.

I've been doing it for years.