Gentle Boil vs Vigorous Boil

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!

I think the vigorous boil provides a better hot break, which will help your beer to clear later on.
I don't see any issues with adding water to bring your wort to your target volume.

nilo said:

I think the vigorous boil provides a better hot break, which will help your beer to clear later on.
I don't see any issues with adding water to bring your wort to your target volume.

Click to expand...

Ya I figured the vigorous boil would have benefits even with the higher boil off rate. Think I will just increase my boil volume by 2 quarts the next time and see if I stay at 5 Gallons prior to pitching my yeast. I was pretty close with the 6 gallon boil volume so I should be able to find the sweet spot after the next couple of boils.