Partial Boil: How much water?

I've got turkey fryer that will hold 3 gallons of water with 4 inches of space at the top. Should I boil 2 gallons and add my steep and extract or 2 1/2 or a full 3??

I'm leaning towards the 2 gallon boil and then adding extra to make 5?

I'd start with the 2 gallons and see how it goes. You can always add more water during the boil, but starting out with too much and then adding ingredients can make a big mess

I'm stillnew to this... but that's my opinion.

Boil as much as you can fit/burner can handle. You get better hop utilization and if you make your boil too small, your beer can taste watered down

My advice would be start with about 2-2 1/2 gallons of water. This way not only will you have room for your ingredients, but you will have a bit more room for the foam that forms and are a little less likely to have a boil over.

Second, I noticed you said that "boil the water, then start the steep..." Just thought I would point out that you DONT want to boil your steeping grains, instead you want to hold them at ~155deg F. I am sure you knew that, but thought I would point it out anyways

deathweed said:

My advice would be start with about 2-2 1/2 gallons of water. This way not only will you have room for your ingredients, but you will have a bit more room for the foam that forms and are a little less likely to have a boil over.

Second, I noticed you said that "boil the water, then start the steep..." Just thought I would point out that you DONT want to boil your steeping grains, instead you want to hold them at ~155deg F. I am sure you knew that, but thought I would point it out anyways

Click to expand...

Honestly?? I probably wouldn't have had I not went over to a friend's house and watched him brew last weekend. When I got there, he had already started his boil outside while inside, he had his grains steeping in 155 deg. water.


Thanks for the advice everyone. I think I'll "confidently" boil 2 1/2 gallons of water.

Boy am I excited! Tomorrow will be my first official brew day! I'm stoked. I've already got my fermenter soaking in One-Step. The 7.9 gallon bucket didn't have marks on it, so I manually filled it up one gallon at a time to make marks. Sure am glad I didn't wait until the last minute to do that.