Silly n00b question. Full v. Partial Boil

OK, I see these terms a lot. I think I've figured out the difference but I want to double check.

Full boil = boiling all the water for the batch.

Partial boil = boiling some of the water than topping off the fermenter with water that wasn't boiled?

Am I right, or way off?

Right.....

Possibly right.
If you mean that a full boil means boiling the full amount of wort with the hops and not topping off with water after the boil is complete, then you are right.
If you think the difference between a full and partial boil is topping off with boiled and cooled vs unboiled water, then you would be wrong.

-a.

You don't want to top off with unboiled water. That can contaminate the wort.

Always boil the top off water in order to sterilize it.

pksmitty said:

You don't want to top off with unboiled water. That can contaminate the wort.

Always boil the top off water in order to sterilize it.

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Another n00b here, and don't mean to hijack from OP, but this brings up a question that's recently been on my mind:

Does this mean BOIL even when using bottled sprint water?

After making a few Mr. Beer batches and just recently moving to 5gal, I've either never read or just missed any mentions about boiling the top off water. But I've recently seen this come to my attention.

Now I'm starting to wonder if some of what I think are off-flavors have to do with infections from my top off water?

In fact the more I think about it, I'm getting angry with myself, because unless someone tells me different, I'm going to guess that there are very loose regulations surrounding the packaging of spring water and all sorts of critters that might be ok by food bureaucrats for us to drink, but could actually be pretty unhealthy for our beer?

pksmitty said:

You don't want to top off with unboiled water. That can contaminate the wort.

Always boil the top off water in order to sterilize it.

Click to expand...

People have topped off with tap water since before there was tap water and it works out almost every time.

You don't have to boil top off water. It's best not to need top off water ala full grain boils. The extract brewer has little to fear from just using tap water if it's good. If you must (and i often do) insist on the best, buy a few 2.5 gallon containers of spring water to use and avoid the tap.

HSM said:

People have topped off with tap water since before there was tap water and it works out almost every time.

You don't have to boil top off water. It's best not to need top off water ala full grain boils. The extract brewer has little to fear from just using tap water if it's good. If you must (and i often do) insist on the best, buy a few 2.5 gallon containers of spring water to use and avoid the tap.

Click to expand...

+1, while I rarely top off anymore, I've done it many times in the past without infection. Just be smart about it.

Not to get you all worried, but Chloramine is a source of nasty medicinal taste.

Chloramine is a nasty and seems to be increasingly used by the water utilities. You don't want it in your brew. The good news is that campden tablets are a cheap solution.

Standard brands of bottled drinking water are generally considered sterile enough for topping off.

ajf said:

Possibly right.
If you mean that a full boil means boiling the full amount of wort with the hops and not topping off with water after the boil is complete, then you are right.

Click to expand...

Woo hoo! I was right! Doesn't happen often.

HSM said:

People have topped off with tap water since before there was tap water and it works out almost every time.

You don't have to boil top off water. It's best not to need top off water ala full grain boils. The extract brewer has little to fear from just using tap water if it's good. If you must (and i often do) insist on the best, buy a few 2.5 gallon containers of spring water to use and avoid the tap.

Click to expand...

I don't use tap water but only because I really don't like the taste of my tap water at all. Texas, IMO, has some pretty bad tasting tap water. At least compared to Michigan.

I just buy the jugs from drinking water from the grocery store. You can get a three-pack of one gallon jugs from Kroger for $2.19.

Since you live in Bryan check out Jacob's Well - they sell RO water for about $0.35 per gallon and you can bring a carboy or better bottle for filling.

Far cheaper than the grocery store.