Did I screw up BIG or little?

did a full boil for the first time last night. It was a coopers all extract IPA. I started with 6 gallons of water thinking that I'd boil about a gallon off in an hour. Long story short, after I chilled my wort and removed the immersion chiller, I realize that I did not boil off a gallon. I transfer to my 5 gallon carboy and it will not all fit. I had about 1/2 to 3/4 of a gallon leftover. What is this going to do to my beer? Is it going to effect taste? Should I add more fermentables? Should I just leave it alone? I pitched last night and the yeasties are working away, so all things look normal. My concern is, what will the effect be on the final product?

RDWHAHB.

You're fine. Gravity may be a little low, but you're fine.

Fermenter is completely full? Hope you have a blowoff tube on there-- I'd be more worried about the mess if you don't since you're beer is OK.

its all good, did your OG gravities match up after the boil? i wouldnt be to concerned about it. as long as your OG's are close to similar, this shows that the correct amount of sugars are present before the fermentation. Final product wont be effected, maybe a lower AVB% but should taste just fine.

Thanks for the advice. I did put on a blow off tube last night. I figured I may have some serious fermentation by the time I got back from work today, and I wanted to avoid an incident with SWMBO.

As far as my gravity reading is concerned, I pulled my hydrometer out of its little plastic case to check the gravity and it kept going, right onto the tile floor, where it proceeded to break itlsef, and my heart, into a 100 tiny pieces....

So, I am flying blind on this one. If it has a low ABV, then I'll just call it a session IPA.

SWMBO incidents are the best kind to avoid

Now come over to my place and break my hydrometer so I can convince my SWMBO to let me buy a refractometer

gravity sucks, pun intended

Cooper's kits are designed to make 6 US gal. of beer. Go look at the instructions. IMO, they taste better when made as 5 gal. batches, but you didn't do anything incorrect according to the instructions.
I see several other problems with your technique, however.

1) Cooper's kits are not designed to be boiled. By boiling it for an hour you would have lost a lot of the hop aroma and hop flavor that is characteristic of an IPA.

2) You need a bigger fermentor. A 5 gal carboy isn't big enough to ferment 5 gals. of beer. You'll want a minimum of 6.5 gal. container for a 5 gallon batch.

I appreciate the advice regarding the carboy. I have had success fermenting 5 gallon kits in a 5 gallon carboy in the past, but that is when I did partial boils and topped them off. This was a full boil and I overestimated the amount of water I'd need.

As for boiling the kit, I know that the kits say that they do not need to be boiled, however, I was following advice on other threads regarding full boiling extract kits. I did not consider whether a 40 minute boil would have an effect on the hoppiness of the beer. I guess I will see what happens and I appreciate the advice.

This particular coopers kit was designed to make 5 gallons:

"Coopers Brewmaster Select IPA
Early records of “Cooper and Sons” producing India Pale Ale can be found in the South Australian Advertiser, dated February 1868. Thomas Coopers IPA (India Pale Ale) produces a beer with all the hallmarks of a genuine IPA from the “mother land”. A strong ale with robust malt characters and very high hopping levels. Each kit does require an additional 2.2 Lb of Dextrose (corn sugar) or 3 Lb. of Light Malt Extract to produce 5 gallons of really great beer."

Everyone knows that hydrometers are part lemming. Sometimes they just get the urge to throw themselves from a high place.

I am wondering how an hour long boil only boiled of 1/4-1/2 gallon. When I do a boil I lose about 1.25 gallons per hour.

ChshreCat said:

Everyone knows that hydrometers are part lemming. Sometimes they just get the urge to throw themselves from a high place.

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Mine tries to commit suicide by jumping out of the top of the tube when I run water inside to clean it.

That is what I was thinking. I boiled for 40 minutes, not a full 60. I started with approximately 6 gallons (maybe a little more), and after the process was over I was left with way more wort than I had anticipated. The 40 minutes was at a constant rolling boil except when I removed from the flame to add LME. The only thing I can think of is that I live in Florida, I was brewing outside, and it was obscenely hot and humid and drizzly last night. Would humidity have any effect on evaporation? I don't know.

pilot45 said:

That is what I was thinking. I boiled for 40 minutes, not a full 60. I started with approximately 6 gallons (maybe a little more), and after the process was over I was left with way more wort than I had anticipated. The 40 minutes was at a constant rolling boil except when I removed from the flame to add LME. The only thing I can think of is that I live in Florida, I was brewing outside, and it was obscenely hot and humid and drizzly last night. Would humidity have any effect on evaporation? I don't know.

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Absolutely the high RH outside will limit the amount of evaporation from your boil. I lived in both central & north FL from about '86 to '96 and many other parts of the SE afterwards. When you are dealing with 85 - 95% RH, the atmosphere just cant absorb much more moisture. So your pot will boil, make some steam, but without an effective heat sink to condense / absorb that steam, you don't evaporate that much water. But, on the bright side, it takes less heat (read less propane / LNG / electricity) to reach and maintain you boil because your rate of heat loss is much less without higher evap rates.