5 gallon batch - but small limiting pot

I can easily handle 5 gallons in my fermentor/carboy.

But, my brew pot is only 5.2 gallons, so a full 5 gallon recipe will boil over.

Can I boil all 100% components with, say 4 gallons of water, and then use 1 gallon (plus evaperated amount) of fresh makeup water in the fermentor?

Can you taste any difference in quality?

(I am a beginner, so I'll probably eventually buy a bigger pot eventually once I convince the other half I can actually make good beer.)

That's what most brewers who brew extract with grains on a stove top do...Usually boil up about 2.5 gallons of wort and dillute (or top off) with another 2.5 gallons of water.

If you don't know this already, then you really are new to this hobby...may I suggest that you start off by reading this great online book...How to Brew - By John Palmer

Welcome to the obsession.

yup u can it's whats known as partial boiling. just add 1/4 of your extracts at the beginning of the boil and the rest 15min before the end remembering to take the pot off the heat to prevent scorching. doing it this way help the beer stay truer to color it was designed at.


and welcome to the forum

Oh yeah one hint....if you use fermcap foam control drops, you can acutally boil NEARLY up to the top of your kettle...My stovetop setup is a 5 gallon pot (so actually 4.5 gallons) and I have been able to have my wort to nearly an inch from the top of the pot and not worried about boilovers.

boilovers generally happen just as the pot is reaching a boil and when hops or other bubble points(irish moss, whirlfloc tablets,etc) are added.

Thanks.

cheers.

I've done 40 gallons, and my "big pot" is a three gallon. No biggie.

I finally got a five gallon pot for Christmas and have a 15 gallon keggle in process.

Full boils are better, I hear, but partial boils will get the job done.

ETA: Hint, add the extract very late in the boil, like at 45 minutes. Not only do you limit carmelization, but you have a lot less of a boilover issue.

Chickensoop, you must consider hop utilization when doing a partial boil. You will extract more IBU's from your hops when you add them at the beginning of the boil and the bulk of your sugar is added the last 15mins. I agree with Revvy when he recommends John Palmer's book. In it may be calculations for bittering your partial boil batches.
mark
Beer Diary...

to bleeping he ll with calculations... if your going to stay in this hobby the only thing to do is get a brewing program and learn how to use it. both promash and beersmith are good and beersmith has a presence on this board as well.



yes you will increase the ibu by doing a late addition but your also losing some from doing a partial.

eriktlupus said:

to bleeping he ll with calculations... if your going to stay in this hobby the only thing to do is get a brewing program and learn how to use it. both promash and beersmith are good and beersmith has a presence on this board as well.



yes you will increase the ibu by doing a late addition but your also losing some from doing a partial.

Click to expand...

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ANd if you listen to this you wil find out that Plamer has pretty much changed his tune on what he wrote about hops in the book...

March 20, 2008 - What Is an IBU . . . Really?
John Palmer, author of How to Brew, shares information from a conference that challenged his concept of what defines an International Bitterness Unit (IBU).

http://media.libsyn.com/media/basicbrewing/bbr03-20-08ibu.mp3

Click to expand...

And more than likely the difference will be so negligable that it will be imperceptible to our tastebuds...in other words, when starting don't worry too much, If you are working with kits they are formulated usually for 2-2.5 gallon boils and a top off of water, so they are alread formulated correctly.