Question about water amount in full boil or partial boil

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

neldred

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 14, 2009
Messages
64
Reaction score
1
Location
Sarasota, Florida
Trying to figure out water amount (let's base it on a 5 gallon since that's the most common)...

Steeping is done either in water, or in a "light wort". Let's say for a minute the water method is easiest.

So if I want to do a 1. Full Boil with extra light/pilsen DME how much water do I add there for the 'full boil' (with late addition DME), and how much water should be used for steeping.

Both the boil of the wort, and the steeping will produce evaporation, so do you guys just add water at the very end to make up for whatever is under 5 gallons?

And also, with late addition extract added, aren't the IBU's from the hops going to be far less than with a full or mostly full boil? Do you just double the hops, but then you would need to know ahead of time how much water is going to be added. Sorry for all the questions, I'm still on the newby 2 gallon kit (6th batch) and am definitely ready for the next step.
 
I'm a little confused on how this is worded. Here is how I had success doing extract / steeping.

Steep 1 gallon of water per pound of grain at 150-155F for 20 to 30 min.

After steeping, add how ever much water you want to add to the boil. I always added 2 and 1/2 and then topped off with another 3 gallons at the end. So my boil would be 2.5g, + 2.5 to fermenter = 5 gallon batch.

I usually never experianced more than .5 gallon of boil off.
 
Short answer - brewing software will calculate all this for you, or help you figure it out.

Long answer...
The amount of water boiled off will depend on the exact geometry of your kettle. I believe 7-9% loss per hour of boiling is typical. You may also lose some wort in the kettle due to trub, break matter and hops. Shoot for a boil volume around 6 gallons and you should be fine.

If you're doing full boils then by definition you don't add top-up water.

With partial boils the hop utilization, and thus the IBUs, will generally be less. Late extract additions can help minimize the reduction. If you want to know approximately what the IBUs will be you should get some software and run the calculations, otherwise it's just a guess.
 
Steep grains according to poster #2's instructions. Then add as much water as you need to boil. If you're doing a 2-gallon kit, I'm assuming that mean you'll end up with 2 gallons of beer? If so, your boil should probably start at something like 2.3 gallons (that's just an estimate, though). If by "2 gallon kit" you mean you boil 2 gallons of wort, then add top-off water to reach 5 gallons after the boil is over, that's a different story.

First case (boiling the full amount) you don't really need to worry about late extract addition. Add the extract right after coming to a boil, and continue per directions. Second case, I'd definitely recommend adding the extract late. Maybe if you post the recipe we could see what the hop schedule looks like?
 
I'm confused, does it make much of a difference how much water you have when steeping grains? In attempts to get as close to full boil as possible I filled my pot to the brim from the start.
 
I'm confused, does it make much of a difference how much water you have when steeping grains? In attempts to get as close to full boil as possible I filled my pot to the brim from the start.

Yes it actually does, though some may beg to differ. I read an article in a brewing magazine that basically gave me the ratio of 1 gallon per pound of grain.

The basics behind this method was to prevent excesive amounts of tannins which can cause serious bitterness and crappy beer.
 
Yes it actually does, though some may beg to differ. I read an article in a brewing magazine that basically gave me the ratio of 1 gallon per pound of grain.

The basics behind this method was to prevent excesive amounts of tannins which can cause serious bitterness and crappy beer.

Just when I thought I was doing it right, another curve...

Some day I'll know all the tricks and brew really great beer :D
 
Back
Top