How much to boil?

[pksmitty]

I'm looking to brew my first kit this weekend (Brewers Best American Amber). The instructions say to boil 2 gallons and top off with 3 more in the fermentor. Would I be better off boiling 3 and topping off with 2? I know full boil is the way to go, but can't do that yet. Are there any adjustments that need to be made if I change the amount of water in the brewpot?

 

[imprez25]

I boiled my first batch this week, Like you I waned to boil more water in my batch before topping it off. I boiled 4 gallons instead of the 2 the kit recommended. The one thing I did not take into consideration was the amount of time it would take to cool 4 gallons of boiling wort down to a pitchable temp. For me it was almost 2 hours. So if you do boil more water, make sure you have a way to cool the wort, such as a Chiller. The ice bath didn't help all that mutch.

I didn't make any adjustments to the recipe, so I can't comment on that.
Good luck!

 

[Marko73]

Once you start getting up to 3 or 4 gallon boil, you might want to think about reducing your bittering hops. You get better hop utilization so you don't want to 'over bitter' your beer. It is suggested that going from a partial (2 gallon) boil to a full boil, you should reduce the bittering hops by about 20 to 25%. You might want to think about reducing 10 to 15% for a 3 to 4 gallon boil.

Good luck!

 

[phatuna]

Imprez is right on. no need to adjust anything to the recipe, but be prepared for a slower cool-down process.
Just get it into an ice bath and do lots of stiring w/ a sanitized spoon. Try to introduce oxygen back into the wort while doing the stirring. put a couple of gallons of water in your freezer to cool it way down (don't freeze it).
Once you hit 85 deg. or so, pour the cold water into your primary, your wort on top, stir like mad, take a temp reading. once you hit 70 deg. or so, pitch yeast and you're good!

have fun!

 

[theonecynic]

+1 cooling and +1 oxygenation. I'm still on partial boils, and get cold water into my fermenting bin from the tap via a siphon hose - this creates enough splashing to oxygenate quite nicely and also cools the beer down. Now that it's getting to summer, I may have to cool the beer for longer.

 

[nostalgia]

+1 cooling and +1 oxygenation. I'm still on partial boils, and get cold water into my fermenting bin from the tap via a siphon hose - this creates enough splashing to oxygenate quite nicely and also cools the beer down. Now that it's getting to summer, I may have to cool the beer for longer.

Try putting a gallon of your water in the fridge the night before. Adding that 37 degree water to your wort really helps get you down to pitching temps fast.

-Joe

 

[Dennis1979]

Imprez is right on. no need to adjust anything to the recipe, but be prepared for a slower cool-down process.
Just get it into an ice bath and do lots of stiring w/ a sanitized spoon. Try to introduce oxygen back into the wort while doing the stirring. put a couple of gallons of water in your freezer to cool it way down (don't freeze it).
Once you hit 85 deg. or so, pour the cold water into your primary, your wort on top, stir like mad, take a temp reading. once you hit 70 deg. or so, pitch yeast and you're good!

have fun!

I agree. That's how you cool her down.

It's generally better to boil more than less and boiling with only 2 gallons seems awful small, but I can't speak to the possiblity that perhaps your recipe is made to work with a smaller amount. I think a lot of times the kits, and procedures that come with them, are just trying to make it easier for beginners. Perhaps they assume you don't have a large enough pot or they are trying to help you get it cooled down faster. I don't know but more water in the boil is better.

Also, it shouldn't take 2 hours. I can cool 4 gallons in 15 or 20 minutes. You may want to use a larger container/tub as the ice bath so you get better coverage and have plenty of ice handy to add as it melts down. This works for me. A wort chiller is better but I haven't had the money to spend on that yet.

Remember you could lose as much as a gallon of water during the boil so keep that in mind. Once again, more is better.

Boil your extra water the night before if possible. Cool it down and, again if possible, put it in the fridge. Nothing like 40 degree water to help the cool down process.

Dennis

 

[imprez25]

Also, it shouldn't take 2 hours. I can cool 4 gallons in 15 or 20 minutes. You may want to use a larger container/tub as the ice bath so you get better coverage and have plenty of ice handy to add as it melts down. This works for me. A wort chiller is better but I haven't had the money to spend on that yet.

Yeah, that really wasn't something I even took into consideration when I started boiling. And I only realized it was going to be a problem when I got the wort in the fermenter and the temp wasn't dropping in my small ice bath. Shaking and sturring only helped so much. My next batch I will be prepared, as a chiller is on it's way! :rockin:

It's a learning process for me....

 

[pksmitty]

So, it sounds like if I increase the amount of water in the boil, the beer might end up with a little more hops bitterness in it. No real problem there. Also, it will take a little longer to cool to pitching temp, but that can be helped along by using chilled water to top off the fermentor.

Am I missing anything?

Thanks

 

[phatuna]

sounds like you're good Smitty, Brew-on.

 

[CobraAgent]

What would happen if the water you added had chunks of ice in it?

 

[jescholler]

So, it sounds like if I increase the amount of water in the boil, the beer might end up with a little more hops bitterness in it.

Correct. Ray Daniels in his book Designing Great Beers talks about using a correction factor for calculating your bittering units if the gravity of your boiled wort is over 1.050.

I just plugged your recipe into Recipator (The Beer Recipator - Home) and tried both a 2 gallon and 3 gallon boil. Assuming the hops are pellets at 5%AA, boiling 2 gallons would give you 13 IBUs and boiling 3 gallons would give you 18 IBUs. The minimum IBUs for an American Amber are 20, so it's probably good that you are going with a larger boil.

Good luck. Let us know how it turns out.