Noob - I boiled all 20 litres. Why did I do that?

[Birdskull]

I'm a noob in all aspects when it comes to brewing beer. I've read quite a bit about it before I set into this, but for some reason I boiled the entire 20 (actually 24) litres of water I used for the boil. First warmed it to 70 deg.cel. to steep the cara malt, then boiled it all for 60 mins with the extract and hops.

Is there an advantage of doing this with extract, or was it completely unnecessary?

 

[davis119]

Full boils are better. Most extract people dont because they do not have a pot big enough.

 

[dbhokie]

Good job, boil full when you can, just remove the grains first.

In fact generally my "full boil" is 1 gallon higher than my batch size, because I tend to boil off water in my kettle at the rate of about .5 gallons per hour.

 

[homebrewdad]

A full boil will help you with hop utilization, for one (only so many alpha acids from hops can fully dissolve in a given amount of water). Very important for IPAs and hoppy beers.

 

[IrregularPulse]

You did a good thing. If you have a pot big enough, as others have said, always do the full boil.

Most beginning instructions are written as partial boils because most beginner boils use small pots on their stove tops and just can't get a 7 gallon boil.

 

[Birdskull]

Great! I had a feeling (and probably read it somewhere) that full boils were best when it came to extracts too. I boiled off 6 litres (!) during the 30 min steep and 60 min boil, so yeah.. Need to increase the amount of water I start with, I guess.

Thanks, people!

 

[davis119]

Great! I had a feeling (and probably read it somewhere) that full boils were best when it came to extracts too. I boiled off 6 litres (!) during the 30 min steep and 60 min boil, so yeah.. Need to increase the amount of water I start with, I guess.

Thanks, people!

dWell you probably absorbed some in the grain in the steep. You shouldn't have lost any due to evaporation furring that time.

 

[Euphist]

Well you probably absorbed some in the grain in the steep. You shouldn't have lost any due to evaporation furring that time.

A 60 minute boil will most definitely have evaporation losses...for my kettle, it's about 1 gal/hr

 

[davis119]

A 60 minute boil will most definitely have evaporation losses...for my kettle, it's about 1 gal/hr

sorry it was a quick post on my phone....

he said he lost "x" ammount durring the steep and boil

i meant to say you didnt loose ( noticeable ) ammount durring the steep due to evap......

i loose about 1.5 gl per/hr durring boil