The boil and how much water?

[robodeath]

I've seen some recipes call for 2.5 gallons of water for the boil and then add the other 2.5 at the end and then others that call for just putting the 5 or so gallons in for the boil. What's the difference?

This is for extract recipes.

 

[AndrewD]

Are you using hops or is the extract already hopped?

 

[robodeath]

Adding hops myself

 

[Yooper]

Many people don't have big enough pots to start with the 6.25 gallons they'd need to boil the whole batch. Or a big enough burner to do it- some electric stoves can not even boil 2.5 gallons!

Another thing is cooling the wort- it takes a LONG time to cool 5 gallons of boiling wort in an ice bath in the sink, but not so long for 2 gallons.

If you've got a big enough pot, a big enough burner, and a way to cool the wort, then by all means boil the full volume! It does make a better beer, with a less "cooked extract" taste due to the maillard reactions from boiling a condensed volume.

 

[robodeath]

Many people don't have big enough pots to start with the 6.25 gallons they'd need to boil the whole batch. Or a big enough burner to do it- some electric stoves can not even boil 2.5 gallons!

Another thing is cooling the wort- it takes a LONG time to cool 5 gallons of boiling wort in an ice bath in the sink, but not so long for 2 gallons.

If you've got a big enough pot, a big enough burner, and a way to cool the wort, then by all means boil the full volume! It does make a better beer, with a less "cooked extract" taste due to the maillard reactions from boiling a condensed volume.

Cool. I have an 8 gallon pot, a gas stove and a sink attached wort chiller. I think i'll do it all

 

[menerdari]

Be careful you don't boil too much, My gas stove can weakly boil about 3 gallons, I wouldn't even try more, but even if you can boil more than 5 gallons it probably wont be a strong boil and boil off may be low. if you boil too much water assuming a certain boil off and don't get it you will end up with a higher volume of wort after boil and that will equal a lower starting gravity.

 

[thedevanzoshift]

if your using just extract, boil 2-3 gallons of water, add the extract while its heating up, then add hops accordingly once it reaches full boil. as your using extract, your gravity should be fine regardless of whether you add the entire 5 g prior to the boil or just boil 2-3 gallons and add water after until you reach your target volume in your fermenter.

 

[revco]

Also, keep in mind you need a little room for the boil over potential, particularly when you add hops. A 6.5 gallon boil in an 8 gallon pot doesn't leave you a lotta room for the foaming you sometimes get. I would concur, though, that it's usually the pot size, but mostly the stove that can be the limiter. My stove would really struggle with 3.5-4 gallons, sometimes so much that I had to pull some wort out to another pot for another burner to boil.

 

[J187]

Be careful you don't boil too much, My gas stove can weakly boil about 3 gallons, I wouldn't even try more, but even if you can boil more than 5 gallons it probably wont be a strong boil and boil off may be low. if you boil too much water assuming a certain boil off and don't get it you will end up with a higher volume of wort after boil and that will equal a lower starting gravity.

It doesn't have to be a strong boil. A rolling boil is fine. As long as surface exchange is constanly happening.

if your using just extract, boil 2-3 gallons of water, add the extract while its heating up, then add hops accordingly once it reaches full boil. as your using extract, your gravity should be fine regardless of whether you add the entire 5 g prior to the boil or just boil 2-3 gallons and add water after until you reach your target volume in your fermenter.

This is not good advice. Gravity has nothing to do with it. As Yooper already explained, full volume boils make higher quality beer. If you can do it, you absolutely should!

 

[Pie_Man]

You may want to test if your stove can handle a full boil before your brew day by simply boiling the same volume of water. I too have a gas stove in the kitchen, but it's not powerful enough to bring a full volume of wort 6.25-6.5 gallons to a rolling boil.

You may need to do a partial boil. Boil the reciple with the maximum volume you can, then top off with water to reach your final volume when you're done.

 

[Matt3989]

When you do your test, measure your preboil volume of water, and then your post boil volume(after heating it up and boiling for an hour), to get an idea of the amount of water you'll lose during the boil. Why waste time on just one test when you can do multiple tests.

Keep in mind pot material will make a difference too, aluminum is great for people doing a partial because it'll conduct the heat into the water easier, but when doing a full boil, you'll lose more heat through the sides and may not be able to put more heat into the water than you're losing through the pot. SS has a higher R value so it is better at keeping the heat in. Some foil type insulation (available at hardware stores) is an efficient quick fix to that.

the sugar in the extract will raise the boiling temp by a few degrees, so if you are just barely getting 6 gallons of water to boil, the wort might not boil, especially for bigger beers. But Chances are if you can bring 6 gallons to a boil you can boil just about anything... Just something to bare in mind.

Finally (someone might have covered this already) but you'll get more hop utilization with a full boil, so if you needed 1oz of bittering hops in your 3 gallon boil to hit 28IBU, You'll only need something like .75oz in your 6 gallon boil. there's probably a calc online for this somewhere, but i don't want look for it on my phone. BeerSmith can do the cAlc for you too.

 

[kombat]

I'd like to highlight the suggestion to do a "test boil" to ensure your stove can handle the volume. I have a ceramic cooktop stove, and while it looks very pretty, it's all but useless for boiling anything more than 2 quarts of liquid. Seriously. I cannot boil anything more than 2 quarts. And even then, it's hardly a rolling boil, more of a gentle simmer.

I do all my boils outside on a Bayou burner that easily boils at least 6.5 gallons (never tried anything higher yet, but I'm sure it could do it).

 

[J187]

You may want to test if your stove can handle a full boil before your brew day by simply boiling the same volume of water. I too have a gas stove in the kitchen, but it's not powerful enough to bring a full volume of wort 6.25-6.5 gallons to a rolling boil.

You may need to do a partial boil. Boil the reciple with the maximum volume you can, then top off with water to reach your final volume when you're done.

When you do your test, measure your preboil volume of water, and then your post boil volume(after heating it up and boiling for an hour), to get an idea of the amount of water you'll lose during the boil. Why waste time on just one test when you can do multiple tests.

Keep in mind pot material will make a difference too, aluminum is great for people doing a partial because it'll conduct the heat into the water easier, but when doing a full boil, you'll lose more heat through the sides and may not be able to put more heat into the water than you're losing through the pot. SS has a higher R value so it is better at keeping the heat in. Some foil type insulation (available at hardware stores) is an efficient quick fix to that.

the sugar in the extract will raise the boiling temp by a few degrees, so if you are just barely getting 6 gallons of water to boil, the wort might not boil, especially for bigger beers. But Chances are if you can bring 6 gallons to a boil you can boil just about anything... Just something to bare in mind.

Finally (someone might have covered this already) but you'll get more hop utilization with a full boil, so if you needed 1oz of bittering hops in your 3 gallon boil to hit 28IBU, You'll only need something like .75oz in your 6 gallon boil. there's probably a calc online for this somewhere, but i don't want look for it on my phone. BeerSmith can do the cAlc for you too.

Couple strong back-to-back posts here! Good stuff guys.

 

[Matt3989]

Couple strong back-to-back posts here! Good stuff guys.

All gov. Employees off = a slow day at my office = me spending lots of time on HBT.

It's so slow I've been thinking about coming up with the diff equations for heat propagation through a pot of water. You could probably throw in variables for humidity, ambient temp, altitude, SG, heat capacity, etc. and come up with the exact wattage you need on you're stove to do a full boil. I'll think on it some more and see what i can come up with.

 

[robodeath]

This is the brew i'll be doing

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f164/gf-chocolate-vanilla-ale-359499/

 

[robodeath]

5 gallons in a test boil. It's been 1 hour and it's at 190f. I think i'll split the boil and buy a burner at some point

 

[Matt3989]

Yeah, there will come a time where you'll max out. The energy (heat) going into the system will only = the energy lost out of the sides and top of the kettle.

You could always just do a 4 gallon boil, and top off with one gallon. But 190 is still pretty far off from 212, so you might not be able to get a 4 gallon boil going either.

A burner is a life saver... Plus, it's nice to brew outside when weather is nice, or if you have a couple people all brewing together.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Yeah, there will come a time where you'll max out. The energy (heat) going into the system will only = the energy lost out of the sides and top of the kettle.

You could always just do a 4 gallon boil, and top off with one gallon. But 190 is still pretty far off from 212, so you might not be able to get a 4 gallon boil going either.

A burner is a life saver... Plus, it's nice to brew outside when weather is nice, or if you have a couple people all brewing together.

And boil overs dont matter, obviously you try to avoid them but when you get one all over your stove it will take a good amount of cleaning to get that sticky mess off. When outside on a burner you can just hose the area down lol.

 

[J187]

5 gallons in a test boil. It's been 1 hour and it's at 190f. I think i'll split the boil and buy a burner at some point

Worst part is, the last 15 degrees will be hardest to get. Good call on the burner