water question

[jax]

I put in a batch of Jami'ls Evil Twin yesterday and as I was topping the fermentor up to the 5 gal mark it dawned on me that I only boiled 2 gal of water in the boil instead of 2 1/2. It's too late to do anything about it but I was just wondering what effect that is going to have on the final product, if any.

 

[Captain Damage]

There may be a slight difference in "hop utilization," i.e., how much bitterness and flavor you are able to extract from the hops. Denser wort = less utilization. But unless it's intended to be an extremely hoppy beer, the difference is likely to be near or below your threshold of perception.

You may have started with 2.5 gallons and lost a half through evaporation.

 

[jax]

I am about 99% sure I only used 2 gallons, I use a 1qt pyrex cup to do my measuring and as I was counting the top off, i could see that I originally put in 8 instead of 10.

here are my hop additions and times
-- 0.25 oz Columbus (60 min)
-- 0.5 oz Columbus (20 min)
-- 1 oz Cascade (10 min)
-- 1 oz Centennial (10 min)
-- 1 oz Cascade (0 min)
-- 1 oz Centennial (0 min)

Also I have another question about the boil itself. How exactly does the boil need to be? Does it need to be a hard rockin and rollin boil or just boiling? Haven't really seen anything say one way or the other. I'm going to brew another on Tuesday (Caribou Slobber) and that was something i was wondering about.

 

[BillyBock]

Unless you have a bottle of that same beer from a previous batch, you probably won't notice anything different. Usually you want a good rolling boil, as opposed to just bubbling.