1st Full Boil

[ctb1976]

Hello all! I am planning on attempting my 1st full boil this weekend and welcome any and all advice. I'm using a NB Nut Brown Ale kit with specialty grains, LME, and hop pellets. I just got a 10 gallon kettle to accommodate a full boil of a 5 gallon kit.

How much water should I start with?

Any other sage advice?

Thanks as always!

 

[Bamos6928]

I just did a trial run with my new burner and I lost almost 2 gallons to boil off. It will depend on your equipment and the temp. I recommended doing your own trial run so you will know how much extra water to start with. You should start with 6 gallons at the very least.

 

[AJinJacksonville]

Your results will vary based on the boiling temp, length of boil, etc. There are some calculators online that will basically give you the amount down to the ounce. I typically will shoot for 6.5 gallons for the extract boil (starting out with 4 gallons) and then prep 2.5 gallons for additional to top it off. I always have some left over. On a sixty minute boil, you will need to account for the water boiling off, the hop absorption, etc.

 

[ctb1976]

Thanks! I will see if I can find one of the online calculators. I figured I would lose some volume to the specialty grains and even more during a 60 minute boil.

 

[ctb1976]

I just did a trial run with my new burner and I lost almost 2 gallons to boil off. It will depend on your equipment and the temp. I recommended doing your own trial run so you will know how much extra water to start with. You should start with 6 gallons at the very least.

I will do a trial run tomorrow to be ready for brew day. I will start with 6.5 gallons and see what I am left with after 60 minutes. Is it okay to steep my grains in the full 6.5 gallons, or do I need steep based on weight then add water?

 

[Bamos6928]

I steep in the full amount of water and It has seemed to work out fine for me. I'm a new brewer myself though, so I'm still learning too.

 

[tri_clamp_ninja]

Ok, i'll throw a ton of information here and hopefully some of it helps:

-You want to avoid steeping in your full volume of water, this will promote extraction of tannins which will cause unpleasant of flavors as well as an unusual dryness on the tongue (like drinking wine). This also promotes unwanted silcia extraction from the hulls. Keep your ratio to 1 gal of water per 1lb of steeping grain at absolute most, 3/4 gal of water per 1 lb of steeping grain is better, 1/2 gal of water per 1lb of steeping grain is best.

-Someone above mentioned 2 gal boil off loss on a 5 gal batch, that sounds about right for that equipment profile.

-I can't tell you how much preboil you'll need because that is recipe and equipment specific. As someone else brought up, a recipe calculator will really help. Brewersfriend.com has every type of calculator you'll ever need, I even use their website for quick calc's in my production brewery when I'm away from my computer. If this helps, anytime I've done a 5 gal extract beer with steeping grains in a 10 gal kettle on a propane burner my preboil volume is usually around 7.25 gal to end up with about 5.25-5.5 gal in the kettle post boil depending on the recipe (including trub) to end up with around 5 gal going into the carboy/bucket to end up with about 4.75-4.9 gal of "finished beer" to be packaged. That final drinkable volume will vary depending on yeast flocculation rate, dry hopping if any, filtering if any, etc.

-Regardless of what your kit instructions say, save most (or all) of your extract for flame out. You'll have plenty of proteins from your steeping grains for the oils from the hops to bind and that style is minimally hopped anyway so you won't really have to worry about over utilization of hops by moving your extract to the end.

-Regardless of what your kit instructions say, skip the secondary. All this does is introduce unwanted o2 and will not do anything to clarify your beer further that simply leaving it on the yeast cake will not do. Also, keeping it on the yeast cake will allow additional "clean up" time for the yeast to uptake things like diacetyl for example.

 

[ctb1976]

Ok, i'll throw a ton of information here and hopefully some of it help:

-You want to avoid steeping in your full volume of water, this will promote extraction of tannins which will cause unpleasant of flavors as well as an unusual dryness on the tongue (like drinking wine). This also promotes unwanted silcia extraction from the hulls. Keep your ratio to 1 gal of water per 1lb of steeping grain at absolute most, 3/4 gal of water per 1 lb of steeping grain is better, 1/2 gal of water per 1lb of steeping grain is best.

-Someone above mentioned 2 gal boil off loss on a 5 gal batch, that sounds about right for that equipment profile.

-I can't tell you how much preboil you'll need because that is recipe and equipment specific. As someone else brought up, a recipe calculator will really help. Brewersfriend.com has every type of calculator you'll ever need, I even use their website for quick calc's in my production brewery when I'm away from my computer. If this helps, anytime I've done a 5 gal extract beer with steeping grains in a 10 gal kettle on a propane burner my preboil volume is usually around 7.25 gal to end up with about 5.25-5.5 gal in the kettle post boil depending on the recipe (including trub) to end up with around 5 gal going into the carboy/bucket to end up with about 4.75-4.9 gal of "finished beer" to be packaged. That final drinkable volume will depending on yeast flocculation rate, dry hopping if any, filtering if any, etc.

-Regardless of what your kit instructions say, save most (or all) of your extract for flame out. You'll have plenty of proteins from your steeping grains for the oils from the hops to bind and that style is minimally hopped anyway so you won't really have to worry about over utilization of hops by moving your extract to the end.

-Regardless of what your kit instructions say, skip the secondary. All this does is introduce unwanted o2 and will not do anything to clarify your beer further that simply leaving it on the yeast cake will not do. Also, keeping it on the yeast cake will allow additional "clean up" time for the yeast to uptake things like diacetyl for example.

Thanks! This gives me a good starting point. Does this sound like a reasonable brew plan?

-Steep grains in separate kettle. 1/2 gal filtered H2O per lb of grain. Steep for 20 min never above 170f. 2lbs grain = 1 gal H2O.

-preboil 6.25 gal filtered H2O in kettle.

-remove grains and add to preboil kettle (top off to 7.25 gal)

-boil for 60 min adding hops to schedule

-add LME at flameout and stir to dissolve.

- chill to 65, rack to primary, oxygenate and pitch

 

[tri_clamp_ninja]

Thanks! This gives me a good starting point. Does this sound like a reasonable brew plan?

-Steep grains in separate kettle. 1/2 gal filtered H2O per lb of grain. Steep for 20 min never above 170f. 2lbs grain = 1 gal H2O.

-preboil 6.25 gal filtered H2O in kettle.

-remove grains and add to preboil kettle (top off to 7.25 gal)

-boil for 60 min adding hops to schedule

-add LME at flameout and stir to dissolve.

- chill to 65, rack to primary, oxygenate and pitch

Spot on friend, I think you'll enjoy this beer! Only thing I would add is when you remove your grain bag and add the rest of your preboil water, "teabag" (Bob up and down) the grain bag a few times into that full volume while it's coming up to a boil. Then, set that bag into a smaller pot on the side. You'll be surprised at how much "wort" will still drain out that is all contributing to flavor and color.

 

[ctb1976]

Thanks! I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[Big Happy]

Hello all! I am planning on attempting my 1st full boil this weekend and welcome any and all advice. I'm using a NB Nut Brown Ale kit with specialty grains, LME, and hop pellets. I just got a 10 gallon kettle to accommodate a full boil of a 5 gallon kit.

How much water should I start with?

Any other sage advice?

Thanks as always!

I use a 3 gal boil pot for a 5 gal. kit. My typical brew in my apt. I have a fast boil burner on my stove which in high position will keep the wort rolling no problem any more than that you will need a burner. I steep in a separate pot while I get 3 gals. boiling. Stop the boil ad the lme and first hops and the mash and let her rip again then finishing hops some yeast nutes and irish moss. I just use ice water to cool my wort in the pot. Wort chillers can make it faster but with a plugged sink and water with ice it cools pretty fast. I get it down below 90 and pour into bottling bucket ( aeration) and add chilled water to bring up to 5 gals usually brings it down to pitch temp. measure OG and then pour into carboy (2nd aeration) pitch yeast and put it in the closet. I watch bubbles after work every day for a few and when it flattens out its bottling time