5 Gal Or Partial boil

[herkojerko]

Hi. I am going to be brewing for the first time tommorow night, An American amber Ale Kit. I have a 10 gal pot with a turkey fryer burner and an immersion chiller. My question is even though the Brewers Best instructions say to boil 2 gal of water would it be better to boil all 5 or even more? Would the recipe change?

 

[Cregar]

If you have the ability to brew a full 5 gallons, that's what I would do. You get better hop utilization and better color from your extract.

Just remember to actually boil more water... maybe 5.5 to 6 gallons to account to loss of water from the boil.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

On whether the recipe will change - it depends. If you're using hopped extract, you'll get the almost the exact same flavor with a slightly lighter colored beer from a full boil. If you're using pellet/whole hops, the full boil will offer just a slightly "hoppier" beer.

The down side to a full boil is cooling. When you do a partial boil, you can add cold water at the end to get your wort down to pitching temperatures. With a full boil you either need a wort chiller, ice bath, or an overnight wait before you pitch the yeast.

Personally, I like full boils.

 

[the_bird]

Even though you have an immersion chiller, I'd boil with five gallons to get down to around 4.0 - 4.5. My immersion chiller works great to get the wort down to around 80 or so, but the last ten degrees or so are a bitch (because the difference in temp between the wort and the chiller water isn 't as great). Instead, put 1-2 gallons of water in the fridge and use that to top off the fermenter prior to pitching; adding one gallon of even fifty degree water to four gallons of 80 degree will get you right around the 70 degree sweet spot.

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

Don't forget that full-volume boils introduce aeration issues as well. If you do like bird says and then blast cold tap water into the wort to top up, this will cool it and aerate at the same time.

 

[herkojerko]

The aeration thing does have me a little concerned so while I have you here I have a couple more questions. My pot has spigot but no kind of false bottom or anything. If I drained it from the spigot through a strainer into the carboy would the spigot most likely clog? Would that be better for aeration or should I just pick it up and pour it in. Could I seal off the top and shake the carboy or would the sealing off defeat the purpose? Thanks for your quick responses. So many forums and so many tutorials. I think I am going to explode.