Add Water After boil?

[royco]

Hi, I have a 45L fermenter and a 50L BK. Have just started AG and the first few batches have been 35L because I'm scared of boil-overs. For a 44L batch I would need a pre-boil volume of around 47L which is a no-no. Question: can I do a 40L boil (using full grain bill) and add boiling make-up water at the end, when the volume has reduced and the boil has started behaving?

 

[kiblerjd]

I can't see any reason why this wouldn't work. Some people would put the make-up water right into the fermenter, but I like your method. I wouldn't want to be 1L away from the top of my brew pot at any point in the boil though. I would put the water in at the end once the boil is over but that is just my opinion.

 

[jbf101]

You certainly can. Just make sure you make a more concentrated wort pre water addition to make up for the loss in og. Also fermacap-s prevents boil overs like no other. I have an 8 gallon pot and am not afraid to do 7.5gallon boils with the stuff

 

[dmashl]

I do partial boils all the time, then top off in the fermenter. But I use Beersmith to help with adjusting the recipe to get my gravity to the correct reading.

 

[DrWill]

You certainly can. Just make sure you make a more concentrated wort pre water addition to make up for the loss in og. Also fermacap-s prevents boil overs like no other. I have an 8 gallon pot and am not afraid to do 7.5gallon boils with the stuff

Fermcap-S has saved me more than one batch. I second jbf101's endorsement. One thing to remember, though, is hop utilisation. You won't get the same levels from a concentrated wort boil as you would with a full wort boil. Even though your top up is pretty small, it will make a difference.

 

[royco]

Great feedback, thanks guys. Never heard of Fermcap-S. Definitely going to get me some. Also, thanks for the heads up re hop utilization.
It just seemed logical that less water yields higher concentration of everything, which will then normalize after extra water addition. Logic doesn't always work!

 

[Oceantendency]

worse case, you could take the extra water, sparge it, then boil it before adding it so that way it's not as diluting to your Gravity points.

 

[royco]

Thanks Oceantendency, good idea. Will give it a bash

 

[patthebrewer]

You'll be fine.....as long as your sure your add. water is free of any organisms. Easiest way to do that is to preboil your additional water separately in another vessel, to have it readyh to go when needed.

 

[jbf101]

You could also pre boil the night prior, store the water in a sanitary container and chill. When added to the wort it would help cool it down, depends on how much you add though