Adding water incrementally during the boil?

[Beerisnom]

Although I aspire to a huge kettle and propane outdoor setup someday, for now I'm stuck cooking in the kitchen using a 5 gallon kettle. As we all know, can't fill that sucker up all the way due to things getting potentially getting exciting should a boil-over strike.

As such, during the course of the boil, I lose a good amount of water, which of course limits my hop utilization and makes it harder to hit my intended specs.

I'm wondering whether it would be detrimental in any way if I pre-boiled additional water and added during the course of the cook, stopping perhaps 10 minutes until the end from a sanitation just-in-case perspective.

Thoughts? Should I just leave as is, adding water when the wort goes in the fermenter to get up to my five gallon batch size?

I do plan on getting better gear someday to that a can do a full boil with no issues whatsoever, that that is not this day.

 

[TheMadKing]

Why not just add all the water to reach your desired volume at the end?

This is called a partial boil with top up water. It actually makes it easier to hit your desired targets because you can just add water until you hit your OG rather than your volume.

 

[Cyclman]

I see no issue with it, but I don't think the hop utilization factor warrants it, hops aren't that expensive to just add more at the beginning.

 

[flars]

Are you brewing with extracts? A partial boil with an approximate SG of 1.038 at the beginning of the boil will optimize hop oil isomerization. Add the remaining extract with 10 to 15 minutes left in the boil time.

 

[SanPancho]

while cyclman is mostly correct that hops arent that expensive, if you just add more hops you end up losing volume anyways due to all the hop sludge in the kettle.

if you are making a hoppy beer, then get a second, smaller pot going on the stove once your kettle gets up to a boil. then by the time your kettle has started to boil off some volume, you just add extra water from the smaller pot to your kettle as needed. easy peasy. keeps your kettle volume high enough for good hop utilization, and as its boiling water added to boiling water you dont get huge swings in temp.

now if you have something that isnt very hoppy, then get yourself a gallon of distilled water at the grocery store, keep it in the coldest cooler you have, and dump it in after flameout. you'll see a very fast drop in temps which will help you lock in whatever hop character you do have in the wort, plus it will shorten your chill time.

 

[oljimmy]

now if you have something that isnt very hoppy, then get yourself a gallon of distilled water at the grocery store, keep it in the coldest cooler you have, and dump it in after flameout. you'll see a very fast drop in temps which will help you lock in whatever hop character you do have in the wort, plus it will shorten your chill time.

I agree with this, but I would just add a gallon of cold tap water, unless you are somewhere super rural and the water really sucks. If you've got 4 gallons of boiling water and add a gallon, you might go down to 160 F or so, which is still way above pasteurization temp (140) and below the boiling temps of hop oils, should kill any and all nasties and lock in hop flavors.

The one thing I don't understand is kits that tell partial-boil brewers to add cold water *after* cooling. We go to all this trouble sanitizing things and then add tap water? Why not tell us to spit in the cold wort while you're at it?

 

[SanPancho]

If you've got 4 gallons of boiling water and add a gallon, you might go down to 160 F or so, which is still way above pasteurization temp (140) and below the boiling temps of hop oils, should kill any and all nasties and lock in hop flavors.

technically there are different pasteurization temps for different foods/beverages. beer is 160F IIRC, 140 sounds bit low to me for some reason.... in any case, for folks who have to or choose to worry about sanitation, for a buck and change you get sterile distilled water.

as for temp, remember- texas/florida/arizona/etc folks will get 70F+ out of the "cold" tap in summer. here in SF, our "cold" is basically 60F year round. keep your gallon in a 41F fridge that's a 20-30F difference in temp, so why the hell not chill it? in fact, the extra energy absorbed by the phase change from ice to water makes a huge difference in cooling- so i always keep some ice on hand.

made a small 1 gallon batch yeasterday, tossed in 8 or 9 ice cubes at flameout and was down to 185 in a minute and half. tossed my whirlpool hops and then let it cool on its own down to 145 over the next hour. huge hop aroma.

the night before brewday i realized i forgot to make a starter. no biggie. i made a perfect pitch temperature yeast starter in less than 5 minutes= hot tap water+DME+microwave+ice cubes+cold/cool tap water.

so i'm with ya oljimmy on just using tap, but not an option for some folks. either way you still chill the water, if not freeze it. big difference.