Adding Wort to Boil?

[gcsowden]

So I have done about 4 AG batches and they have been fantastic and a great experience. My brew partner and I have been doing 5 gallon batches for a while and decided to do a 10 gal batch. Everything went well, we have a cooler MLT that fit all the grains and enough water, the problem came when we went to boil. We converted a 16 gal keg as are kettle, but we didn't have a plasma cutter to simply trim the cap off so we used a saber saw and cut around the outside. Little did we know now the kettle will really on boil 10 gallons at a time. To make a long story short we ended up with 8 gallons of beer and we were too scared to add more wort to the boil since they wouldnt have the benefit of the entire time with the bittering hops.

Long story short, I am wondering if next time we can add more wort as it boils off or if this will drastically affect the final outcome? Thanks guys!

 

[nebben]

I have added a gallon here and there when there is > 20 minutes left in the boil before, when I collect more wort than I can fit into the boil kettle. When I am using a < 15 gallon european keg and starting a 90 minute boil for a lager that I want to finish with 11 gallons, I just don't have the space in the kettle at the beginning.

 

[bannonb]

You pointed out one drawback of adding more wort...hop utilization.

Charlie Papazian and his "Joy of Homebrewing" talks about ways to improve your beer...first is when a recipe asks for sugar, use dried malt extract instead,

second is a full vigorous boil is very important to extract hop bitterness, coagulate proteins and precipitate out the haze forming compounds. He also reinforces that full-volume wort boils are best for both of those purposes.

Not sure what you lose by adding cooler wort later...would it compromise your hot break? Would starting with less volume affect how much bitterness your hops could impart? Probably yes to both, but try it and let us know your real world experience.