AHB Kits with full boil

[davebl]

Hey guys,

I have been doing Austin Home Brew kits since day one. They all have turned out great. I started with extract.... got a few PM's under my belt and now just ordered my first AG kit.

I just got an 8 gallon brew kettle. I'd like to make my first full size boil tomorrow using a PM IPA kit. The kit calls for a boil volume of about 3.5 gallons, then topping off. If I do a full 6.5 gallon boil (reducing to 5.5) how off will by beer be in terms of IBU's due to the larger boil?

Is this something substantial enough to completely change the flavor, or should I just brew as normal, RDWHAHB?

 

[scottaustin]

I ran into your issue a few months ago and talked to the guys at the store about it. Their response is full boil= good (hop utilization, etc) but mash with the water amount they tell you.

Mash heavy, boil light

 

[Yooper]

It would really depend on the recipe and beer style. I mean, it would be fine in an IPA to have better hops utilization and probably wouldn't be noticeable, but in a cream ale, it'd be noticeable.

When you get the kit, if you want to post it, we can run it through our brewing software for you to see what would happen to the IBUs. Or, if you have Beersmith or Promash, etc, you could run it through yourself. In my Dead Guy clone recipe, the IBUs were almost twice as high when I did a full boil the full time (from like 16 to 30, I don't remember exactly).

 

[davebl]

It's a recipe for a nut brown ale:

2.5 lbs 2 Row
5 oz Crystal 60L
.5 lbs Victory Malt
3 oz Chocolate Malt

155 for 45 min in 2.5 gallons of water, sparge 1 qt/pound 170 degree water

then 5.5 lbs Extra Pale LME

1 oz Golding and .5 oz Glacier for 60 min
.5 oz Golding for 15

 

[EdWort]

I've done Austin Home Brew kits in my 8 gallon pot and do full boils. Mark your pot where you have 7 gallons. Then do your steeping grains as instructucted. Add that wort to the kettle. Then top off the kettle to your 7 gallon mark with RO water (reverse osmosis). Once it heats up a bit, turn off the heat and add your extract and stir well. Once it is all stirred in and your wort is complete, turn back on your heat for the full boil.

I did an AHS Anchor Porter Clone this way and it turned out awesome! No exctract twang, just a very tasty beer.

 

[Yooper]

Well, you didn't mention the AAUs of the hops, so I went with what I have in Beersmith- 5.5% for both the Goldings and Glacier. Doing the recipe as written with those AAUs gives you only 16.9 IBUs. A full boil changes that to 29.7.

 

[davebl]

The Goldings have an AAU of 4.5% and the Glacier with 6.1%

29.7 seems too bitter to me for a Brown Ale like this.

 

[Yooper]

I re-ran it with your hops AAUs. That changes it to 26.6 IBUS with a full boil. That's within style guidelines, but if you do the first Goldings at .75 ounce, you'll get 23.2 IBUs which sounds more reasonable for the recipe.

 

[AnonyBrew]

I just got an 8 gallon brew kettle.

Hey! Did I see you at AHS yesterday around 2pm showing off the new kettle?

I did their Texas Blonde Ale minimash kit with a full boil and thought it had somewhat higher bitterness than it should have (people liked it though). However, now when I do full boils I punch in the original recipe to Beersmith and then adjust the hop additions to target the original IBU after changing the water volume to full boil.

 

[davebl]

Hey! Did I see you at AHS yesterday around 2pm showing off the new kettle?

I did their Texas Blonde Ale minimash kit with a full boil and thought it had somewhat higher bitterness than it should have (people liked it though). However, now when I do full boils I punch in the original recipe to Beersmith and then adjust the hop additions to target the original IBU after changing the water volume to full boil.

I wish you saw me there.... I live a couple hundred miles away (in the land of the Basic Brewing people actually). I do order all of my supplies from AHB.

I actually just got the Texas Blonde as my first AG batch. I'll take your advice and lower the hops to get it on target.

Since I use a mac (and strictly stick to the mac OS) I can only use strange brew and beer tools. I just bought a copy of beer tools and am getting the hang of it to adjust recipes now.

 

[EdWort]

Hey! Did I see you at AHS yesterday around 2pm showing off the new kettle?

Ah, that was me....picking up my new 20 Gallon Blichmann BoilerMaker.

From here on out, it will be referred to as the Blingmann.

 

[niquejim]

I re-ran it with your hops AAUs. That changes it to 26.6 IBUS with a full boil. That's within style guidelines, but if you do the first Goldings at .75 ounce, you'll get 23.2 IBUs which sounds more reasonable for the recipe.

I would agree, but I would add the .25oz at flameout just to give it a little hop nose.

 

[niquejim]

Ah, that was me....picking up my new 20 Gallon Blichmann BoilerMaker.

From here on out, it will be referred to as the Blingmann.

That thermometer only goes to 220f. How are you going to cook a turkey that low .
I've got an 80qt pot but without the bells and whistles. Lucky SOB

 

[Anthony_Lopez]

Did you really just get that Ed?!?!??! The blichmann false bottoms are the tits...

 

[AnonyBrew]

Well Edwort, nice to briefly meet you then. Enjoy the new Blingmann.