First brew

[houle]

Hey, I am going to brew my first batch this weekend. I have read some threads about people only putting about 2.5 gallons in the wort during boiling, then add the remainder of the water after they are done boiling and transfer it to their primary fermenter. I have an 8 gallon pot, should I just add all 5 gallons to my wort in the beginning or not? Thanks

 

[Hammy71]

If your using your kitchen stove, probably not. 99% of stoves can't handle a full boil. Besides, after an hour your 5 gallons is still going to end up being close to 4 because of evaporation. As a general rule though, the more you can boil the better. I'd do a trial run with your stove. If you can get 3 gallons or more of water boiling, I'd go with that. Hope that helps...

 

[Love2BrewCrew]

Hey Houle,

You can certainly do a full boil for your batch however there is a good chance that your kit supplier designed their recipe around the 3 gallon boil and then adding additional wort. Doing a full boil will change a few things about your brew including your hop utilization which will likely not give you the final product as intended.

Our recommendation is to do the kit as per the instructions this time and next time talk to your supplier about a recipe for a full boil.

 

[zenriquez]

I would just boil 2.5 gallons its much easier to maintain during the boil and it boils a lot faster. Also cooling 2.5 gallons as opposed to 5 is also a lot faster unless you have a wort chiller. Keep it simple and easy and be sure to post how your first batch turned out. Good luck!

 

[unionrdr]

I use a 5 gallon SSBK & boil about 3.25 gallons in it on my stove with aftermarket heating elements on the 8.5 setting. You should be able to get that going. But I have noticed that the closer the diameter of the BK is to the diameter of the burner,it'll heat faster.

 

[JimRausch]

My BK is only 4 gallons, so I do partial boils and top off( have to get a bigger kettle!)
If you have the capacity, it's better to do a full boil for a couple reasons:
1. Everything going in your fermenter is sterile.
2. There will be no "my OG is low because of inadequate mixing" post
3. Your hop utilization will be closer to recipe( high gravity boils yield poorer hop utilization)
4. Your color will be closer to recipe( higher gravity boils can give more maillard reactions which can darken wort)
But remember boil off, so add 5.5- 6 gallons to your kettle initially. And figure out a way to cool a 5 gallon pot within a reasonable length of time.
Good luck, and have fun!

 

[454k30]

I too have learned the hard way that most stoves can't handle a 5 gallon brew. Heck, my last stove couldn't do a three gallon. Go ahead and do 2.5 on the stove top and then add the rest of water afterwards. That later addition of water will help cool the wort too.

 

[unionrdr]

Oh yeah,it'll cool it down alright. I kept my spring water jugs out in the garage till brew day last Saturday. It chilled a 72F wort down to 12C (53.6F). The WL029 yeast needed 65F. Oops. Took till yrsterday lunch time after fixing a vapor lock to burb a couple times. Took off steady in the wee hours this morning.

 

[Brulosopher]

Regardless of whether you can get your wort to a boil or not, if you don't have some way of chilling your wort post-boil, I'd recommend sticking with the recipe. It could take... years... to chill that amount

There are reasons you want your wort to chill quickly.

Cheers!

 

[houle]

Thanks everyone for the advise, think I will do less water this time since it seems to be the preferred and easier method. I will let you know how it turns out!