First full boil

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blasbek

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Just bought a 10 gallon kettle and am about to do my first NB extract kit, after doing 8 partial boils in a 5 gallon kettle.

Do I need to make any adjustments to the instructions, or is it as simple as boil 5 gallons of water, add extract, hops, cool and add yeast per instructions, with no adding of water to make up to 5 gallons?
 
I have heard some people start out with more than 5 gallons to get to 5 gallons at the end, with wort lost to evaporation? Is this true, and what is the amount needed to end up with 5?
 
Yes you will need to start with more than 5 gallons. How much depends on your equipment. I start with 7 gallons and usually end right around 5 1/2 gallons in the fermenter. I use a 40qt stainless kettle and blichman burner.

I always keep top off water on hand just in case I screw up or boil over.
 
I have a 40 qt stainless kettle but will be using it over 2 electric range eyes.
 
I'm not super-postive about this, but I would recommend following the instructions unless you know the specifics of your ingredients. If my understanding is correct, hop utilization is affected by wort density, and NB extract kits come as partial boil kits. So...if you follow the instructions (particularly with hop additions) with a wort that is much less dense, your result should be much more bitter than the kit intended. If you know the AAUs of the hops and can weigh them, then you can probably make the adjustments (http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/ is online and free if you don't have a program) and do a full boil pretty successfully. If you don't know the AAUs but know the hop variety, you can probably estimate your AAUs and be fine. If you don't know either, you can always take a stab at it and see what happens. For example, if you are supposed to do the partial boil with three gallons, you could do a full boil with six gallons (you will still have to add some top off water) and add half of the hops at the same time the instructions say to. If you go that route, I would say it's much more important to do that with the bittering hops than any of the hops you are supposed to add during the last 20 minutes of the boil. In fact, if you like hop flavors and aromas and the kit you are brewing calls for those additions, I'd probably leave those the same (or at least close to it), especially as you get closer to flame out. However, if you add the full flavor and aroma hops additions, you might want to back off the bittering hops just a touch more.
 
I have a 40 qt stainless kettle but will be using it over 2 electric range eyes.

Might want to test 5+gal with water first. I couldn't get 5gal to boil on my electric stove. Also, if you haven't check yet, make sure your 40qt pot will FIT on your stove. My buddy bought one and his microwave is too low so it doesn't fit. We both got turkey fryers at Walmart for $50 and they work like a dream (and come with a 40qt aluminum pot!)

Oh, and start with about 6.5-7gal to finish with 5gal. My preferred method is start with 4.5gal and finish with 3-3.5gal and add 1.5gal of (pre-boiled) ice blocks to cool the wort and get the water to 5 or 5.5gal.
 
I did a full boil this weekend, started with 5 gal of water, added 9 lbs of goodies and when it was all said and done I ended with 5 gal of water. I try not to over boil my wort, a nice steady boil is good don't get all armegeddon and have the stuff rolling out of control. I found that 210 degrees was just perfect and it never came close to boiling over.

This all being done over a propane flame in a 32 qt pot that I kept the lid partially on, would say 3/4 of the pot was covered with the lid.

This was my first full boil and it went super smooth. Will be doing full boils from this point forward.

I would think with only doing 5 gal start with 5 gal of water and top it off once it's cooled and your about to pitch the yeast. What if you start with 6 gallons and in the end you have 5.75 of wort, your OG is gonna be way off.
 
Fwiw the kit I am making is NB tcan and bearcats wheaten beat down. Calls for .75 oz Yakima magnum hops for 60 mins, then 1 oz of willamette and cascade 10 mins before end of boil. How would I do this for a full boil?
 
Fwiw the kit I am making is NB tcan and bearcats wheaten beat down. Calls for .75 oz Yakima magnum hops for 60 mins, then 1 oz of willamette and cascade 10 mins before end of boil. How would I do this for a full boil?

Just like it says, throw in the yakima at the start of the boil, same time your going to add your fermentables, probably DME/LME, then when 50 minutes goes by throw in the other 2 hops you mentioned.

As I stated before at 210 degrees i had a nice gentle boil that was not out of control or had me nervous in any way.
 
Using the tastybrew calculator (http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/recipe.html), I found following the instructions with your hop additions for a seven gallon boil (collecting 5.5 gallons when finished) would give you about 60 IBUs. Since the description of the kit doesn't really tell you whether they consider it an over-bittered American wheat or an American pale ale, you just have to make a guess and go with it. The BJCP 2008 guidelines suggest an IBU range of 15-30 for an American wheat and an IBU range of 30-45 for an American pale ale. If I were the one doing this, I would add .25 ounce of the magnum at 60 minutes and leave the Willamette and Cascade additions the same. The same calculator used above (with a seven gallon boil) shows that you would wind up with about 32 IBUs. I think that you would be much happier with the beer done this way.
 
My favorite beers are actually ipa's, so I can live with 60 ibu's. also, I bought 2 kits (reusing yeast cake) so will do 1 as the instructions call for and 1 with less hops at the start, and see which I prefer in the glass. Thanks for the help everybody.
 
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