Moonlighter
Well-Known Member
I'm an extract brewer and, unfortunately, don't have much cash. Right now my boil kettle is 28 quarts. But I want to do full boils for the hop utilization but I'm pretty sure I'd boil over with that capacity.
I can afford either a chiller or larger pot but not both right now so I'm leaning towards a chiller. So my idea:
Use my boil kettle to steep my specialty malts, dissolve my extracts and hot break with, say, three gallons water. In a separate pot, boil 4 gallons or so and have ready (HLT). After my hot break I don't seem to have any risk of boilover, so I would turn off flame and add hot water to bring the wort up to my preboil volume - 6.5 gallons or so. Then, bring the kettle back to a boil, add hops and continue as normal.
Any holes in that plan?
I can afford either a chiller or larger pot but not both right now so I'm leaning towards a chiller. So my idea:
Use my boil kettle to steep my specialty malts, dissolve my extracts and hot break with, say, three gallons water. In a separate pot, boil 4 gallons or so and have ready (HLT). After my hot break I don't seem to have any risk of boilover, so I would turn off flame and add hot water to bring the wort up to my preboil volume - 6.5 gallons or so. Then, bring the kettle back to a boil, add hops and continue as normal.
Any holes in that plan?