Full Boil Using LME

[Nosnum08]

I brewed a two hearted clone a couple of weeks ago which included 8.3 lbs of lme and 1 lbs of specialty grains. I went ahead and filled my pot with six gallons of water, expecting 1 gallon to boil off for my 60 minute boil. To much of my surprise I ended up with close to 6 gallons of beer. Does this make sense? U know that the malt must add volume to the boil but with everything I have read it seems that I should have ended up closer to 5 gallons.

 

[aiptasia]

For future reference, you don't have to add the whole six gallons of water to the brew pot. I usually do about 2.5 to 3 gallons on a BIAB kit and then add supplimental water (such as distilled because our water here has tons of crap in it) to the primary fermenter after the boil is done. Adding pre-boiled, then cooled water (or just distilled out of the jug) can also help cool down your wort a lot faster.

 

[PleasantValleyHops]

Maybe u missed something an actually put 7 gal in it. Easily could happen. I start with about 6 1/2 gal and normally at te end of my boil still have to had about a quart to a nother half gal of water to the fermenter to get my 5.25 gal

 

[rv9aguy]

Well, lots of variables, but I figure you'd be pretty close to 6 gal. Assuming my rules of thumb are accurate (YMMV):

• Grain Absorption: 0.15 gal/lb
• LME Volume: 12 lbs/gal (8.3 lbs / 12 = .69 gal)
• Evaporation: 10%/hr

(Starting Volume - Grain Absorption + LME Volume) * Evaporation
(6.00 - 0.15 + 0.69) * (1 - .10) = 5.89

After cooling you'd drop another 4% or so to around 5.65.

I've only had one coffee so far this morning, so somebody check my math...

 

[PleasantValleyHops]

Well, lots of variables, but I figure you'd be pretty close to 6 gal. Assuming my rules of thumb are accurate (YMMV):


[*]Grain Absorption: 0.15 gal/lb
[*]LME Volume: 12 lbs/gal (8.3 lbs / 12 = .69 gal)
[*]Evaporation: 10%/hr

(Starting Volume - Grain Absorption + LME Volume) * Evaporation
(6.00 - 0.15 + 0.69) * (1 - .10) = 5.89

After cooling you'd drop another 4% or so to around 5.65.

I've only had one coffee so far this morning, so somebody check my math...

Yea but evap does vary from setup to setup. I dont ever cover during boil. So mine has been closwr to 20%. Ill be brewing tonight. I try getting exact agaim and let u know what i found in "my setup"
Everything else u said sounds fine tho.

 

[Nosnum08]

Thanks for the replies. I did cover the pot for most of the boil. Also, I know I could boil just 3 gallons or so but don't like the idea of just topping off the wort with water since I have the capability to do full boils.

 

[Skelator]

LME does contain water, so it'll actually add a small amount to your boil, but not so much that you end with what you started with. How vigorous was your boil? I found roiling boils to boil off at least a gallon/hr where as not as rigorous will boil off betwen .5-.75gal/hr.

For IPA's, full boils are better. Why? Because you wont be diluting your beer and ibu's down. You can brew a 100ibu beer in a 2.5 gallon batch, but when you add 2.5 gallons of water, you're looking more like 50 ibu's. You can really compensate for it either (making a 200ibu 2.5 gallon then dilute to 100, it doesnt work like that). Anyways, i found my ipa's are MUCH better when you do full boils, so continue doing what you're doing.

 

[deepsouth]

i think you are not supposed to cover the pot during the boil as it doesn't allow the DMS to be boiled off.

the last two beers i brewed, i used 6 and 6.5 gallons of water to start out and in the case of the first one, topped it off with a half gallon of water and ended up with only 4.5 gallons and in the second case, i didn't top it off and ended up with 4.5 gallons. from here on out, i'm starting pre-boil with 7 gallons of water.

 

[rv9aguy]

Yea but evap does vary from setup to setup.

Absolutely - I would imagine boil off to be the most variable of these factors. Ceteris paribus, at 20% evaporation during boil Nosnum should be at about 5.25 after the boil and pretty close to 5 even after cooling.

I've typically seen around 10 percent boiling on my stovetop. This weekend I'm christening my new turkey fryer outside, so I'm interested to see how much that value changes, if at all.

OK, I've used latin before noon, time to call it a day and open a homebrew.

 

[fixitoscar]

I did cover the pot for most of the boil.

Thats why things didn't end up were you wanted them to. In the future you should boil with the lid off. to let the bad stuff (dms precursers) boil off.

 

[dbell525]

I start w/ 5.5 gallons and come in just under 5.0 normally.

 

[pt109]

Don't forget that the 8 lbs of LME will displace an equal weight in water. A gallon of water weighs about 6.25 lbs. I would guess that the LME added (8lbs/6.25lbs. per gallon), or 1.3 gallons of water.

HTH

 

[dbell525]

Don't forget that the 8 lbs of LME will displace an equal weight in water. A gallon of water weighs about 6.25 lbs. I would guess that the LME added (8lbs/6.25lbs. per gallon), or 1.3 gallons of water.

HTH

Water weighs a bit over 8 lbs/gallon.

 

[PleasantValleyHops]

I brewed last night and started off w 6 1/2 gal of water. After my boil ended w just under 5 gal. Put a half gal of water to put me at about 5 1/4 gal.