Full Boil vs. Partial Boil

[NFamato]

What is the advantage of doing a full boil vs. a partial boil ( 3 gallons) then adding water. Any big difference in beer quality?

 

[djfriesen]

No real difference in quality. The only real differences are convenience and hops utilization.

Many people are limited in boil pot size, so partial boils are the only option.

As far as hops utilization goes, the higher your gravity of your boiling wort, the less efficiently the essential oils are extracted. Basically, if you have a more syruppy wort, you'll need more hops to achieve the same properties.

If you have the ability to do full boils, I would recommend it, but partial boils are a valid method that produce good beer.

 

[amandabab]

What is the advantage of doing a full boil vs. a partial boil ( 3 gallons) then adding water. Any big difference in beer quality?

Until everything else in the process like fermentation temps are dialed in, No not a big difference.

if you can boil without caramelizing it doesn't make a big difference.
If you're going for very specific hop profile it can make a difference. If you're just making an "add Moar hops IPA" it doesn't make a difference.

 

[NFamato]

Sounds good. Currently I'm doing a partial 3 gallon boil and beer seems to be fine except for being a bit cloudy after carbonation process. I was just curious if a full boil would make much of a difference to the beer. But seems you guys answered that question. Thanks.

 

[Andrew5329]

A full boil also takes forever to heat up unless you have an Uber-sized burner under your pot. (it also takes forever to cool off unless you have a wort chiller)

 

[Jayhem]

A full boil also takes forever to heat up unless you have an Uber-sized burner under your pot. (it also takes forever to cool off unless you have a wort chiller)

This is true.

The biggest reason I see in doing full boils is for ALL GRAIN brewing.

With AG you need to mash with 1.25 - 1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain. For a big 1.065 OG beer that might mean 14 lbs of grain which would require almost 4.5 gallons of mash water and then 3-4 gallons of sparge water to get good extraction. You would have collected 6 or 6.5 gallons of wort so obviously you'd be doing a full boil.

 

[Andrew5329]

This is true.

The biggest reason I see in doing full boils is for ALL GRAIN brewing.

With AG you need to mash with 1.25 - 1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain. For a big 1.065 OG beer that might mean 14 lbs of grain which would require almost 4.5 gallons of mash water and then 3-4 gallons of sparge water to get good extraction. You would have collected 6 or 6.5 gallons of wort so obviously you'd be doing a full boil.

Honestly IMHO, unless your supremely confident in your brewing skills and have been doing it for years, a partial grain recipe is the best of both worlds, you get the added flavor profiles/originality of your choice specialty grains, while "hedging the bet" with an extract so that you don't have to worry about perfect extraction.

Murphy's law says that the more complicated you make a system the more ways it can inevitably go wrong.

 

[Jayhem]

Honestly IMHO, unless your supremely confident in your brewing skills and have been doing it for years, a partial grain recipe is the best of both worlds, you get the added flavor profiles/originality of your choice specialty grains, while "hedging the bet" with an extract so that you don't have to worry about perfect extraction.

Murphy's law says that the more complicated you make a system the more ways it can inevitably go wrong.

I enjoy partial mash brewing, been my recipes of choice. However you can save $5-10 every 5 gallon batch you do AG which to me is worth the investment and added variables.

 

[FlyDoctor]

I have read many threads here that say that going Full Boild made a bigger impact on beer quality than going AG. There was a Brew Strong Q&A segment where this was discussed as well, and Jamil reported his quality increased big time with FB as well. John PAlmer thinks boiling with the same concentration of malt/hops allows better integration, whereas adding water leads to an unknown change in the chemistry (wasn't al that clear to me either when I heard it...). There are issues with scorching of LME/DME in partial boils, and this is reduced with FB. This can be mitigated by late boil additions of malt extract, but the duo of Palmer and Jamil still just thought FB was better, and that this made a bigger impact on the beer than AG.

My own experience - well, not sure since I have only done partial boil extract brews. The investment in equipment going to full boil is substantial - bigger kettle, bigger or new burner, wort chiller etc...

 

[Andrew5329]

I have read many threads here that say that going Full Boild made a bigger impact on beer quality than going AG. There was a Brew Strong Q&A segment where this was discussed as well, and Jamil reported his quality increased big time with FB as well. John PAlmer thinks boiling with the same concentration of malt/hops allows better integration, whereas adding water leads to an unknown change in the chemistry (wasn't al that clear to me either when I heard it...). There are issues with scorching of LME/DME in partial boils, and this is reduced with FB. This can be mitigated by late boil additions of malt extract, but the duo of Palmer and Jamil still just thought FB was better, and that this made a bigger impact on the beer than AG.

My own experience - well, not sure since I have only done partial boil extract brews. The investment in equipment going to full boil is substantial - bigger kettle, bigger or new burner, wort chiller etc...

Well part of that might be one of those Self-fufilling prophecies, or maybe even a slight placebo effect. (you expect it to taste better so you perceive it as such)

As for unwanted carmalization that's more of a user error than anything as you just need to dial down the temperature a bit and stir more.

 

[Thylos]

In regards to the hops couldn't you just boil a 1L of water with the hops for the time required if the main grain boil is to heavy?
Or would it not get the same effect?