Full boil vs partial

[knelson]

I brewed my first 1 week ago. It was an Extra Pale Ale Extract kit from Northern Brewer. The instructions said to boil 2.5 gallons of water for the mash and add the additional cold water to the carboy.

I deviated from the reciped and did a full boil of 5 gallons and then topped off to 5 gallons once the wort was added to the carboy.

Is there any advantage to doing a full boil? Or should I stick with the instructions next time?
Thanks for your help!

 

[tprokop]

There are many advantages of a full boil, from changes in the way some reactions happen to better hop utilization. If you have the space, do a full boil every time. Once you start to figure out how much evaporation you get, you can start with more in the pot so you end up with the right amount at the end.

The only downsides are that it uses more energy and that it takes longer to cool. In my opinion, they benefits far outweigh those two.

 

[moosetav]

If you are using the same hop additions the hop profile will be off due to the utilization. Take a look at this thread:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/question-hop-utilization-ibus-6001/

 

[TipsyDragon]

it depends what the kit said to do with the extract. it sounds like you lowered the boil gravity by adding all 5 gallons of water at once. this will raise the IBU contribution of your hops resulting in a more bitter beer. next time just stick to the instructions.

 

[Stormrider51]

One big advantage of a full boil is that the concentration of sugar in the pot is lower. The lower sugar level means less likelihood of a boil over or of scorching the wort.

John

 

[user 29674]

You get a higher utilization % out of your hops, so your beer is going to be slightly hoppier than intended. BeerSmith, Promash, and some online calculators can do teh adjustment for you to dial back the hop amounts to keep the IBUs in line with what you expected.

 

[knelson]

Thanks for the reply's. The cooling part was part of my problem this time I think. I did a full 5 gallon boil. The temp outside was about -15 the night that I brewed so I stuck the boil pot in the snowbank and packed snow around it to cool it. It took over 2 hours to cool the wort. This seemed like a pretty long time to me to cool the wort.

I will definately be investing in a wort chiller in the future but for those who use a snow bank, is around 3 hours too long for the wort to cool? If it makes a difference I kep thte lid on while it was chilling as to try and minimize any evaporation of the tastiness inside.

 

[whoneedsabeer]

Wow, almost 3 hours is a long time. You probably would have been better off in an ice water bath. My guess is the pot melted the snow rather quickly on the sides, forming an air gap which actually insulated the heat in the pot. So your surface area of cooling was limited to only the bottom of the pot. Just speculating on the reason it would have taken so long. I'm not sure what is considered "too long" when cooling wort.

At the very least, chalk this up to a learning experience, at best, you'll have some great home brew to enjoy! I'm bettin' on the latter.

Jay

 

[user 29674]

Thanks for the reply's. The cooling part was part of my problem this time I think. I did a full 5 gallon boil. The temp outside was about -15 the night that I brewed so I stuck the boil pot in the snowbank and packed snow around it to cool it. It took over 2 hours to cool the wort. This seemed like a pretty long time to me to cool the wort.

I will definately be investing in a wort chiller in the future but for those who use a snow bank, is around 3 hours too long for the wort to cool? If it makes a difference I kep thte lid on while it was chilling as to try and minimize any evaporation of the tastiness inside.

You probably melted and warmed the snow directly adjacent to the pot so there was less heat transfer. Its better to fill your tub with cold water and come in and move the pot around to circulate the water. Near the end, drop in some ice.

 

[TipsyDragon]

The temp outside was about -15 the night that I brewed so I stuck the boil pot in the snowbank and packed snow around it to cool it. It took over 2 hours to cool the wort. This seemed like a pretty long time to me to cool the wort.

wow. you would think -15F would of dropped the temp like a rock. maybe the snow insulated the pot? typically you want to drop the temp to below 80 in around half an hour or so to get a proper cold break. definitely get a wart chiller and use the snow bank. when i cool my wart i never have the lid on the pot. but then again i cool it in about 1/4 the time you did.

 

[artguy]

As folks have said, snow can insulate the pot (think igloo!). However, it is a fantastic coolant when added to a water bath. I cooled 6 gallons of wort (boiled down from 7.5 gallons) to 70F in about 20 minutes by filling a 35 gallon plastic storage container with water and snow, and then just adding more snow to the mixture when most of it had melted...MUCH faster than a normal ice bath.