Full Boil?

[Leggoma]

I invested in a nice 8 gallon pot with spiggot and thermometer. I see a lot of recipes that have you create a wort from a smaller fraction of the batch size then use top-off water to get to your final volume.

If I have the room for a full boil of 6-6.5 gallons without boiling over, should I even worry about using the above described method?

 

[bad67z]

No you can do full boils with the kits, the only adjustment aside form water volume should be adjusting you hops additions. When you use do full boils the hops utilization is increased.

 

[BamaRooster]

And you need to have a plan for cooling that much wort. Some people use smaller boils and then top off so they can chill the wort faster. The faster the wort cools the less the chance of infection and the a quicker cool down can lessen chill haze in your final product.

 

[bad67z]

Here is a good source to help you out.

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter5-5.html

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

When you use do full boils the hops utilization is increased.

maybe, but even Palmer's saying wort gravity in the boil may not affect utilization in the way we once thought.

OP, you can do full boils now. make sure you know your boil off rate and adjust pre boil vol accordingly. you may or may not get better hops utilization doing full boils, the jury's still out on that one. i have noticed a little, but not significant difference in hops since doing full boils. if anything, the partial boils may mask the hops. in the end, several things improve in the beer when doing a full boil, hops may or may not be a part of this. i'd say do the kit as instructed, but make it a full boil instead of a partial. i do this with every kit i brew, and have really good results.

 

[Leggoma]

And you need to have a plan for cooling that much wort. Some people use smaller boils and then top off so they can chill the wort faster. The faster the wort cools the less the chance of infection and the a quicker cool down can lessen chill haze in your final product.

My first batch called for a full boil, and I went out and bought a copper wort chiller that had about 4 gallons cooled in about 15 minutes. The brew store has those cool plate coolers that are supposed to be super fast, but they are more spendy.

 

[BamaRooster]

My first batch called for a full boil, and I went out and bought a copper wort chiller that had about 4 gallons cooled in about 15 minutes. The brew store has those cool plate coolers that are supposed to be super fast, but they are more spendy.

sounds like you not only have a plan, your rocking it!!! Go for the full boil!! :rockin: