How increase wort to 5 gallon?

[ThePrisoner]

I've only really brewed cider before.
Wanted to try a beer but I don't have a cooking pot big enough to cook up 5 gallons.
Can you boil up a concentrated wort on the stove somehow and then just top up the carbuoy with water?

 

[Broken Crow]

Yes. When I started brewing beer I first used the Cooper's kits which instructed you to do exactly that; approx. 1/3 boiled and the rest as plain sanitary 'top-up' water in the carboy. Although a full-boil, and better still; all-grain tastes 'better', the result was still far superior to the cheap mainstream brews available in the stores.

PS: I love your username...I'm a fan of the 60's TV show of the same name and find myself wondering why you haven't used this for your avatar:

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

An alternative (to consider) is brew a smaller batch size that works well for the size of your kettle. If you like this idea, let us know the size of your kettle and someone (not me, I'm not good at this specific estimate) can help determine a good full-volume boil batch size for your kettle.

With malt extract (DME/LME) recipes, there is the concept of a partial boil (generally 1/2 the water / extract at the start of the boil) with late additions of the extract (often at 15 min before the end of the boil) and water (often added to the fermenter before the rest of the chilled wort). With partial boils, there are numerous variations on the amounts and times to add ingredients.

With 'all-grain' recipes, it's very unusual to see people do a 'concentrated' boil. A concentrated boil requires a high gravity mash which leads to lower mash efficiency. (And there are some other considerations that could be mentioned if you want to try this approach).

If you can tell us

• if you planning to brew with 'extract' or 'all-grain',
• the size of your current kettle, and
• how you are planning to package the beer

that should help focus the discussion.

 

[balrog]

I've only really brewed cider before.
Wanted to try a beer but I don't have a cooking pot big enough to cook up 5 gallons.
Can you boil up a concentrated wort on the stove somehow and then just top up the carbuoy with water?

Many of us started exactly this way; "partial boil" method with extract. More interesting brews with extract, specialty grains, partial boil - wherein the specialty grains (milled) are soaked in 150F-160F water first to extract color and flavor, then a 5 gal pot boiled with 4 to 4-1/2 gal and some extract (mostly added late in the boil to reduce darkening) for the hopping schedule, then "top up" in the fermenter to 5 gal total at the end.

 

[ba-brewer]

The general rule of thumb is that you can make a full volume boil batch of beer that is 1/2 the volume of your kettle, 10gal kettle for a 5gal batch.

Brewing a concentrated brew with top up water reduces hop utilization and may affect the bitterness/balance of the beer if the recipe was designed for a full volume boil.

 

[mac_1103]

Can you boil up a concentrated wort on the stove somehow and then just top up the carbuoy with water?

As previous responses indicate, the short answer is "yes" and the longer answer is "it depends."

Wanted to try a beer but I don't have a cooking pot big enough to cook up 5 gallons.

What do you have?

I started with Brewer's Best kits. The instructions specifically mention doing a partial boil and recommend a 2.5 gallon minimum. Not knowing anything back then, I just assumed that a full boil would be better so I split it between the two largest pots I had. Both boiled over.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Brewing a concentrated brew with top up water reduces hop utilization and may affect the bitterness/balance of the beer if the recipe was designed for a full volume boil.

With DME/LME, a "partial boil with late additions" is generally designed to avoid a concentrated boil. There can be some loss of bitterness/balance (due to the lower water volume). How to Brew, 4e discusses this situation and didn't seem too concerned about the bitterness/balance changes for the "partial boil" process described in the book.

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Full volume boils (which include additional water for water that is boiled off) are generally better for 'extract' (as well as 'all-grain') - which is why I raised the idea of brewing a smaller batch size.

And any "partial boil" approach should also start with the additional water that would be boiled off.