Input needed for full boils.

[fishnfever]

Hello all,
I recently received a keg for free and it already had a ball valve installed. Right now I am only doing extracts BUT want to start doing them with a full boil.

My questions are, Should I use more than five gallons of water to brew? I also read that you use 15-25% less hops?? So instead of using 1 once of hops if a recipe or kit calls for it I would use less. Is this true?

Is there any issues doing any kit this way? Would I change every batch the Same way? Hop and water amount?



What is a good chiller to use in my keggle? I was thinking a wort chiller but they seem to short to extend out above the keg.

*edit* I just looked into wort chillers a little more and think I could use a standerd chiller. The hoses would just have to bend out the top of the keggle a little bit.

 

[Southwood]

Congratulations on a great score! You will get better hop utilization, I'd suggest plugging your numbers into some brewing software and make adustments based on that. There are even some free online programs like Recipator you could use, but I suggest investing in a program of your own.

Cheers!

 

[TexLaw]

Yes, you need to start with more than five gallons for a full wort boil. You need to account for the amount of water you will boil off. That varies for everyone. Most folks boil off around one gallon per hour, but don't take that as gospel. I boil off around 1.5 gallons/hour. You'll just have to see how things go for your system. A keg is a very large vessel for boiling a five-gallon batch, so you should expect your boiloff to be on the higher end. You can always add water at the end or boil off more before your later hop additions, if you need to.

On those hops, your hop utilization will increase, but the amount it increases depends entirely on what volume you were boiling before. I don't keep all those formulas in my head, or even on paper. Instead, I rely on brewing calculators. I use Beersmith, nowadays, to calculate IBUs. However, there are free calculators on the web, if you are interested.

On wort chillers, I still use an immersion chill and doubt I will ever change. It's more a matter of personal preference whether you use an IC or a counterflow chiller, though. No matter what, you should use a chiller for full wort boil.

Congratulations on the keg score!


TL

 

[jds]

Congrats from me also. Along with full boils, look around HBT for "late extract addition", which is another great improvement step for extract brewing.

As for the hops issue, I'm not as convinced as some other folks about the effect of gravity on utilization in extract beer. In this interview on Basic Brewing Radio in March of last year, Palmer discusses hop utilization at some length, and mentions that much of the drop in utilization in big beers is due to the presence of hot break material, which carries alpha acids out of solution.

Extract, having already been boiled, naturally has less hot break when it's rehydrated and boiled again, so it seems like utilization should not be as reduced in big extract beers vs. big AG beer.

So, like all things brewing, I think you need to try a batch or two, see what you like, and then tweak what you brew to fit your own palate.

YMMV and all that.

 

[fishnfever]

Yes, you need to start with more than five gallons for a full wort boil. You need to account for the amount of water you will boil off. That varies for everyone. Most folks boil off around one gallon per hour, but don't take that as gospel. I boil off around 1.5 gallons/hour. You'll just have to see how things go for your system. A keg is a very large vessel for boiling a five-gallon batch, so you should expect your boiloff to be on the higher end. You can always add water at the end or boil off more before your later hop additions, if you need to.

On those hops, your hop utilization will increase, but the amount it increases depends entirely on what volume you were boiling before. I don't keep all those formulas in my head, or even on paper. Instead, I rely on brewing calculators. I use Beersmith, nowadays, to calculate IBUs. However, there are free calculators on the web, if you are interested.

On wort chillers, I still use an immersion chill and doubt I will ever change. It's more a matter of personal preference whether you use an IC or a counterflow chiller, though. No matter what, you should use a chiller for full wort boil.

Congratulations on the keg score!




TL

I'm sorry to ask this,

I just downloaded beer smith so I can try to under stand all this lol. Can you give me a run down on what I should be doing to get this under control?

 

[jds]

Sure.

Beersmith has a funny way of tracking boiloff, in percentage loss per hour of boil.

Suppose you boil off 1 gallon per hour. Your boiloff rate would then be 20% per hour in a five gallon batch, but only 10% per hour in a ten gallon batch. The only way to know for sure is to boil and measure.

Since you're brewing with extract, it's no big deal to be a little off in volume calculations. It's better to undercompensate for boiloff (as in, "I don't have five gallons in the fermenter", since you can always top off before pitching yeast.)

The best thing, in my opinion, is to start a half gallon or so above your target volume, and carefully measure how much you boil off in the first batch. Using that number, you can then set Beersmith to use the appropriate rate for your system.

As for the IBU calculations, it's fairly automatic. If you set the recipe up properly and have the hop additions and Alpha acid percentages correct (and don't trust the pre-set values -- hops vary from year to year ), then Beersmith will give you a decent AAU calculation, although it seems to figure the "Bigness" factor for the IBU calculations the same for extract and AG brews. Play with it. You'll figure it out.

 

[BigNastyBrew]

Man! Congrats on the score!

Your boiloff will also depend on how vigorous the boil is too.

I still don't have mine dialed in yet but I'm getting there.

 

[fishnfever]

Sure.

Beersmith has a funny way of tracking boiloff, in percentage loss per hour of boil.

Suppose you boil off 1 gallon per hour. Your boiloff rate would then be 20% per hour in a five gallon batch, but only 10% per hour in a ten gallon batch. The only way to know for sure is to boil and measure.

Since you're brewing with extract, it's no big deal to be a little off in volume calculations. It's better to undercompensate for boiloff (as in, "I don't have five gallons in the fermenter", since you can always top off before pitching yeast.)

The best thing, in my opinion, is to start a half gallon or so above your target volume, and carefully measure how much you boil off in the first batch. Using that number, you can then set Beersmith to use the appropriate rate for your system.

As for the IBU calculations, it's fairly automatic. If you set the recipe up properly and have the hop additions and Alpha acid percentages correct (and don't trust the pre-set values -- hops vary from year to year ), then Beersmith will give you a decent AAU calculation, although it seems to figure the "Bigness" factor for the IBU calculations the same for extract and AG brews. Play with it. You'll figure it out.

Okay I was just thinking that. I was playing around with beer smith and found out how to get the correct % of hops of use. On an Irish red ale doing a 6 gallon boil instead of 1.5 gallon boil says to only use 0.82 onces of hop instead of the full once. Don't seam like that much of a difference.

 

[fishnfever]

I just did the same recipe again. After playing with it I screwed it up lol. Well any ways Now I am getting to use 0.43 onces with a 6 gallon boil instead of the once for a 1.5 gallon boil


Does this seam correct??????????????