Just did my first full boil - Question about water lost in the boil

[Airspeed]

Hi,

I just did my first full boil on wort. I have been very successful with partial boils, but now I decided to spring for a black star burner and a tall boy brewpot, doing 5 gallon boils.

The boil lost about 0.5 to 0.6 gallons, so I added water back into the fermenter to get a full 5 gallons. So here is my question:

What do most of you do when you do a full boil? Start with 5.6 gallons and pour five gallons into the fermenter after cooldown, or start with five and lose the half gallon on the boil and add water back in afterwards?

Thanks!

 

[Psylocide]

A full boil would be starting with a known target volume into the fermenter (sounds like 5 gals in your case), and boiling the amount of water needed to get to that qty with your known boil-off rate.

For example, if you boil off .6 gal, then you should start with 5.6 gal to get 5 gal into the fermenter, without adding water afterward.

 

[blizz81]

Hi,

I just did my first full boil on wort. I have been very successful with partial boils, but now I decided to spring for a black star burner and a tall boy brewpot, doing 5 gallon boils.

The boil lost about 0.5 to 0.6 gallons, so I added water back into the fermenter to get a full 5 gallons. So here is my question:

What do most of you do when you do a full boil? Start with 5.6 gallons and pour five gallons into the fermenter after cooldown, or start with five and lose the half gallon on the boil and add water back in afterwards?

Thanks!

So long as your boil kettle can handle it, it would be optimal to start with (total collected volume) + (boil off volume) and boil down to your desired total collected volume.

 

[two_one_seven]

I personally use a 10 gallon kettle and do 7 gallon boils. Every system is different but more room is always better to prevent boil overs. A full boil is a baby step towards all grain, congrats.

Brian

 

[two_one_seven]

duplicate….sorry

 

[Sailingeric]

I add the water back.

 

[Airspeed]

I figured it would be better in the future to do 5.6 gallons in the boil. I have the room in the brew pot.

It is good to know, though, how much water I will lose.

I don't think adding the water back in, the way I did in this batch, is really detrimental. It is still a much better wort boil then the half boils I have been doing.

 

[xben]

I never add water, unless my pre-boil gravity tells me the the OG will be to high, according to my boil-off rate. Otherwise, I let it go and deal with the final volume, whatever it is!

 

[IslandLizard]

I find reaching the target OG (after boil is done) more important than actual volume. When OG was overshot, yes adding some water to bring it back down to the proper OG makes sense.

When sizing your recipe, you include expected boil off, equipment and racking losses so you will end up closer to your (for example) target 5 gallons in the keg or bottles. If you come up short make adjustments for the next batch.

 

[Yooper]

I figured it would be better in the future to do 5.6 gallons in the boil. I have the room in the brew pot.

It is good to know, though, how much water I will lose.

I don't think adding the water back in, the way I did in this batch, is really detrimental. It is still a much better wort boil then the half boils I have been doing.

Adding the water back in isn't a problem, but it's great to start with enough water so that you end up with the proper volume. Many people with burners boil off 1 gallon an hour or more, so once you know how much you will burn off, that's great to know.

I live in a fairly dry climate, especially in the winter, and in the winter I'll easily boil off 2 gallons per hour. In the summer, it's more like 1.5 gallons usually, but if it is a humid day it will be less.

 

[ajdelange]

I'm after as much beer as I can get and don't much care about ± 0.5P on the OG so after the boil I top up to the rim of the kettle before running off through the wort chiller.

 

[Calypso]

I don't think adding the water back in, the way I did in this batch, is really detrimental. It is still a much better wort boil then the half boils I have been doing.

It isn't *necessarily* a problem. There are two risks however.

1) The water could introduce spoilage organisms (unlikely, but possible).

2) The water could contain chlorine / chloramine.

 

[toolboxales]

I never add water, unless my pre-boil gravity tells me the the OG will be to high, according to my boil-off rate. Otherwise, I let it go and deal with the final volume, whatever it is!

This! I made an IPA a couple months back. Started with 6 gallons but somehow boiled off 2.5. Never happened before and I didn't top up the water, just let it ride.that was the best IPA I have made so far!

 

[brewcat]

My last brew I added 1 gallon back. I boiled off a lot more than normal. I've also added too much and had to do a 90 minute boil and change hop additions on the fly.

I find full boils really help extract recipes. My recipes that I had only done partial boils were that much better when introduced with a full boil.

 

[Airspeed]

It isn't *necessarily* a problem. There are two risks however.

1) The water could introduce spoilage organisms (unlikely, but possible).

2) The water could contain chlorine / chloramine.

Deer Park Spring Water is all I brew with. So chlorine is not an issue.

That batch turned out great. Now I made a new batch using anticipated boil-off, i.e. 5.6 gallons of water for a five gallon batch. It yielded exactly the results I wanted - five full gallons.