Not a lot of water left...

[MichaelSterling]

All right I'm an extract brewer. When I brewed my last ESB I did the 60min boil with about 2.5 gals of water at the start. When the boil was over I was left with very little water. I was told you do not want to boil with a lid on the pot so I left it off. Also it was like 50'F outside where I did my boil. Any suggestions? Can I leave the lid on? Or maybe start the boil with 3 gal. Or maybe 4?

 

[JonK331]

You should boil as much water as your pot/kettle will hold without boiling over.
Only thing is that the increased volume of water will be harder to chill. Do you have an immersion chiller? How do to cool your wort?

 

[RM-MN]

Have you considered turning down the burner a bit? You need a boil, a gentle rolling boil. As long as its boiling, the temperature won't be changing until the concentration of sugars change. If you're boiling away that much liquid you have too much heat applied.

 

[maxamuus]

Have you considered turning down the burner a bit? You need a boil, a gentle rolling boil. As long as its boiling, the temperature won't be changing until the concentration of sugars change. If you're boiling away that much liquid you have too much heat applied.

+1

When i first start brewing i boiled the bejesus out of my wort. After a few brews in i learned it just needs to be a gentle boil. So get it boiling, back off the heat to where it just starts to stop boiling, add a little heat and that's a nice gentle roiling boil.

 

[skeeordye11]

Another idea if you are using a smaller pot is to keep some water boiling while the wort is boiling and if you start to notice the volume decreasing, pour some boiling water in there to got the volume back up. This will help with hop utilization as well.

 

[lx302]

Yes, too much heat. You should only be boiling away a 1/2gal at most.

 

[JonK331]

I agree that turning down the heat will help but more volume in the boil is better anyway.