Hey, i don't have the capability currently to do a full boil so i have been following the partial boil recipe in the kits i use. My question is if i am boiling half my batch of water could i do half the dme or lme in water without hops and the rest with the hops? I realize hops utilization will be different.
partial boil question
- Thread starter scottab
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Why are you making it so complicated? Do a partial boil with all of the DME and LME and then cool, move to fermenter, then top off to 5 gallons. There is no need to split the boil and and boil all of the water. Just top off with sanitary water.
Yes this is what I do and I believe it's the best approach to partial boil. Just use enough malt in your main boil to get the boil gravity to approx where it would be if you were doing a full boil. Then you can assume normal hops utillisation and not need to add any extra hops. The remaining extract just needs to be disolved and sanitised or pasturised by mixing with hot water in another pot and giving it a short boil or just holding it at a high temp for about 15 mins.
DrummerBoySeth
Well-Known Member
Also, brewing software (like beersmith, etc.) will allow you to input a recipe and by changing the boil volume you can see how different size boils will affect hops utilization, and so on. This allows you to see how much changing the boil volume will change a recipe, without having to brew a test batch and see how it turns out.
I think that would work--so you're saying 2 separate boils?
What I've done has been half of the extract in about 1/2 of the water, with all of the hops. Add the remainder of extract at flameout and let it sit 5 minutes, cool and top up to the desired volume in the fermenter. This very general approach came right out of brewing classic styles; it's worked well for me.
What I've done has been half of the extract in about 1/2 of the water, with all of the hops. Add the remainder of extract at flameout and let it sit 5 minutes, cool and top up to the desired volume in the fermenter. This very general approach came right out of brewing classic styles; it's worked well for me.
I don't agree that this is complicated and it provides these benefits:
1. Reduce risk of caramilization due to highly concentrated wort
2. Regular hops utillisation
3. Doesn't kill your boil as can happen with the regular late extract approach
4. Easier to cool 2 seperate pots than one bigger one if you don't have an immersion chiller
I believe it has the benefits I listed compared to doing a concentrated wort boil. You don't actually need to add so much water to the remaining malt extract but since you're planning on boiling all your water anyway its a perfectly fine approach as long as you have the ability to chill everything down to pitching temp in a reasonable time. How do you chill? Usually I do my second boil for the remaining extract with a smaller amount of water and then top up with cold water in the fermenter as it helps me to reach the target temp.
Same as me then. It can really help you get down to target pitching temps if you don't add all your remaining water to the second pot and instead top up the fermenter with cold water. You can even have some water chilled to help bring down the temps.
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