Question about adding water

[gratefulfloyd]

So I am doing a modified version of Yooper's DFH 60 Minute IPA and it says to boil in 2.5 gallons of water and once it is cooled put it in the carboy then fill up to the 5 gallon mark with cooled water. Would it be fine to just use bottled, distilled water or do I need to boil it first? Alternatively couldn't I just do 5.5 to 6 gallons in my kettle and add water if necessary?

Thanks y'all

 

[Sippin37]

Yes bottled water is fine to top off with, no need to boil that. And yes full boils are fine as well, I think they end up tasting a little better too IMO.

 

[schokie]

Agreed, bottled or distiller water is fine. Don't tell anyone, but I often use top off water straight from the tap.

A full volume boil is considered best practice for extract brewing. However, it will affect your hop utilization since you won't be watering down your wort at the end. That generally means you can use less hops, or accept the higher IBUs.

 

[gratefulfloyd]

I'm doing extract + 1 lb of 40L. I was also wondering what the best method to take gravity would be if I don't do a full boil? Mix up the wort and water and then take a reading? Will that be accurate? My last batch I did all 5 gallons but it was quite heavy.

 

[schokie]

Mix up the wort and water and then take a reading? Will that be accurate?

Yes, that's the way to do it. It's accurate enough, assuming that you mix well. The common problem is poor mixing leads to wort stratification which then affects your gravity reading.

The easiest way though, is to calculate your gravity ahead of time and skip the hydrometer. It's ok if you want the hydro practice, but extract is going to be plus or minus a couple gravity points of calculated.

How much extract? 5 gal batch?

 

[gratefulfloyd]

9.5 lbs of pale malt extract. 1 lb of Crystal 40L.

 

[schokie]

That should give you an OG of about 1.076, assuming DME, a 2.5 gal boil, and exactly 5.0 gal into the fermentor.

You might get plus or minus a couple points depending on your assumptions, but that's what BeerSmith gives. It'll certainly be within a normal margin of error.

 

[gratefulfloyd]

Thanks man, can't wait to get this brew under my belt. After this one I'll probably try AG