Question about boil Volume

[Jkali860]

Hey Everyone,

I posted a few weeks ago concerned about adding .5 gallons of "top off" water to my 1 gallon IIPA batch. I under estimated how much wort would be lost in boil off and hop absorbtion and ended up with only .5 gallons of wort post boil.
I tested it a few days ago and it was very bitter carbonated water, which made sense to me after reading about hop utilization.

I recently made the same batch, except I added enough water to compensate for the hops and boil off and came out with exactly 1 gallon of wort.

I was confident that this would change the final product, but after some searching on here, I am starting to get a little concerned that boil volume doesn't really effect the final taste. Basically what I'm say is, does it matter if I boil with 1 gallon and top off, or should I boil with 1.5 gallons? Will this drastically effect the taste?

I am only 4 batches in to my home-brewing obsession, and am stumped by this (possibly out of stupidity).

Thanks!!!!

Cheers!

 

[Puddlethumper]

I don't have a really good answer for you because I have very limited experience with small batches. I suspect that you have far less margin for error in a smaller batch. If your boil volume is short it will magnify any problems. For example, if you are doing a 5 gal. batch and you are off by a quart on an initial 6.5 gal. boil, you have only missed by 4% or less. However, if you are off by a quart on a 1.5 gal. boil you've missed by 17%. That amount of difference has to have an impact on every aspect of the beer...flavor...s.g.... everything.

 

[Francus]

Yes, it will make a difference if you are adding hops. If you boil with one gallon and top off, the specific gravity of the wort during the boil will be higher than if you boil 1.5 gallons down. The higher specific gravity of the 1 gallon boil will make the bitterness from your hops harder to "infuse" into the beer. So, an identical recipe but one with a 1 gallon boil will have less bitterness than the 1.5 gallon one. You can overcome this by using more hops and there are programs out there to assist you in determining the correct amount. It isn't a 1:1 relationship.

That said, you should try and keep your process the same from batch to batch. That way you get a feel for how your beer turns out using the method you prefer. If you like 1 gallon boils then top off, then there is nothing wrong with it. And after a few batches you will get a feel for how much more hops you need to add for a recipe you found.

For one gallon batches the difference in the amount of hops isn't cost prohibitive. The bigger the batch, the bigger the difference and the cost of hops can add up.

 

[Jkali860]

I don't have a really good answer for you because I have very limited experience with small batches. I suspect that you have far less margin for error in a smaller batch. If your boil volume is short it will magnify any problems. For example, if you are doing a 5 gal. batch and you are off by a quart on an initial 6.5 gal. boil, you have only missed by 4% or less. However, if you are off by a quart on a 1.5 gal. boil you've missed by 17%. That amount of difference has to have an impact on every aspect of the beer...flavor...s.g.... everything.

To clarify, If you were making a IIPA and your usual pre-boil volume is 6.5 gallons, would you up that amount to make a final batch of 5 gallons, or would you just deal with a possible less amount of final boiled wort?

Thanks!

 

[gregfreemyer]

This is an interesting article about how to improve your extract brewing process:

https://byo.com/extract-brewing/item/10-10-steps-to-better-extract-brewing

I quote:

"The biggest improvement most extract brewers can make to their process is to boil their wort in a larger volume. Early homebrewing books instructed brewers to boil the malt extract for a 5-gallon (19-L) batch in as little as 1.5 gallons (5.7 L) of water. Although this is convenient, this convenience comes at a price. Boiling a thick wort is guaranteed to darken it unacceptably and severely limit the amount of hop bitterness. No matter what volume a recipe calls for, always boil your wort at the largest volume you can manage."

 

[Paradigm]

Idk if this is bad form, but I just top it up to 5 gallons when I'm done my boil, no measuring done.

 

[unionrdr]

I do pb/pm biab. I mash 5-6lbs of grains in 2 gallons of water,sparge with 1.5 gallons of water for 3.5 gallons boil volume in my 5 gallon kettle. Then when chilled to 75F or so,strain into the fermenter & top off with very well chilled water to recipe volume. This usually gives about 65F. Great pitch temp.

 

[Jkali860]

Idk if this is bad form, but I just top it up to 5 gallons when I'm done my boil, no measuring done.

That is what I did with my last batch of IIPA. The hops ended up absorbing so much wort I wasn't left with much, and added a considerable amount of water. But because of this, my final product was a very watery version of an IIPA.

 

[unionrdr]

It's not so much topping off the recipe volume,but having too small a boil volume to start with ime. Besides using the right amount of extract,mashed grains,etc... & of course enough hops for the style at the right times.

 

[helibrewer]

Hey Everyone,

I posted a few weeks ago concerned about adding .5 gallons of "top off" water to my 1 gallon IIPA batch. I under estimated how much wort would be lost in boil off and hop absorbtion and ended up with only .5 gallons of wort post boil.
I tested it a few days ago and it was very bitter carbonated water, which made sense to me after reading about hop utilization.

I recently made the same batch, except I added enough water to compensate for the hops and boil off and came out with exactly 1 gallon of wort.

I was confident that this would change the final product, but after some searching on here, I am starting to get a little concerned that boil volume doesn't really effect the final taste. Basically what I'm say is, does it matter if I boil with 1 gallon and top off, or should I boil with 1.5 gallons? Will this drastically effect the taste?

I am only 4 batches in to my home-brewing obsession, and am stumped by this (possibly out of stupidity).

Thanks!!!!

Cheers!

Ideally you want to avoid boiling wort that is higher in concentration than your post-boil OG. The main reasons for this are: 1) excess darkening of the wort (Maillard reactions), and 2) decreased hop utilization. The recipe is designed around a specific gravity which is where you want your boil to finish.

I would rather have too much water and boil longer, than boil off too much and over concentrate my kettle. Your target should be post-boil gravity, not batch volume. Hitting both is a win-win but post-boil gravity is what keeps your recipe true. A refractometer is a great tool for monitoring gravity through out the boil. Using it allows you to adjust your boil time or volume on the fly and keep your recipe true.

 

[Puddlethumper]

To clarify, If you were making a IIPA and your usual pre-boil volume is 6.5 gallons, would you up that amount to make a final batch of 5 gallons, or would you just deal with a possible less amount of final boiled wort?

I'm sorry, but I don't quite understand your question.

In reading the posts that followed this one I see you have gotten a lot of really good advice from other brewers. I hope those answered your concerns.

In short, you loose water volume during brewing three ways:

1. Grain absorbs some of the water
2. Boil-off will take some of your pre-boil water.
3. Hops/trub losses

Again, the larger the batch volume, the less impact a small miscalculation will have. And as mentioned in another post, it is ideal if you hit your original gravity with exactly the right amount of wort in the fermenter bucket (I usually want about 5.5 gal. in the fermenter for a 5 gal batch). But if you come up short or long on volume, if the gravity is OK then just let it ride. The beer will probably taste OK even if it isn't perfect. If the gravity is way over, you can probably add a little distilled or boiled water to top it off. If the gravity is low and the volume is off, well, all I can suggest is a trip to the dump and try again. Sorry.

The key here is to hit your gravity reading. If that is right, then it is a pretty good indicator that the rest of the process is OK.

Hope this is of some help.

Cheers!