Question about first attempted full boil

[WillieBananas]

I am currently doing my first extract full boil. I ran into a problem,when I was rinsing the steeping grains. I have about 2 gallons of the grain steeped wort that wont fir into my brew pot. Can I just use this to top of my wort in the fermeneter? I hope this makes sense, writing in a hurry

 

[freisste]

I would add during the boil. Or at least boil it in a different pot so it is sanitary, once boiled (actually, just get it above 160 to pasteurize), put it in the freezer to cool it so it will help cool the rest of the wort.

 

[BeerLoverHere]

Yes, try to boil it in another pot!

 

[WillieBananas]

Then add it to the fermenter with the hopped wort? I was worrying about it messing with the hop flavor, but I assume it probably will be fine.

 

[freisste]

Then add it to the fermenter with the hopped wort? I was worrying about it messing with the hop flavor, but I assume it probably will be fine.

It will have an effect. You are combining wort with roughly the right amount of hops with wort that has no hops. This will have a bigger effect if it is very hoppy (like an IPA) or if the second pot has a lot of wort to boil (like 25%+).

Same effect in hops as adding pure water.

 

[WillieBananas]

So I guess the question I should be asking is, if I were to top off the fermenter to 6gal should i use the unhopped wort or just plain water? The brew is a citra and cascade hopped APA. Not overly hopped, but a nice hop profile. I hope.

 

[BeerLoverHere]

I just made a big IPA/APA during this MidWest blizzard last week. Since it was so cold out, I had to go back to my roots: my stove top! I boiled everything in 2 separate stock pots on my stove top. Each had about half of the wort. I just split my hops up and added them evenly when following my hop schedule. I've done it this way before and it works fine! This is what I suggest and then top off with bottled/clean/sanitized cold water at the end.

There are better ways perhaps, but do you have the resources? Either way you do it, as long as you clean/sanitize well, have lots of healthy yeast, and ferment in low 60s for ale yeast, you will have a nice citrusy American Ale!

 

[freisste]

So I guess the question I should be asking is, if I were to top off the fermenter to 6gal should i use the unhopped wort or just plain water? The brew is a citra and cascade hopped APA. Not overly hopped, but a nice hop profile. I hope.

If it was really hoppy, I would be worried that you saturated the smaller vessel with hops and then diluted it with what you added. Since yours is not so hoppy, I wouldn't worry about it.

Definitely top off with the extra wort, not water. Maybe I am misunderstanding this options, but you don't want to throw any wort away.

You could also definitely do what someone else just mentioned and add a small amount of hops to the second boil kettle. That is probably the best option, IF you are able to cool. without a wort chiller, it is going to take a long time to cool all that wort.