Question about modifying brew volume

[beaglewrangler]

Hello everyone,

I'm an experienced beer drinker but a novice homebrewer. Got some basic equipment this past christmas and have brewed 3 prepackaged extract kits so far and have been very pleased with the results. I wanted to try something a little different so I went to my LHBS and bought the seperate ingredients to make one of their Irish Stout recipes. The boiling instructions are very different than the kits I've made so far and I have a question regarding the boil volume.

Here's the recipe and instructions up to the fermentation stage.

6 lbs Light Bulk Malt
1/2 lb Munich Malt, Crushed
1/4 lb Torr.Wheat, Crushed
1/2 lb Chocolate Grain, Crushed
1/2 lb Roasted Barley Grain, Crushed
1/2 lb Crystal Grain, Crushed
1 oz Northern Brewer Hops (bittering #1)
3/4 oz Perle Hops (bittering #2)
1 EDME Ale Yeast

1. Steep your grain - Place crushed grain in the muslin sack. In a 2 -3 gallon stainless or enamelware pot bring approximately 1 gallon of water to a boil, turn off heat, add the grain, cover and let steep for 30 minutes. Remove bag of grain and discard.
2. Boil your wort - Bring grain water to boil. Add package #1 of the bittering hops, boil for 20 minutes. Add the liquid malt, and stirring, return slowly to a boil. Once boiling add the #2 package of hops and boil another 20 minutes. Remove from heat.
3. Ferment - Place 2 gallons cold water into fermentation vessell, add wort, then add additional water to the 5 gallon mark. Check temp , pitch yeast and so on.....

My question is this: would it be acceptable (or even desireable) to add the steeped grain water to say 2 gallons of water then do the boil as described. I've read some stuff on here about hop utilization and such but I'm still not sure if it's ok. I've got a nice 8 gallon brew kettle and a burner I'd like to use but It doesn't seem sensible to use it for only a gallon. I'm wondering if these instructions we written to be as easy as possible for someone who doesn't have a large brew pot.

Any advice is appreciated

Thanks
Tim from Maryland

 

[optimatored]

Hello everyone,

I'm an experienced beer drinker but a novice homebrewer. Got some basic equipment this past christmas and have brewed 3 prepackaged extract kits so far and have been very pleased with the results. I wanted to try something a little different so I went to my LHBS and bought the seperate ingredients to make one of their Irish Stout recipes. The boiling instructions are very different than the kits I've made so far and I have a question regarding the boil volume.

Here's the recipe and instructions up to the fermentation stage.

6 lbs Light Bulk Malt
1/2 lb Munich Malt, Crushed
1/4 lb Torr.Wheat, Crushed
1/2 lb Chocolate Grain, Crushed
1/2 lb Roasted Barley Grain, Crushed
1/2 lb Crystal Grain, Crushed
1 oz Northern Brewer Hops (bittering #1)
3/4 oz Perle Hops (bittering #2)
1 EDME Ale Yeast

1. Steep your grain - Place crushed grain in the muslin sack. In a 2 -3 gallon stainless or enamelware pot bring approximately 1 gallon of water to a boil, turn off heat, add the grain, cover and let steep for 30 minutes. Remove bag of grain and discard.
2. Boil your wort - Bring grain water to boil. Add package #1 of the bittering hops, boil for 20 minutes. Add the liquid malt, and stirring, return slowly to a boil. Once boiling add the #2 package of hops and boil another 20 minutes. Remove from heat.
3. Ferment - Place 2 gallons cold water into fermentation vessell, add wort, then add additional water to the 5 gallon mark. Check temp , pitch yeast and so on.....

My question is this: would it be acceptable (or even desireable) to add the steeped grain water to say 2 gallons of water then do the boil as described. I've read some stuff on here about hop utilization and such but I'm still not sure if it's ok. I've got a nice 8 gallon brew kettle and a burner I'd like to use but It doesn't seem sensible to use it for only a gallon. I'm wondering if these instructions we written to be as easy as possible for someone who doesn't have a large brew pot.

Any advice is appreciated

Thanks
Tim from Maryland

if it were me... i would ignore the instructions and bring about 1-1.5 gallons of water up to 160 degrees, add my grains, wait 30min, place the grain sack into a collander, and pour like 1 gallon of water throgh it (to rinse)... then add enough water to get to my desired boil volume... then follow the directions from step 2.

 

[scoundrel]

Instead of adding the steeping water to an additional 2 gallons, you could just steep in 4 gallons or better yet just do a full boil (5 gal). You have a big enough pot and you won't lose anything by steeping then boiling in 5 gallons.

 

[AmandaK]

Instead of adding the steeping water to an additional 2 gallons, you could just steep in 4 gallons or better yet just do a full boil (5 gal). You have a big enough pot and you won't lose anything by steeping then boiling in 5 gallons.

It would be harder to chill... but if he's got a proper chiller, we're in the clear!

 

[beaglewrangler]

Thanks for the input guys.