Recipe kit - adding water

[ottermarble]

First time post - Why do some\most of the pre-packed recipe kits say to boil 2.5 to 3 gal. of water to start the recipe. You then fill the fermenter with 2 gal. of cold water. Then after chill\siphoning to fermenter they tell you to add additional cold water to fill fermenter to 5 gal. Is this just clean water or water that has been sterilized. You have to sanitize all fermentation equipment - siphon wort to fermenter - then just pour in cold water. Recipe from
Midwest Irish Red ale. Is it always OK to do this on any recipe without infecting the wort.

 

[VikeMan]

First time post - Why do some\most of the pre-packed recipe kits say to boil 2.5 to 3 gal. of water to start the recipe. You then fill the fermenter with 2 gal. of cold water. Then after chill\siphoning to fermenter they tell you to add additional cold water to fill fermenter to 5 gal.

Most extract kit recipes are written this way because they assume you don't have a big enough kettle (and/or heat source) to boil a full batch.

Is this just clean water or water that has been sterilized. You have to sanitize all fermentation equipment - siphon wort to fermenter - then just pour in cold water. Recipe from
Midwest Irish Red ale. Is it always OK to do this on any recipe without infecting the wort.

Personally, I would boil and chill. But I suspect lots of people don't.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

A couple of gallons of distilled or RO water is an alternative to boiling tap water (and treating it to remove chlorine/chloramine).

 

[Jag75]

When I did those kits I'd boil 3 gallons and have 2 gallons of ro water in the fridge for top off. It was my quickest means of getting the wort to pitching temp.

 

[Alphadawg]

Never had an issue and it helps with cooling the wort