So..Did I order a kettle thats TOO big?

[Thehopguy]

I ordered a 9 gallon (36 quart) kettle to start off my homebrewing hobby... Now I'm wondering if this is TOO big??

I read that full boils make better beers but after reading into it more I realize theres more to it (like decreasing hops) that I'm just not familiar with yet and I think for my very FIRST homebrew.. I should just partial boil like the recipe calls without straying too much from the original directions..

So now I'll be doing a partial boil in a 9 gallon kettle! :cross:

Good...bad?? Partial or Full?? Any advice or comments are appreciated, thanks

 

[BendBrewer]

I would trown the directions away and get some better ones right here so that you can do a full boil. The only difference is going to be how much water you start with at boil.

Go full. Shoot for 6.25 gallons pre-boil volume. Boil away and add hops when instructed.

 

[sonex]

your good, that kettle should be fine for partial extract brewing

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

never too big IMO...and sometimes brewing is made to be a HUGE deal and rocket science. if you wanna jump in with both feet go for it. I suggest you pick recipes from off of here and follow those for a while before attempting your own. It is not THAT hard to do.

 

[Thehopguy]

hmm okay... So if I was gonna go for the full boil how would I change my hops.. is there a rule of thumb or is it guess work??

 

[grace1760]

I ordered a 9 gallon (36 quart) kettle to start off my homebrewing hobby... Now I'm wondering if this is TOO big??

I read that full boils make better beers but after reading into it more I realize theres more to it (like decreasing hops) that I'm just not familiar with yet and I think for my very FIRST homebrew.. I should just partial boil like the recipe calls without straying too much from the original directions..

So now I'll be doing a partial boil in a 9 gallon kettle! :cross:

Good...bad?? Partial or Full?? Any advice or comments are appreciated, thanks

I too am a noob, but I'll share my experience here. I have two batches under my belt, and I have a 10-gallon kettle. Note that the larger kettles tend to have higher rates of evaporation due to the larger surface area. My first batch I started with about 6 gallons, and by the time I was done I had 4 (with no clean top-off water).

Even though I did full boils (or attempting full boils), I did not adjust hops at all, based on some advice I received on HBT. One of the kits I did was an IPA, so I wasn't that concerned with too much hop flavor.

However, as I understand it there are calculators and/or software available that will tell you how to adjust hop additions for full volume boils.

I personally think if you have the equipment and your stove/burner can handle boiling 6-7 gallons of water (this can take a LONG time) then why not go full boil?

 

[BendBrewer]

No, don't change the hops. Some people will talk about hop utilization rates with gravities but for a 5 gallon batch I'll bet whoever put that kit together didn't think about that rate one bit.

What is in the kit besides hops? Extract and grains or just extract?

 

[HomerJR]

Another vote for full boil. And if it were me, I wouldn't make any changes to the hops. I can't see it making a significant difference.

 

[finley]

You can still do a partial boil in a large pot, there's no reason it should be a problem, other than awkwardness of moving it around, and putting it on the stove.

 

[wyzazz]

hmm okay... So if I was gonna go for the full boil how would I change my hops.. is there a rule of thumb or is it guess work??

FWIW, I wouldn't change the hop bill. It won't make so big of a difference as to make the beer completely different anyway.

BUT if you'd like you can post the recipe and I'll adjust the hops for your with Beersmith. Just make sure to include the boil volume you are using as well.

 

[Thehopguy]

My recipe is basically as follows... Its a kit from Northern Brewers (Sierra Madre Pale Ale) except that I ordered the extracts and grain and yeast etc seperately so I can add my own preffered blend of hops ( I love ales, and know what I really like and what I kinda like)

I know it was a bit more expensive to purchase seperately but this way I really feel like I'm creating my own beer

.5 Lbs of "Briess" Caramel Malt 60L -- Specialty Grains

1 lb Golden light DME
6 lbs Gold malt LME
Wyeast 1056 American Ale

The recipe calls for these hops
-- 0.5 oz Summit (60 min)
-- 1 oz Perle (20 min)
-- 2 oz Cascade (0 min)

Im changing this to...
-- 1 oz Chinook (60 min)
-- .5 oz Amarillo and .5 oz Simcoe (20 min)
-- .5 oz Amarillo and .5 oz Simcoe(0 min)

and dry hopping with more simcoe and amarillo.. .5 of each

I love hoppy beers!!

Whatcha guys think?? thanks

Oh and I want to do a fullboil if I can but if not it would be 3 gallons partial boil

 

[BendBrewer]

I like your changes and thinking you have 2 oz of Simcoe and Amarillo I would add another .5 oz of each at 5 minutes too.

 

[grace1760]

I love hoppy beers!!

Then there's certainly no reason to adjust the hop bill! :fro:

 

[frankstoneline]

beercalculus.hopville.com
use their recipe calculator, then you can see the ibu's and modify to your preference. if you are looking for flavor/aroma from the 20 minute addition i'd bump it to a 10 minute addition, i've found that much of the desired aroma i look for gets lost at 20 minutes.

 

[scoundrel]

+1 on leaving the hops alone. Full boils for me are just easier and if you come up short, add a little water back. I've added un-boiled water from the tap many times to make up the difference and it always turns out great.

 

[BryceL]

You can still do a partial boil in a large pot, there's no reason it should be a problem, other than awkwardness of moving it around, and putting it on the stove.

+1 Nothing wrong with doing a partial boil in a large pot, but my vote is for full boil. Plus with that big of a pot you have room to move into partial mash brewing. Once you get a few brews under your belt you will probably want to move in that direction.

 

[Thehopguy]

I love the quick and helpful responses from everyone here, Thanks all! :rockin:

 

[Hovercar]

I do 5 gallon boils in a 30 gallon pot. No issues.

 

[frankstoneline]

just ran your recipe in the calc. looks like you are well into IPA territory with that hop profile (depending on specific AA's of the hops you have) however, I get ~58ibu's.

 

[BendBrewer]

just ran your recipe in the calc. looks like you are well into IPA territory with that hop profile (depending on specific AA's of the hops you have) however, I get ~58ibu's.

What did you use for hop utilization rate?

Those calculators are a shot in the dark.

 

[wyzazz]

My recipe is basically as follows... Its a kit from Northern Brewers (Sierra Madre Pale Ale) except that I ordered the extracts and grain and yeast etc seperately so I can add my own preffered blend of hops ( I love ales, and know what I really like and what I kinda like)

I know it was a bit more expensive to purchase seperately but this way I really feel like I'm creating my own beer

.5 Lbs of "Briess" Caramel Malt 60L -- Specialty Grains

1 lb Golden light DME
6 lbs Gold malt LME
Wyeast 1056 American Ale

The recipe calls for these hops
-- 0.5 oz Summit (60 min)
-- 1 oz Perle (20 min)
-- 2 oz Cascade (0 min)

Im changing this to...
-- 1 oz Chinook (60 min)
-- .5 oz Amarillo and .5 oz Simcoe (20 min)
-- .5 oz Amarillo and .5 oz Simcoe(0 min)

and dry hopping with more simcoe and amarillo.. .5 of each

I love hoppy beers!!

Whatcha guys think?? thanks

Oh and I want to do a fullboil if I can but if not it would be 3 gallons partial boil

If you cut that 60min Chinook addition in half, you will have almost exactly the same IBU's doing a full volume boil as you would with the 1oz of Chinook in a 3 gallon boil.

 

[Thehopguy]

If im into IPA territory do i need to increase my malt or anything??
And IPA territory isnt a bad thing for me.. My goal is a very hoppy APA ( think Alpine Hoppy Birthday or Drakes 1500 Pale Ale)

I like my beers more hoppy than malty for SURE but I just dont want it to be so bitter its not drinkable.

 

[wyzazz]

If im into IPA territory do i need to increase my malt or anything??
And IPA territory isnt a bad thing for me.. My goal is a very hoppy APA ( think Alpine Hoppy Birthday or Drakes 1500 Pale Ale)

I like my beers more hoppy than malty for SURE but I just dont want it to be so bitter its not drinkable.

You'll be at around 60-65 IBU's if you use all the hops as the schedule sits right now. If you're going to do this as an IPA then I'd increase the C60 to a full pound and maybe add another pound of DME to give the hops something to stand on. JMHO...

 

[Thehopguy]

thanks wyzazz for the comments and also for the calculations...

But I'm not necessarily doing this as an IPA... I do want a more modest ABV% but basically have it as hoppy and aromatic as a nice IPA...

With this being the case should I just go for it and see how it turns out???

I will increase/decrease my first additions depending on whether I full boil or partial boil.

 

[wyzazz]

thanks wyzazz for the comments and also for the calculations...

But I'm not necessarily doing this as an IPA... I do want a more modest ABV% but basically have it as hoppy and aromatic as a nice IPA...

With this being the case should I just go for it and see how it turns out???

I will increase/decrease my first additions depending on whether I full boil or partial boil.

Sure thing! Well with the grain bill you've got around a 1.055OG so depending on where your FG ends up you could be in the 4.7-5.7% range give or take a bit. I think it will make a nice APA as it is.

 

[CTownBrewer]

Maybe I missed it...what are you brewing on? Do you have a propane burner or going stovetop?

I ask because before I went all-grain w/propane it took me about 1 hr+ to get 5 gallons boiling on my electric stove top with the cover on. You may want to consider that too before making a decision on a full boil. Ideally, you don't want to have the cover on when brewing because DMS is driven off during the boil...more of an all-grain & partial mash concern though.

I like your hop changes! I just brewed up an ipa with those hops & it is delicious. You'll get better hop utilization if you go with a full boil if you're able to.

 

[Valcarde]

If you cut that 60min Chinook addition in half, you will have almost exactly the same IBU's doing a full volume boil as you would with the 1oz of Chinook in a 3 gallon boil.

I suppose I'm missing something, or not understanding how IBU's are calculated or how hop utilization works.

If the boil is a full volume boil, how does using 0.5 oz of hops give the same IBU's as a full oz of hops in a 3 gallon boil? Wouldn't that make the IBU's lower?

 

[wyzazz]

I suppose I'm missing something, or not understanding how IBU's are calculated or how hop utilization works.

If the boil is a full volume boil, how does using 0.5 oz of hops give the same IBU's as a full oz of hops in a 3 gallon boil? Wouldn't that make the IBU's lower?

In a 3 gallon boil the wort is more concentrated, more like a syrup consistency than a water consistency. This drops the utilization of the hops down quite a bit.

THIS might help explain it a bit.

 

[Moonlighter]

Did I miss something in this thread, or don't you have to consider the amount of time needed to chill the wort when you move to full boil?

 

[wyzazz]

Did I miss something in this thread, or don't you have to consider the amount of time needed to chill the wort when you move to full boil?

That should be a consideration no matter how large your boil is. Worst case scenario is dropping it in to a bathtub full of cold water, adding ice to keep it cooling.