Steeping volume

[stikolaboloni]

I'm a basic extract brewer and want to try steeping some caramel malts.

In Palmers book it says after steeping I just follow my regular extract brewing process by stirring in the malt extract and adding more water to the pot to bring the wort volume up to 3 gallons.

My question is, do i have to boil 3 gallons? Im used to boiling like 1.5g with the brewpot I have. What (if any) is the impact if I boil my normal amount and then just add the remaining water when fermenting to get up to 5g?

Lower OG? Less flavor from the specialty malt anything like that?

Thanks

 

[FarmBoy530]

Im a bit confused. If you normally only boil 1.5 gal where does the other 3.5 to 4.5 gal come from to make your batch? If you boil it separate and add it then do the same thing. nothing beats a full boil at 6+gal (or a boil down from 8gal when its from grain.) If you restate your question or clear it up someone may be able to help more! Good luck

 

[FarmBoy530]

Im a bit confused. If your used to boiling 1.5 gal then where do the other 3.5 to 4.5 gal come from to make your batch? If your doing a small boil then adding water then do the same thing. nothing beats a full boil though. 5.5 gal (or a boil down from 8 if its grain). try 1.25 quarts of water per lbs of grain + 1 or 2 gal to sparge em with. add that to your kettle and top to 6.5 gal. boil down to your 5.5 gal batch size. Add your lme/dme 1/2 at the beginning and 1/2 towards the end of your boil. This should help with any partial mash recipe. Good luck

 

[william_shakes_beer]

I have a 7.5 gal brew pot, but my stove can only boil about 3.5 gallons. so here's what I do;

1. add 3.5 gallons water to brew pot
2. stretch paint strainer over mouth of pot
3. heat water to steeping temps
4. toss in steeping grains, turn heat to low to maintain temp.
5. wait 1 hour
6. pull out grains, add extracts, boil, begin hops additions.
7. Cool wort, strain to fermenter
8. add water to acheive batch size (in my case 5 gallons)

Hope this helps

Hope this helps

 

[FarmBoy530]

Yup. Make sure the water you add is boiled and cooled just like your wort. Also sparge those grains with some 170' to boiling water. One or 2 gal will get any sugar u managed to convert (not much if its only crystal) and the thicker water stuck in your grain bag.

 

[unionrdr]

How small is your BK that "you're used to boiling only 1.5G of water"? Besides,a heavier,albeit thicker wort of 1G to 1.5G is going to be a bit harder to mix with the top off water. And they don't mix as easy as all that to start with. Not even going to get into hop utilization.

 

[FarmBoy530]

HAHA didn't even think about hops.. I'd just get a larger kettle!

 

[stikolaboloni]

Yeah, I'll be getting a bigger kettle at some point. The guy at the shop i go to wanted an arm and a leg so I just continued to use the one ive had which i'd say is 4.5. When I fill it with 3 gallons there's not much room leftover. Plus the brewshop, and palmers book, both said to just boil a gallon or two for extract and then too off to get 5g

Sorry for the confusion, thanks for the feedback

 

[FarmBoy530]

A couple things might happen here that I can think of. Now don't quote me word for word, just some things I think are worth mentioning. Anyone else pleas help me expand on these things. If your boiling 1.5 gal with 8 lbs of LME/DME your talking syrup. I would assume your getting a lot more caramelized sugar. HAHA this may cut your need for crystal malt! 2nd the hop utilization drops dramatically with less water. I.E. a 5 gal batch, 1.5 gal boil, 1oz 10aa for 60min gives you aprox. 7.5IBUs. change that to an 8 gal boil still 5 gal batch this will give you 37 IBUs! You'll spend enough on hops that you could have bought a kettle! Then also if your not using a bottling bucket the OG would be hard to take being as it has to be taken after you top off. There are plenty of other reasons to upgrade. even a $80 7.5g pot works great. Then you can do a 6 gal boil and boil down to 5.5 or 5g. Also your wort chiller will fit in there! I hope this helps at least a bit. Oh, and for your original question. To steep grain you'll need enough water to cover the grain, So thats probably a gal. + water to sparge the grain with, maybe 2 gal. So yea, I would say 3 is the least you could get away with. GOOD LUCK

 

[unionrdr]

When we 1st looked into home brewing,we kept an eye open for large pots going on sale. I found a set of 4 nested polished SS stock pots with lids & steamer trays at Giant Eagle for $25. I use the 5 gallon,20qt one for a BK. 3G boils still leave a good amount of head space. My wife even used the 4 gallon one on our electric stove. Started with 3G,steamed off to about 2.5 by the time it was boiling. We generally use only 1.5-2lbs of plain DME in the boil for hop additions.

 

[stikolaboloni]

Very much appreciate your insights, particularly on hop utilization which I honestly had no idea was impacted that much. Officially sold on upgrading my brew pot!

 

[FarmBoy530]

Congratulations Those hop numbers were just what my calc pumped out so don't take me word for word on it! But it definitely makes a big difference!