Strange kit instructions

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HappyDrunk

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I have a German wheat beer (weizenbeir) kit that only came with 1/2lb of Cara Pils for grains. Because of the tiny amount of grains, it says to start with only 1 gal. of water to steep in. According to John Palmer, that's still too much. Should I try even going down to 1/2 gallon? Secondly, they NEVER say when to add the other 4 gallons of water! Should I add half after steeping, when I add in the extract or just top off all 4 gallons on top of the concentrated wort? Included in the kit were:

6.6 lbs Wheat Malt Syrup
1/2 lbs Cara Pils
3 oz. Hallertau (1/3 added at beginning, 1/3 added with 15 mins left, 1/3 added with 5 mins left)
Yeast

I would appreciate any help. I was planning on starting this in the next hour, but now I'm a little worried.
 
Since you are steeping grains (vice mashing them) it doesn't really matter how much water you use. Steeping grains is done to extract flavor and color and very little fermentable sugar is extracted.

EDIT: Also, Cara pils are most often used to add some head retention and mouthfeel.

EDIT 2: As far as the four gallons, this is really personal preference. I prefer to do a full boil. You will need more than 4 gallons to reach the 5 gallon mark after boiling. I usually boil ~6 gallons of wort for an hour and get 5 gallons after evaporation loss and cooling.
 
I know it doesn't give any fermentable sugars, but I've been reading that it will release tannins and change the pH of the water too much if you use too much water. I'll keep reading. When do I add the water? When I add the extract or just top off?

EDIT: Just saw your edits, lol. So, do you think it will be cool to steep in 1 gal, add 1.5 gallons and the LME, boil for 60 w/ hop additions, and then top off with another 2.5 gallons?
 
Tannis are extracted at higher temps. You won't have tannins extracted for a 20 minute steep (as long as you keep it around ~150.

For water additions you can either do a partial boil or a full boil. It's your preference.
 
Thanks, man! Any estimate on the OG? I keep seeing around 1.050 for german wheat beers ... sound about right?
 
Eh, I don't have enough info to fill that out. What I put up top is ALL I know about the ingredients. All it says for the extract is Wheat Malt Syrup, can't find that anywhere on that site. All I know about the grain is "Cara Pils" (sic). Oh well, I guess I'll just brew and hope for the best, lol.
 
I get an est. OG of 1.052 using BeerSmith with a 5 gallon batch size. I would keep your steeping liquid at about 1.5 qts per pound of grain. pH is a factor when steeping, you don't want a solution that is too dilute or your pH can get high.

Once you have recovered your steeping wort, which won't be much with only 1/2 pound, add the rest of your water to reach your boil volume. For a full boil that would be close to 6.5 gallons giving you an estimated pre-boil gravity of about 1.042
 
One thing I want to point out that no one has mentioned...
You get a different hop contribution based on the amount of water they are boiled in. Once you steep the grains, you should top up the kettle as close as you can to the full volume without boiling it over. This gives you the most accurate hops bitterness contribution to the flavor of you beer.
 
@dbreienrk1: Lallemand/Danstar Munich wheat beer yeast

@helibrewer: 1.5 QUARTS per pound?? So I'm going to be steeping in .75 quarts of water .. 24 oz? I guess I could do that, and just steep in a little pot instead of my 5 gallon.

@Zzhops: Good catch! I can't do a full boil though. Do you think I should just use half the hops they gave me (in half the total volume of water/wort)?
 
Here is what I input:
0.5 lbs Cara-Pils® Malt; Briess info
6.6 lbs Liquid Wheat Extract info
1 oz Hallertau (Pellets, 4.50 %AA) boiled 60 min. info
1 oz Hallertau (Pellets, 4.50 %AA) boiled 15 min. info
1 oz Hallertau (Pellets, 4.50 %AA) boiled 5 min. info
Yeast : WYeast 3333 German Wheat™ info

Original Gravity 1.051
Terminal Gravity 1.01
Color 10.88 °SRM
Bitterness 30.5 IBU
Alcohol (%volume) 5.30%
 
Tannis are extracted at higher temps. You won't have tannins extracted for a 20 minute steep (as long as you keep it around ~150.

For water additions you can either do a partial boil or a full boil. It's your preference.

Does one have to adjust the amount of bittering hops used if moving to a full boil?
 
One thing I want to point out that no one has mentioned...
You get a different hop contribution based on the amount of water they are boiled in. Once you steep the grains, you should top up the kettle as close as you can to the full volume without boiling it over. This gives you the most accurate hops bitterness contribution to the flavor of you beer.

This is not entirely true. Can you tell me what the difference in hop utilization between a 3gal partial boil and a 5gal full boil? I'm guessing no (neither can I). Hop utilization only becomes an issue when you are dealing with barrels of beer.
 
Does one have to adjust the amount of bittering hops used if moving to a full boil?

There is no need to adjust. Many rumors are spread around on this forum and people like to say "hop utilization" because it makes them feel cool.

The difference between a full and partial boil for hop utilization is tenths of a point on the IBU scale which 99.9% of the beer drinking population could not tell the difference.

EDIT: Now, if you are talking about brewing a smaller batch then you just scale it accordingly.
 
Just an update after brewing, plus a quick question:

I steeped in 5 cups (1.25 cups) of water in a smaller pot. That worked out really well, because while the grains were steeping I started warming up the water (2.5 gallons) in the big pot while I was steeping. Cut a good 30 - 60 minutes off my brew time. Boil was partial at about 3 gallons (2.5 after all the hop additions and hour long boil). I also cut .25 oz of hops off the flavoring and aroma additions. OG came in a little a low at 1.042, but I attribute that to the fact that I probably didn't mix thoroughly ... same thing happened with the brew I made a couple of weeks ago.

On to the question:

Does tap water boil easier than bottled? This is my fourth batch, and the first time I have seen a REAL hot break (due to the fact that I use an electric stove). The foam started to rise EXTREMELY fast, and then broke away just as quick once I removed it from heat.
 
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