True brew volume question

[Buck33]

I'm Doing a true brew red ale kit tonight, The recipe calls for 1.5 gallons to be boiled for a half hour, I have a brew pot that holds 5 gallons of water. Would it be better to up the volume a little bit for my brew? Or just stick to 1.5?

 

[McGarnigle]

Generally its best to bill as much as you can hold in your pot, leaving ample space to prevent boil overs. The downside is you'll have better hop utilization with more water, and therefore more hop bitterness. You can offset this by boiling your bittering hops a bit less (assuming this kit uses bittering hops and not just hopped LME).

I personally would go for the bigger boil and wing it with the hops.

 

[BeerWard]

That was the first beer, that I ever brewed. I actually used a big pot and did a full boil. It turned out fine. I would tend to use larger boil volume if possible. Less concentrated wort increases hop utilization. I don't think I adjusted the recipe for the full boil, and it came out OK.

 

[Buck33]

Im kinda new to brewing so please bear with me, the more water I use to boil the more bitter the hops would be, is that right? So if I do boil more water I would want to put in the buttering hops later, say like 10 minutes after the start of boiling?

 

[McGarnigle]

You could either add the bittering hops later* or just reduce the amount. Maybe use .85 oz. instead of 1 ounce. If you were precise, you'd use a brewing calculator to figure out exact adjustments.

*Or you could reduce the length of boil. Just do a 45-50 minute boil and add the hops when the boil begins.

 

[rycov]

whats the whole recipe? with most of the kits i've had its been add hops as soon as it boils boil for 55 minutes, add aroma hops for five then done. so 60 minutes all together. around 2oz hops for bittering and 1oz for flavor/aroma

 

[Buck33]

Remove the label from the can of malt extract, wash the can, and place it in a pot of hot water to soften the syrup and make it easier to pour.

Place 1-1 ½ gallons water in the brewpot, and bring to a boil.

Turn the heat off. Place the grains in the steeping bag, and steep in the hot water for 20-30 minutes. Then remove and discard the spent grains, and heat the water again to near boiling.
Turn the heat off (on an electric stove, temporarily remove from burner). While stirring the water with a long-handled spoon, slowly pour both cans of extract into the pot. Stir until materials dissolve, then return to heat and bring to a boil. Note: When it first boils, the mixture will foam. Reduce heat, or remove from burner and foam will subside. Turn heat back on, and repeat process until foaming stops. Add approximately ½ the package of hop pellets and stir them in, and then boil for 30 minutes, adding the rest of the hop pellets for the final 1-2 minutes of the boil.
Place 3 gallons of cold water in your fermenting vessel, and slowly pour the hot mixture into the vessel. Fill with additional cold water up to 5 gallons.