Using electrical kettle to fill my brew pot

[Beerens]

I am using a 7-cup electrical kettle to fill my 8-gallon brew pot. After steeping my specialty grains I have around 1.5 gallons of water in at 150 deg. I then turn up the heat on my stove to high and start to add boiling water from my electrical kettle. By the time I have just over 2.5 gallons in the pot I am at a full boil. For my last two batches I have decided to start to add my DME slowly at this point. I will add a couple of cups of DME with each 7 cups of water.

Am I doing anything that will mess with the flavors of my beer in any way?

Should I start my hop additions after I have all my DME in, usually around 4 gallons +/-, or should I wait until I have my target 6.5 gallons?

 

[turtleboy3737]

I was going to do something similar to this so I hope it turns out ok.

I have an eletric kettle and it heats up water so fast... but put 2.5gal of water on the stove and its an hour and a half till it hits boiling.

can anyone verify that steeping with less water will not cause problems?

 

[wyzazz]

You can start adding your hops once you have a boil going & all your water is in the pot.

Steeping small is better than steeping with a larger amount of water for extract brews, plan on steeping around 1.25qts/lb of grain ideally.

 

[akramer]

Steeping small is better than steeping with a larger amount of water for extract brews, plan on steeping around 1.25qts/lb of grain ideally.

For my edification: why is it better to steep with less water? I did the opposite with the brew that's currently fermenting.

 

[IceFisherChris]

For my edification: why is it better to steep with less water? I did the opposite with the brew that's currently fermenting.

I ask an answer for that question too. I try to keep enough water to rinse out my grains, though I forget many times.

 

[wyzazz]

When you steep small it lessens the chance of you extracting tannins from your grain, if you don't steep small you should add extract until you get a OG of around 1.010 to help combat this.

Here is a thread on BrewBoard.com discussing some possible issues with steeping in too much water.

 

[Catch-22]

The reason, how I understand it, is that the PH of the water is too high with less grain and more water causing tannins to leach out. A lower water ratio brings the PH down reducing the chance of tannins leaching into the wort.

Or something like that