Hi all,
So I read the following artical in Brew your own about not doing concentrated boils. The kits I get are always concentrated boils. Anybody have some info on this. This is the article:
Do a Full Wort Boil
There has been some debate about this topic, but in my opinion if you’re doing concentrated boils you’re never going to produce flawless beers. If you’re brewing 5 gallons (19 L) of beer, then you should start with at least 6 gallons (23 L) of wort, and this is particularly true for very pale-colored and/or very hoppy beers.
A concentrated boil can work against you in a number of ways. One result of a concentrated boil is increased melanoidin formation via the Maillard reaction (often incorrectly referred to as “kettle caramelization”), which produces a darker colored beer and may also change the flavor profile in undesirable ways. A concentrated boil will also decrease hop utilization, which can leave you with an under bittered, unbalanced beer if lower hop utilization is not considered. If you can’t fit all of your wort into one kettle, or can’t get it all to boil over one burner, split it into two kettles (aka the “Texas two-step” method). If you must do a concentrated boil, consider utilizing a late extract addition (reserving a portion of your extract and adding it at the end of the boil), which can help combat some of the problems that arise with a concentrated boil.
I think that (full boils are better for the reasons described) is the general wisdom. If you have the capacity, you could try it and see if it makes a meaningful difference for you.
Not 100% sure what you’re asking. If it’s how much water volume to extract read on. If not [emoji2369].
I like to start at the end and work my way to the beginning to figure water requirements.
On my system I want 5 gal in a keg and I lose half a gal below the fermenter spigot, to blowoff, and to yeast/trüb so I ferment 5.5 gal. I lose 1 gal in my boil kettle below the spigot, to hop absorption, and to trüb so I want my post boil volume to be 6.5 gal. I boil off a gal in 60 min at 2.4kw so I want 7.5 gal pre boil.
To get 6.5 gal of a certain specific gravity you have to start with a pre boil volume of a certain specific gravity. For example: if I want a 1.056 original gravity I can multiply 6.5 * 56 = 364 gravity points. I divide that by 7.5 gal pre boil so I need to start with 48 - 49 gravity points. I need enough extract/sugar to get 1.048 - 1.049 in 7.5 gals water.
Your boil off, trüb loss, dead space losses, etc may be different so apply your numbers.
Thank you for your responses! BrewBama, yes the amount of water. I still use DME (small kitchen) to make beer. Most of the kits say use 2 gallons of water to make the wort, then after cool down add enough water to make 5 gallons to ferment. So, I was just wondering if anyone using DME has done this. I am still new to brewing so thanks for the info. Cheers, thanks again for both your responses.
If you can do full boils do it because there are benefits, if you can only do concentrated boils then do the concentrated boils and don’t worry about it. Tere are a lot of commercial breweries that get away with doing concentrated boils and never tell anyone.
OP: From your article, “If you must do a concentrated boil, consider utilizing a late extract addition (reserving a portion of your extract and adding it at the end of the boil), which can help combat some of the problems that arise with a concentrated boil.” In most circumstances, this late extract addition gives the benefits of a full boil. The split between early and late additions varies, but generally between 1/4 and 1/2 of the extract early works well. Or target a boil gravity of around 1.040. The late extract can be added at flameout, although the timing on this varies also.
