newbie brew question..... about boil size

ok,so i have a Double choc. stout im going to brew today or sat.The direction i got with the kit says to bring 2 gallons of water to 155 and add my crushed grains.for 25 min...and then add 1 gallon for the boil.my question is i have a big enough pot to safely boil 4 gallons without a boil over....So is it worth it to bring say 3 gallons of water to 155 for the grains and then add a 1 gallon for the boil....will it make any diff? or should i just stick to the directions?

Thanks for any info!!!!!

For me, I have only ever done full boil. 5 gallon batches in an 8 gallon pot. I have to be vigilant to combat boil overs for the first 15 to 20 minutes, but once enough has evaporated, im on easy street. I'm not sure it really matters how much you boil and how much you "top off" with, outside of worrying about not mixing well enough and getting messed up a OG readings. I recommend as full of a boil as you can get regardless of the recipe. But again I only do full boils, so I may be talking out of my ass.

Everyone I have spoken with says boil as much of the water as you can. It matters in that you can singe the sugars in the extract and get a twang to your flavor. The more water you add the extract into, the less chance of burned sugars.

If you can boil 4 gallons, and then cool it easily (in an ice bath or with a wort chiller), then you definitely should do it. In general, the more liquid in the wort you can boil, the better the beer.

You want to limit the steeping water to the 2 gallons (if that was reccomendation for the amount of grains) then after steeping add more water. It makes a difference on how the grain is converted to fermentable sugars. I believe you want to keep the steeping water around 1 gallon per pound of grains.
Someone else chime in here with a more thorough explaination.

The amount of water for steeping is less critical than when mashing. But I always steeped in 1-2 gallons of water before I learned mashing.
So go ahead & steep in the 2 gallons. I also use a cake cooling rack in the bottom of the BK to keep the grains/bag from burning on the bottom. Heat the remaining 1 gallon to 165-168F in another pot. After the steep (I hope you're using a bag of some kind),Pull the grain bag & place it in a collander on top of the brew kettle. Then sparge (rinse) the grain bag with the remaining gallon of heated water slowly. I feel it's better to get a bit more grain goodness in the BK than just plain water. There's a lot to get out of those grains as I've seen so far.

Thanks for all the quick replys....i have been doing a ton of reading on HB but this is my first attempt making my own. How does this sound...

12oz chocolate malt
8 oz 2 row
4 oz crystal 40
2 oz Black patent
2 oz Black roasted barley
7 lbs Dark LME
1 lbs DME
12 oz Malto Dextrin
1 oz Galena 13.5%
1.5 oz cocoa powerder

Hoping for a nice chocolate cream stout or something close to it atleast,with an O.G of 1.06x or so..not sure what the F.G will be but thinking around 1.020.....any thoughts or sugg an anything?

vernon351 said:

Thanks for all the quick replys....i have been doing a ton of reading on HB but this is my first attempt making my own. How does this sound...

12oz chocolate malt
8 oz 2 row
4 oz crystal 40
2 oz Black patent
2 oz Black roasted barley
7 lbs Dark LME
1 lbs DME
12 oz Malto Dextrin
1 oz Galena 13.5%
1.5 oz cocoa powerder

Hoping for a nice chocolate cream stout or something close to it atleast,with an O.G of 1.06x or so..not sure what the F.G will be but thinking around 1.020.....any thoughts or sugg an anything?

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If you're using the 2 row in there, that makes it a partial mash. That means the "steeping" water is actually for a mash.

With the 2-row in there, you have nearly two pounds of grain. That means you have to cut the water down to 2 quarts/pound at most (one gallon total) to have the proper pH and extend the time in the steep to about an hour and hold it at 150-155.

I'd probably not bother with the two-row, as it isn't giving you anything except may cause a starch haze if it's not mashed.

I'd also change the dark LME to light DME. You have dark malts already in there, so the dark LME is a duplicate.

I've never used maltodextrine in a beer, but it's a "thickener" and I've used it in things like root beer. I wouldn't use it in my stout, at least not initially as it might be too thick then- you can always add it at bottling if you want.

vernon351 said:

Thanks for all the quick replys....i have been doing a ton of reading on HB but this is my first attempt making my own. How does this sound...

12oz chocolate malt
8 oz 2 row
4 oz crystal 40
2 oz Black patent
2 oz Black roasted barley
7 lbs Dark LME
1 lbs DME
12 oz Malto Dextrin
1 oz Galena 13.5%
1.5 oz cocoa powerder

Hoping for a nice chocolate cream stout or something close to it atleast,with an O.G of 1.06x or so..not sure what the F.G will be but thinking around 1.020.....any thoughts or sugg an anything?

Click to expand...

You can't steep 2-row,it must be mashed. You can swap the dark DME for light,since the chocolate malt,black patent & roasted barley will get you there. Crystal 60L would be a better choice,imo,since the 40L is lighter & will have less of that caramel roasty thing than the 60L. Cut the maltodextrin,which is used for mouth feel & makes a creamy sort of background flavor. Use a few ounces of lactose for that milk stout quality.

the 2 row came already crushed in the grain bag with the rest of the crushed grains.....
if i cut the Malto down to 8 oz and then decide i want to add more later on, i can just add it to the bottling bucket?

In that case,you'll want to cut the water down to no more than 1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain. Mash at 152-155F for 1 hour. Then pull grain bag,place in collander,& sparge as I mentioned in my earlier post. Then proceed as normal. You can cut the maltodextrin,but don't add any to the bottling bucket. It's up to 5% fermentable,& you don't want bottle bombs by adding to much fermentables to the bottles.

thanks unionrdr..... so im looking at : about 3 qts water @ 152-155 for 1 hr and then sparge .... why is the direction i got with it so diff then what your saying? they say 2 gallons @ 155 for 25 min..... what would the diff be? I would much rather take direction from you as an experienced HB then following some generic direcions i have .

vernon351 said:

thanks unionrdr..... so im looking at : about 3 qts water @ 152-155 for 1 hr and then sparge .... why is the direction i got with it so diff then what your saying? they say 2 gallons @ 155 for 25 min..... what would the diff be? I would much rather take direction from you as an experienced HB then following some generic direcions i have .

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That all sounds about right.

I went through the phase where I was asking about the perfect grain steeping method and got the info I needed here.

As far as kit instructions, IMHO, from what I have read time and time again on this forum, is they can be a little vague and often not very helpful.

The members of the forum are my instruction givers.

Enjoy the new addic... er HOBBY!

vernon351 said:

thanks unionrdr..... so im looking at : about 3 qts water @ 152-155 for 1 hr and then sparge .... why is the direction i got with it so diff then what your saying? they say 2 gallons @ 155 for 25 min..... what would the diff be? I would much rather take direction from you as an experienced HB then following some generic direcions i have .

Click to expand...

Because with the 2-row mixed in,you're mashing instead of steeping. Idk why in the world they'd have you steep with 2-row mixed in? So the difference is that mashing must use less water than steeping.

ok so now its been 7 days since i brewed this one.....O.G was a little higher then i expected 1.070,fermentation took off in about 16 hrs,bubbling like crazy for about 30 hrs,then it started slowing down.Checked F.G on wed.. was @ 1.024,not more bubbles in air lock,but can still see them in the primary..Checked F.G again this a.m and its down to 1.020-1.019....What do you guys think my F.G will end up @? i figured around 1.016 or so....should i secondary this ?

Leave it sit in primary for another week to let it drop a couple more points. Better to be sure than messy.