Campden instead of a boil? Please help

[sturner924]

So i was halfway through my first all grain batch when I realized I didn't have enough kettle space to boil the whole 6 gallon sweet wort.

I put 3 gallons of the unhopped wort straight from my beverage cooler Mash tun into my glass carboy and added 3 Campden tablets.

I proceeded to boil the other 3 gallons with the same amount of hops and same amount of time I would have used with the whole wort.
Is there any reason this would be a bad idea?


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[JonLaw]

Should be fine. It sounds like you did " two 3 gal batchs". Did you boil both batches the same day? If not my only concern would be that the 2ed batch my spoil. But should be fine if you chilled it and keeped it cold. Also no worries! ! Should be fine.

 

[cluckk]

Boiling does far more than sanitizing. For one it drives off DMS. Lots of guys do partial boils and then top off with water. This can also be done with all grain. You just need to adjust your grist to include enough grain to give you the gravity units in the first three gallons pulled. You can use the rest for a small beer or dispose of it. Lost sugars, but you can only boil what you can. Boil this heavy wort and adjust your hops accordingly. Then cool, add to fermenter and top off.

It's not the best way to make beer, but it will work. Next, work on getting enough boil volume.

 

[sturner924]

Jon,
For the first half of the wort it went straight into my fermenter with no boil and no hops
The second half I boiled with the hops.
This was all within a 2 hour period.

Is it bad that the first half of the wort never reached a boil before going into the fermenter?


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[poptarts]

Is it bad that the first half of the wort never reached a boil before going into the fermenter?

Yes, you beer will most likely be under IBU and taste like corn. And thats if it doesn't sour from bret in your grain.

 

[sturner924]

As long as it is safe and drinkable I'll be okay with it and learn from my mistakes. It was kind of an experiment anyway.

15lbs marris otter
4oz cascade

I wasn't even going for any specific style so I had no expectations for how it would turn out.

Will it be safe to drink at least?



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[Yooper]

It will be safe to drink, but campden tablets don't take the place of a boil. You may have a sour beer from the unboiled wort.

 

[sturner924]

Okay. I definitely need to upgrade to a kettle that's big enough but for now I don't have a burner, I'm just going off the stove which struggles to bring 3 gallons to a boil in the first place.


Will the beer be overwhelmingly sour or pleasantly sour?


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[Yooper]

Okay. I definitely need to upgrade to a kettle that's big enough but for now I don't have a burner, I'm just going off the stove which struggles to bring 3 gallons to a boil in the first place.


Will the beer be overwhelmingly sour or pleasantly sour?


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It really depends on how much the lactobacillus (from the grain) grew and affected the wort- it may be quite sour and ruined.

 

[Croyzen]

You could wrap your kettle with insulation to boil greater amounts on the stove. There is a thread by flyguy that goes into that. You probably won't get 6 gallons boiling but you may get another gallon or so. If you can get 3 gallons to boil you may try a 50/50 split boil or Texas two step. Don't think of campden as in wine making. It's really only used for chlorine/chloramine removal in the brewing water.

 

[adamelb]

I have made due with my stovetop for two different ~5.5 Gal AG batches. One batch involved filling my 3 gal pot with 2.7 gal wort and my 10 gal with about 5. Boiled less than vigorously as the small pot was on a small burner and the larger one spread across two inadequate burners. I had a decent boil off rate between the two pots and hit my target volume to fermenter.

Last batch I used a 1000w "bucket heater" from amazon that brought my 7+ gallons of wort to a nice vigorous boil along with the largest burner on my old cheap stove. Look into heat sticks if you're the DIY type. I'm using a cheap aluminum 10g pot from amazon as well.

 

[HumulusHead]

+1 for a heat stick

I used one when i lived in apartments and it was slick

there are good threads here for heat stick making