2 gal boil vs 5 gal boil??

[vmibrewer]

I have made a few kits from my LHBS and they have me boiling 3 gallons of wort and adding water to it after the boil to make 5 gallons to put in my primary. The beer tastes great so I was wondering why would I need to do 5 gal boils if 3 gal plus water works just fine?

I downloaded the ibrewmaster app and some recipes there call for a 6 gal boil for 5 gal of wort. Can I do the same thing my LHBS kit does and boil 3 and add the rest using the same recipe or do I scale the boil size back?

Any and all blasts/ comments are appreciated.

 

[brtisbuck]

The most important thing is if you feel your beer tastes good - to you! That having been said if you want to be a stickler for color and you are brewing extract, full boils with late additions help with caramelization. You also get better hops utilization so you may save on ingredients.

The answer to your second question is the grain bill will be the same to hit your og after top off, but you may need to adjust your hop schedule to maintain your target IBU for that particular recipe. In my set up I have to boil roughly 6.75 gallons (including extract for extract brewing) to hit 5 gallons in my carboy without topping off. That accounts for trub loss in my kettle.

 

[vmibrewer]

Ok thank you. I'll keep brewing and when the time comes try a full boil. After all, it's still beer right!

 

[Yooper]

Exactly! If your beer tastes great and you're happy, I can't see any reason at all to change what you're doing. A larger boil usually requires a chiller, and often a different burner than on your stove, so I'm of the mindset "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" for brewing.

 

[yorkbrew]

Ok thank you. I'll keep brewing and when the time comes try a full boil. After all, it's still beer right!

Moving up to a full boil can be tricky. In addition to getting a larger kettle (8 gal) you may surpass your current setup's ability to create a rolling boil.

Something to keep in mind if you feel the need to upgrade down the line.

 

[gypsyhead]

Honestly, if you dig the flavor, keep doing what you're doing until you get it just right.

If you think you can do better at that point, well, a full boil will lend itself to better hop utilization, so you may get a better "efficiency" out of your hops; a principle mostly based out of the maximum solubility of compounds (like Hop oils/acids) in wort. You may be able to cut down on your hop (volume/weight) usage, but still get the same resultant compound concentrations with a full boil.

Going back to the base question: If you only boil 2 gallons after mash/steep/boil and add 3 gallons of cool fresh water, you will extract less of the desired hop compounds.

If you do a full boil, you will extract more hop oils and acids, but if it was balanced with a partial boil, you may get an overwhelmingly bitter brew with a full boil unless you increase the volume or grain bill.

Note: Words are moving all about, please somebody concur or completely annihilate my premise, it's that time of night

 

[djbradle]

If it's a gas stove, two burners does the trick. I get nice rolling boils with 6 gallons of wort.

 

[user 4295]

When it comes to extract with specialty grain recipes full boils really only provide a way to get better hop utilization (which late extract additions in partial boils can approximate). Full boils also can help you create beers that have a light color (which late extract additions in a partial boil can also approximate).

I went "all in" as an all grain brewer several years ago and got burned out and gave up brewing (new baby had a lot to do with it too). I've recently come back to the hobby with stovetop partial boil extract batches. The simple pleasure of just brewing beer in the most simple of ways has helped me fall back in love with home brewing! As the others have stated, if you like the finished product, that's all that matters!