Is there a down side to partial boils? (extract)

[jgalak]

So my one and only brew attempt was an extract it with specialty grains, and the recipie called for a partial boil, which is what I did. I have a stainless 5 gal stockpot that I used, which boiled ree gallons of water + fermentables quite nicely, and then I added two gallons or so of top off in the fermenter.

Is there a downside to doing this? An advantage to doing full boils? I'm not talking about partial/all grain, I'm not ready for that yet. I'm just talking about extract brewing with specialty grains.

Going to a full boil would increase difficulty, as I couldn't do it on my kitchen stove - there is an overhanging 2nd oven, which means the 5gal stockpot is as much as I can reasonably fit on the stove, height-wise, and have enough cleareance to do things like put in the immersion wort chiller or pull out and drain the grain bag.

 

[unionrdr]

If partial boils is all you can do on your stove,that's fine. Most kits are intended for partial boils anyway. Even the partial mash Berlin Wheat kit I'm mashing now. They say full boils are better for hop untilization,but partial boils are working real well for me atm. No worries there.

 

[Waynep005]

Partial boils are fine. They do make it more difficult to get a good original graity reading and can make it easier to burn the extract. With a little care iwth the extract they work great.

 

[BigEd]

So my one and only brew attempt was an extract it with specialty grains, and the recipie called for a partial boil, which is what I did. I have a stainless 5 gal stockpot that I used, which boiled ree gallons of water + fermentables quite nicely, and then I added two gallons or so of top off in the fermenter.

Is there a downside to doing this? An advantage to doing full boils? I'm not talking about partial/all grain, I'm not ready for that yet. I'm just talking about extract brewing with specialty grains.

Going to a full boil would increase difficulty, as I couldn't do it on my kitchen stove - there is an overhanging 2nd oven, which means the 5gal stockpot is as much as I can reasonably fit on the stove, height-wise, and have enough cleareance to do things like put in the immersion wort chiller or pull out and drain the grain bag.

Partial boils are a convenient way for a beginner with limited space, equipment and experience to brew beer. Full boil volumes are better in that the entire batch is boiled thus decreasing chances of infection and you do get increased hop utilization. However, to do full boil volumes with standard batches of 5 gallons+ requires larger kettles, a bigger stove and additional equipment like a work chiller that the typical novice isn't going to jump in with right away. So you've already answered part of you question.

Partial boil brewing makes good beer so it will probably always be the default method for folks just starting out. But if you want to move on to intermediate and advanced brewing the step to a full boil alone will improve the quality of your beer.

 

[woozy]

Basically a partial boil is rehydrating a concentrate. The extract comes for a concentrate to begin with so the only real question is whether the hops utilize better at full volume or at a concentrated volume. I really doubt many people here can honestly claim to know and, more importantly, detect the answer.

From a purist stand-point cooking and working with concentrates is at an unnatural level and a concentrate has less integrity in its structure than a full volume. But this is an oversimplification as cooking (and brewing is basically cooking) always involves reproportioning and de-constructing and reconstructing ingredients. So there is not simple answer that one is "good" and the other is "bad".

 

[homebrewdad]

Partial boils are usually darker, and don't get as good of hop utilization. Your gravity reading will be unreliable at best, as wort and water don't mix as well as you might think.

But you can still make great beer with partial boils.

 

[julioardz]

None that I can really think of. I use to always do all-grain but have gotten a little burnt out with the process lately, so I did a few partial boil extract batches using the same process you do with a 5 gallon pot on the stove. As long as the top off water tastes good and its clean, there shouldn't be any problems. I've used non-boiled, non-filtered water straight out of my faucet with no problems, but maybe I just got lucky those times. Who knows, but those beers turned out great. I do prefer to top off with store bought drinking water though. I'll chill 2-3 gallons to near freezing and together with an ice bath in the sink, I can cool the wort down just as quickly, if not quicker than if I was using my wort chiller in a full volume boil.

 

[ncbrewer]

Using late extract addition can even eliminate or greatly reduce the problems mentioned above: wort darkening and hop utilization. I recently went from adding the late extract late in the boil to adding it at flame-out and letting it steep. That way you don't have a concentrated wort any time during the boil.

 

[unionrdr]

Bingo1 Yahtzee! we have a winner! I get fine utilisation of hops in my PB/Pm BIAB beers. I use the fresh wort for hop additions,about 3-3.5 gallons in a 5 gallon ss stock pot. And stirring chilled wort & top off water vigorously at least a couple minutes takes care of that problem. I also add any extracts in mt PM brews at flame out & steep a couple minutes. Plenty of hop flavor,sometimes a lot.