Full Boil as a First Time Brewer

Extract/Partial Mash Brewing
1

So after debating getting into home brewing for a couple of years (don’t really need another hobby to spend money on), I received a brewing kit and a couple of carboys for Christmas last year. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve purchased some more equipment (8 gal kettle, outdoor burner, etc.) and the Dundalk Irish Heavy

extract kit.

This will be my first attempt at brewing, but after browsing the Net for a couple days I’m considering doing a full boil instead of the 2.5 gal partial boil listed in the recipe. I’ve got a large enough kettle, and my plan is to prep the yeast starter today, probably brewing this weekend.

I’ve seen a few recommendations regarding full boils, but there are two questions in particular I’m not sure on with this recipe:

Should I reduce the amount of hops I’m adding if I do a full boil?

I’ve read that hops utilization is better with full boils, and I don’t want this irish heavy to be overly hoppy, but I’m not sure if it will make much difference. One thread I read mentioned reducing hops by about 10%, which would be 0.1 oz (to 0.9 oz each of Target and Fuggles) in this recipe.

Do I need to add more DME if I do a full boil?

Assuming the amounts in the recipe are for the partial boil, do I need more DME? If so, how much? I’ve read that BeerSmith can help with figuring some of this out, and I already have the mobile version, but with this being my first try I don’t really know enough to make effective use of it.

Thanks in advance.

2

Hop utilization is better in a full boil, but for a quick sanity check you could take a look at the all-grain version of the recipe and use the hop schedule provided there. All grain assumes that you’re doing a full boil, so the hop schedule in this version of the recipe is appropriate for a full boil. FWIW, I’ve checked in the past a dozen or so recipes when I was switching to AG, and the hop schedules between the extract and AG versions were identical.

No reason to add any DME for a full boil - just use what’s included in the kit and you’ll be good to go!
:cheers:

3

[quote=“Natai”]Should I reduce the amount of hops I’m adding if I do a full boil?

With a full boil you will get better hop utilization and the current “figure” is 10%. Will you notice? Not sure as bitterness can be subjective and some more sensitive to it. You can let it ride or reduce. Since you have Beersmith mobile enter the recipe both ways and see what the difference between ibu levels are. Remember you only need to adjust bittering hops.

Do I need to add more DME if I do a full boil?
Nope no need to add or adjust fermentables. With extract the OG is set at 5gal. So 5gal full boil is equal to 2.5gal with 2.5gal top off and 1gal boil with 4gal top off.
[/quote]

4

Sounds like you’ve done your homework but just as a reminder if you’re goal is to finish the boil with 5 gallons into the fermenter you’ll need to compensate for boil off by beginning your boil with more than 5 gallons of water. Since this is your first time brewing you don’t know what the boil off rate is for your equipment. So you’ll need to kind of guesstimate. If you under compensate at least you can top up in the fermenter. If you overcompensate you’ll need to boil longer.

5

Better yet, measure your boil-off rate by doing a dry run (actually, since you’ll be working with plain water it will be more of a “wet” run. :lol: ) The usual rate for tall kettles is anywhere from 1 - 2 gallons, depending on how vigorously you boil, the atmospheric pressure and ambient temperature. So fill your kettle with 7 gallons of plain water, bring it to boil as quickly as you can and then adjust your heating source so that you have a steady, rolling, but not too vigorous boil. After one hour cool and then measure how much water you have remaining.

6

I have always done a full boil with extract. Seams a few places I read that a full boil will product a more appropriate color for the lighter beers. I can say that the lighter beers I made did match the color on NB’s webpage picture. Apparently a partial boil has more chance of scorching the extract.

Paul

7

There is just one issue to worry about when doing a full boil for a recipe that was written for a partial boil: steeping grains.

You don’t want to steep the grains in a full boil, as you might extract too many tannins that way. So follow the recipe until you remove the steeping grains, then add the rest of the water and the extract and start your full boil. And yes, you could reduce the hops because a full boil does result in better utilization, but the difference is like you read about 10% and that will be pretty hard to notice in that beer - or most others. So not worth worrying about.

Good plan by the way with regards to getting the yeast started this early. Having the yeast ready is a very important part of the process, which most folks don’t learn as beginners.

8

Thanks all! Sounds like I’m on the right track. Wort chiller arrived this morning - just waiting on a couple last items to be delivered this afternoon.

Not sure if I’ll have time to dry a dry run before the weekend, so I’ll probably start with 6 gal and top off in the primary if necessary.

I hadn’t thought about how steeping grains might be affected by a full boil. I guess I figured since it will take longer to get 6 gal up to temperature than the 2.5 gal, the 20-min steep would be complete before I reached 170° so it wouldn’t matter. Thanks for the tip.

9

I check my boil off rate at 15 minuet intervals and adjust my boil rate accordingly.

10

Umm, maybe you guys should plug this into an IBU calculator. My finding is, assuming a 6 gallon full boil for a five gallon batch, using .9 oz of each of these hops would produce around 40 IBUs, and even starting with a five gallon full boil will net around 36 IBUs. I believe the recipe calls for around 23-24 IBUs, which would call for .5 oz of each hop, assuming 10.5% AA for the Target hops and 4% AA for the Fuggles, and starting with a six gallon boil.

It might just be me, but 36-40 IBUs sounds like a pretty hoppy Irish heavy… :shock:

11

Fuggles get added at the end.

12

It’s about the pH. Adding grain to the water lowers the pH below the point where leaching of tannins is an issue - if you add enough grain to the volume of water to do that. High temperature can also leach tannins, but that is a different mechanism.

13

[quote=“rebuiltcellars”]There is just one issue to worry about when doing a full boil for a recipe that was written for a partial boil: steeping grains.

You don’t want to steep the grains in a full boil, as you might extract too many tannins that way. So follow the recipe until you remove the steeping grains, then add the rest of the water and the extract and start your full boil. And yes, you could reduce the hops because a full boil does result in better utilization, but the difference is like you read about 10% and that will be pretty hard to notice in that beer - or most others. So not worth worrying about.

Good plan by the way with regards to getting the yeast started this early. Having the yeast ready is a very important part of the process, which most folks don’t learn as beginners.[/quote]

+1 to that! Here is some additional information:

14

Rebuilt, I get what you’re saying but I’m having a hard time seeing a practical difference between steeping a small amount of specialty grain in 2.5 gallons versus 5-6 gallons. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I’d think that if you were to run into a tannin extration problem at 5 gallons water, you’re likely to have the same problem even at 2.5 gallons as I doubt the small amount of grain would be able to buffer the pH of that much liquid. Maybe cutting the steeping volume down to 1 gallon or so would be ideal?

15

I’m pretty sure the buffering capability is a function both of the ratio of grain to water, AND the specific grain you are using. Roast grains will drop the pH more than crystal malts which will drop it more than base malts. I don’t know if for those specific grains it will be an issue or not, but I’m pretty sure that NB has tested the recipe and it is NOT an issue as they’ve written it. So defaulting to the safe zone, use the ratio stated in the recipe.

16

Good point - They probably have done precisely that.

17

It’s about the pH. Adding grain to the water lowers the pH below the point where leaching of tannins is an issue - if you add enough grain to the volume of water to do that. High temperature can also leach tannins, but that is a different mechanism.[/quote]
Makes sense. I knew that temperature could affect tannins, but I hadn’t heard pH could do it as well.
The grains in this recipe include a roasted barley, so I might as well just stick to steeping at 2.5 gal and bump up to 6 after I pull the grains. May not be much of an issue, but it’s not like it’s any extra work to play it safe.
Either way, definitely useful information for the future. Thanks

18

Brew Day and Beyond - A couple of minor concerns.

So I got the yeast starter going on Wednesday and brewed on Saturday. Overall, everything went fairly well. I went ahead and steeped in 2.5 gal before bringing it up to 6 gal for the boil, and I left out a small portion of the Target hops. Didn’t measure it exactly, just kind of eyeballed about a tenth of it. Once I cooled and siphoned to the primary I got up to the 5 gal mark with just a small amount left in the kettle, so 6 gal seems to have been a good guess. The yeast starter also seemed to have worked out well. I considered refrigerating my 2L flask for a couple of hours Saturday morning to get the yeast to drop out, but turns out about a 1/4" of yeast had already fallen out on its own (easily 3x more than I started with from the vial), so I had more than enough.

A couple of issues/questions that have come up:
Hot Break?
I also decided to wait for the hot break before starting the 60 min boil. Based on what I’ve read, I was waiting for brown material on top to clump together and eventually fall to the bottom. It certainly clumped up, but after waiting for more than 30 min it still had not dropped. At that point I added the bittering hops, and shortly thereafter most of the material on the surface seemed to fall out. I’m thinking I was probably only at about 90-95 °C when I added the extract, but I eventually hit 100 °C before adding the hops, so maybe that was an issue.

Chilling
I brewed outside and use the garden house for the wort chiller. I live in Sacramento where it was close to 80° on Saturday afternoon, and I could not get the wort below about 83° using the chiller. Since I decided to go with a full boil and guessed right starting with 6 gal, I didn’t have to top off with any cold water. So I was a little concerned about pitching the yeast, but went ahead with it anyway. So far I think everything is okay (see below), but any tips or words of warning I should consider for the future?

Low OG
Corrected for temperature, my OG reading after transferring to the primary was 1.052, but according to NB it should be more like 1.062. Now this hydrometer doesn’t appear to be the most precise piece of equipment, but it did read 1.000 at 60°. I browsed a couple of other threads, and most of the commonly cited probable causes don’t seem likely. Anything I should be concerned with?

Carboy Mortar!
I placed the carboy in a plastic tray in the hallway near my bedroom (I was worried the garage might be a touch too warm). We heard it bubbling and fizzing most of the evening/night and had some foam (kreusen?) bubbling out of the airlock. Wasn’t too concerned. Then a little after midnight we heard a loud noise followed by a couple of quieter ones. Turns out the carboy had ejected/launched the bung and airlock, which promptly ricocheted around the hallway! More foam came out, I re-sanitized and re-inserted the bung/airlock. The next morning everything was still in place, but I had significantly more blow-off. Nothing horrendous - maybe 2-3oz of foam and liquid - and an easy cleanup. From everything I’ve read thus far, none of this suggests a problem, so I’m not too worried about this…

Aeration?
While I did shake the carboy a bit before pitching the yeast, I didn’t “vigorously dance” with thing. Now I’m wondering if I sufficiently aerated before pitching. Even after the mortar incident, I’m still getting steady bubbles in the airlock, but I also see a fair amount of pale sediment on the bottom of the carboy and I’m not sure if it’s yeast. Should I be worried about this?

19

Pitched warm that’s the reason for the violent fermentation. Should try to get it closer to 70%. Next time use an ice bath and the chiller or run ice water through the chiller. The OG was off because your water volumes were off.

20

How was my water volume off? The extract kit is for a 5 gal batch, and while it calls for a partial boil followed by a top off to 5 gal and I did a full boil finishing at 5 gal, it seems like that should still produce the same OG… What am I missing here?