How much water to use for my boil

I am getting ready to brew an extract w/grains recipe today. says to steep grains in 2.7 q of water, then add enough water to equal at least 3 gal. What will happen if i only add enough water to equal 2/2.5 g? I’ve been away from brewing for almost 2 years. This will be my learning the ropes again brew. It will also be done in the kitchen on an electric stove. I’ve done a pre run boil with no grains, and my stove barely reaches 210 degrees with 3g of water. Thanks in advance for your input!

I would use as large of a volume as you can without risking a boil over, if that’s 2.5 gallons you’ll be fine.

I have a 5 g pot for now. Looking to upgrade to an 8 or 9 in the future, and a propane burner. Im just a little anxious and I don’t want to wait to brew. I think I will go with the 2.5 g water ammount. Im brewing a blackberry wheat. Seemed like a good, simple recipe to refresh my memory. Thanks!

I’ll vote for “as much water as you can boil”. If you can only get 3g to simmer, do as you plan and only use 2 1/2g.

Also, only put in 1/3-1/2 of the DME/LME. Add the rest at flame out to pasteurize it.

Have fun!

You want to use as large a volume as you can to minimize darkening of the wort and increase hop utilization. You also want to ensure you have a good rolling boil to coagulate proteins which promote clarity and makes the beer more stable.

2 1/2 gallons is a good compromise for your situation, but also follow Nighthawk’s suggestion and add half the extract 15 minutes before the end of the boil. Take the pot off the heat and stir the extract in well before resuming the boil so you don’t risk scorching it on the bottom.

Thanks for the advice. I was able to get a great rolling boil with 2.5g. Added 2lbs dme at start, and another 2 lbs with 15 minutes left. At flame out, added .3 oz of hops, and 2 lbs of honey…all according to the recipe. chilled to 73* and pitched yeast at 11:27 pm. I thought i would see some activity by now since there was more sugars provided by the honey, but nothing yet. Maybe Im just nervous/anxious!

Waiting is the hardest part! No need to worry until after the 48hr mark. Congrats!
:cheers:

I used White Labs American Hefeweizen wlp320. Ive read some posts saying that this yeast is a slow starter, and may take longer to complete the fermentation. Anybody else know if this is true?

Don’t sweat it, I pitched yeast in a batch yesterday at 4:30 and don’t have any air lock activity either.

Finally, 33 hours later, I awoke to a burping airlock!! I can tell that it just recently started because its not very vigorous, but I do have some good activity in there.

:cheers: