Got my equipment, ready to do my first batch at home. Is it normal for people to add water to their wort to bring it to 5 gallons before you pitch the yeast. I’ve watched videos and read about how people do that with every batch?
I’ve brewed before at a Brew On Premises here in Jersey, this is going to be my first time flying solo at home.
I’m brewing this weekend and I’ll keep you all posted on how I do. Thanks
Yes it is normal to top off the wort to five gallons. What type of recipe are you brewing? Is it extract, partial mash, or all grain? Oh and take some photos of your system while you brew so you can show it off.
Yes, many extract brewers boil 2-3 gallons on the stove top. Adding cold water to the fermenter and then adding the mostly cooled wort to the fermenter.
To keep the beer as light in color and avoid scorched sugars, only add 1/2 of the LME/DME to your boil pot. At the end of the boil add the rest. The hot wort will pasteurize the extract.
I also know a All Grain brewer that boils close to 5g on the stove top. The “tops off” the fermenter with water also.
Yes I’m going to be doing a partial mash on my stove. Is there treatment I need to do to the cold water I’m adding to the wort to keep it sanitary? I’ll try to take pictures.
It’s just a basic starters kit, nothing too flashy. The one crappy thing is my stovetop is electric?
And one more question do you recommend primary in a bucket, carboy, or better bottle?
Pitch a good quantity of yeast and you will be fine. You drink tap water right? 
If you want you can boil the water. Store it in a clean/sanitized milk jug in the refrigerator.
You might want to do a trial run with water to see how much you can get to a boil. Pasta for dinner?
Buckets are cheap and easy to move around. Carboys/BB are great to view the action. Use what you have.
I got a home brew kit this past Christmas. Did my first two batches on the electric stove and then promptly ordered a propane burner. My stove could barely keep two gallons at a rolling boil. With the electric burners I believe the diameter of the pot you use should not be much greater than the diameter of the burner. I’m sticking with extract kits until I have more space, so I have just been using distilled water for everything. I’ve been using two buckets for primary and a glass carboy for secondary when dry-hopping or adding other specialty flavors (transfering the bourbon barrel porter this weekend). It might be worth looking into a wort chiller. With the current price of copper they can be a bit pricey but if you shop around there are some deals. The chiller and burner are by far the best investments I’ve made since I got started. Also get some star-san if you can. Much better than the c-brite that came with my kit.
I plan on building a wort chiller. the tubing at lowes and the clamps and hook ups seem so much cheaper than buying a chiller retail. i have a h20 purifier on my sink. I bought a 32oz bottle of star san, i fear no foam.
