Hop Boil Volume

[ianh]

Hi All

Just wondering what volume of water people use when boiling hops and whether anyone does near or full volume boils for Kit and Extract 20-23 Litre Brews.

When I started doing hop boils (not long ago) I started by using 4 litres as the volume. But now I am using 10 litre boils, which I feel gives a better brew.

10 litres is the maximum I can go to without buying new equipment bigger pot and possibly a burner and a wort chiller. So before I go buying stuff thought I would get others brewers views. Thanks

cheers

Ian

 

[cdbrown]

I guess the bigger the boil the more control you have over things. I used to only do 2-3L boils (only a small pot) and would have trouble dissolving the LDME towards the end of the boil (only had 200g to start boil for good hop utilisation). Have upgraded to a 20L pot and now do bigger boils but generally most are around 5L due to the time it takes for the gas burner on the bbq to get it on a nice boil. I wish I had gone 10L though for the last boil.

 

[Hefty]

10L is my current average Ian. I can do more (up to 15-16L without boil overs) but I only do this for partials where I want a real hot break and wort cooling that isn't just cold top up water.
I've upped to 10 from a preious average of 4-6 and my brews have been better of late as well but I have changed other variables as well so I couldn't tell you if this was the sole cause of my improvement.

HABAHAGD :icon_cheers:
Jono.

 

[Supra-Jim]

The biggest i did when extract brewing was 10 ltrs. Any more than that and i would have needed extra gear for chilling. That method worked fine. I would chill by putting my pot in an esky loaded with ice for 20 mins. Then the rest of my water was chilled to about 2deg. Once i added that, my final temp was around 22deg.

:icon_cheers: SJ

 

[chappo1970]

The biggest i did when extract brewing was 10 ltrs. Any more than that and i would have needed extra gear for chilling. That method worked fine. I would chill by putting my pot in an esky loaded with ice for 20 mins. Then the rest of my water was chilled to about 2deg. Once i added that, my final temp was around 22deg.

:icon_cheers: SJ

+1 Ed Zacary how I used to do it.

10lt is more than enough, 5lt is good.

Chappo

 

[Bribie G]

If you are going for a bigger boil like 10l then nothing wrong with tipping a bag of party ice in the fermenter and pouring the hot wort onto it, then you can pitch the yeast straight away without the danger of the wort picking up something nasty while it's cooling.

 

[Supra-Jim]

So long as it is the kind of ice that is safe to add to drinks, not the disease and filth ridden stuff for esky use only

:icon_cheers: SJ

 

[ianh]

If you are going for a bigger boil like 10l then nothing wrong with tipping a bag of party ice in the fermenter and pouring the hot wort onto it, then you can pitch the yeast straight away without the danger of the wort picking up something nasty while it's cooling.

I just put 4 litres of tap water in a clean container in the freezer and use that in the fermenter for cooling the wort.

Put a bit of water in the fermenter lay it on its side then slid the ice block in, less tendency to gouge bits out of the fermenter compared with dropping it in.
cheers

Ian

 

[Gavo]

Not much to add here. I used to do 8 - 9 litre boils for extracts and partials. I reckon that the largest boil you can comfortably do for an extract is all you need. The larger the easier it is to control the boil. I chilled mine in the laundry tub filled with water and milk bottles filled with ice.

Cheers
Gavo.

 

[ianh]

Thanks Guys

Seems 8 -10 litres is about the norm, so we won't worry about doing larger hop boils at this stage.

 

[ah_glenno]

Not much to add here. I used to do 8 - 9 litre boils for extracts and partials. I reckon that the largest boil you can comfortably do for an extract is all you need. The larger the easier it is to control the boil. I chilled mine in the laundry tub filled with water and milk bottles filled with ice.

Cheers
Gavo.

Hi guys i am about to do my first extract boil, aiming for about 10 litres, how long roughly does it take a boil of that size to cool to pitching temp using the above method? That is really the only option i have at the moment, although i do have a 15L cube that i could use and place into the fridge if that is better, but id prefer to do it the other way. Im assuming that the longer the wort is cooling in the laundry tub the greater the chance of infection, so i want to minimise this as much as possible

 

[Gavo]

Gen, I used to fill the laundry tub with cold water and some frozen 3lt milk bottles (filled with water of course) and put the pot with lid on in that to cool. It used to take about 15min to get down to 45 degrees C, so it wouldn't take much longer to get to pitching temps.

Gavo.

 

[ianh]

Gen, I used to fill the laundry tub with cold water and some frozen 3lt milk bottles (filled with water of course) and put the pot with lid on in that to cool. It used to take about 15min to get down to 45 degrees C, so it wouldn't take much longer to get to pitching temps.

Gavo.

I do something similar and by the time you add cold water to make up to 23 litres temp is usually below 30C. I then usually leave it sat in the fermenter (fitted with airlock) for 2-4 hours to cool further before pitching the yeast.

 

[Pete2501]

Good questions and informative replies. I'm wantint got slowly make the move to extract brewing and the posts here were a great help.

Cheer's to those that replied.

 

[Pennywise]

For my extract/partial brews I normally have a 10 litre boil. When cooling down in the kitchen sink I chang the water every 10 mins or so and it takes about half an hour to cool enough so when I add my top up water (usually another 12-13 litres) the temp is at 20-22 deg. Of course if you're using the laundry tub with Ice bricks it'll cool quicker.

 

[ah_glenno]

Thanks guys for the replies, i just did a test at home with 5 litres on the stove and i couldnt even get it boiling! looks like i mave have to rethink my strategy a little bit... <_<

 

[Dazza_devil]

I upped my boil from 7 to 9 litres for my last extract brew in an attempt to utilise my hops more efficiently.
I chill water in the fridge to bring my final wort temp down.
I start with 7 litres of 70 degree C water for the grain steep then another 2 litres for the sparge.
I also dissolve my LDME with around 2 litres extra water and boil for 5 mins in a seperate pot after adding the required amount of LDME to wort to achieve the desired hop utilisation gravity.
I cool the boiled LDME in the laundry sink with cold water while I finish the boil and flameout additions. I put it all together and found that the water from the fridge got me down to 23 degrees C with this last 22 litre brew.
Just a sidenote. I make sure I towel the pot off after cooling it in the laundry sink. I'de hate for the water on the outside of the pot to run into my brew when I'm tipping it into the fermenter.
I've found that my boil volume decreases a fair bit during the boil. For this reason I stopped boiling for 5-10 mins before starting the hop additions.
It's probably not necessary to boil the LDME, just being over cautious. It does darken the malt a fair bit though.
Cheers.

Edit; my stove doesn't have any trouble boiling 9 litres, maybe you have a dodgy hotplate.

 

[felten]

Hi guys i am about to do my first extract boil, aiming for about 10 litres, how long roughly does it take a boil of that size to cool to pitching temp using the above method? That is really the only option i have at the moment, although i do have a 15L cube that i could use and place into the fridge if that is better, but id prefer to do it the other way. Im assuming that the longer the wort is cooling in the laundry tub the greater the chance of infection, so i want to minimise this as much as possible

Took me roughly 30 mins to hit pitching temps with a cold melbourne night and a litre or so of ice added.

 

[ah_glenno]

sweet thanks guys.

with respect to my innability to boil on the stove, i think it is a combination of having a crappy stock pot with a base that is concave and so doesnt touch the hot plate as well as i'd like, and also the hot plate turns itself off when it gets too hot, as some sort of safety mechanism i'd assume