Hey folks! Tonight my lady and I will start my second ever brew. Now my first kit called for me to boil 2.5 gallons of water at first and add the rest to fermenti bucket along with the wort. This recipie on my Belgian Wheat calls for 5 3/4 to be boiled at first. I think this recipe assumes I have larger than a 4 gallon kettle to brew it in, but I don't. My kettle is 4 gallons, so what would you recommend me boil initially for my wort then add to my fermentor? Thanks, Daniel
As much as your pot can handle, the more the better, keeping in mind not to fill it so high that it boils over.
You will want to do like HB42 said. Boil your max. I'd say you could safely get 3 gallons in there, without fear of a boil over. I'd suggest shopping around for a larger kettle if you think this hobby is something you might do more than a handful of times. Your beer will be better for it.
If you have to, use two pots. you can condense your wort in both pots and and cool, and add to your fermentor. I've seen it done before.
So my one concern is that once it was time to put he hops In I did so and the wort immediately started to boil over! I reduced beat quickly and it went down, but was it ruined?
No. How much wort did you actually lose? The worst thing that will happen will be either a slightly more bitter beer (due to the same amount of hops in less beer) or (if you dilute to the 5 full gallons) a slightly lower gravity/ABV beer.
I didn't lose any, I caught it just in time. Also I get the right amount of water in per my original question
Anytime that you add an ingredient during the boil you need to be on the alert that a boil-over is likely to happen, so you need to have one hand on the heat control and the other hand on your spoon. And here's a tip: You may also have noted that a lot of your hops stuck on the side of the pot, so you need to scrape those back into the wort or you'll lose some of your hop efficiency.
It's amazing how many people think their beer can be ruined by looking at it funny... Between here and the other brewing boards I frequent, it seems like every other thread is like that.
I don't think it's amazing. Most people start homebrewing with a limited knowledge of the process and little to no understanding of the science behind it.
