New Brewer Question: Adding water post-boil?

Your intuition serves you well. Best practice would be to use previously boiled water or sealed bottles of distilled water for topping up post boil if you're doing a partial boil.

 

Yes, it's best to boil your top-off water if possible. It's even better to do a full wort boil (all of your water goes into one big kettle) and not to have to top off.

 

All else equal ... topping up with fresh bottled water is safe.
Otherwise ... I'd boil some tap water ... cool it ... then top up.

You've come to the right place.

 

You could also simply boil the full volume from 60 minutes if you have a big enough kettle. This will extract bitterness more efficiently from the hops, and it could prevent unwanted caramelization that can happen with high gravity partial boils.

Also, you could just do a half batch, never a bad idea for your first few brews. 5 gallons is about two cases of beer, that's an awful lot to choke down if something goes wrong. Twice the practice from the same kit.

Finally, I'd really suggest not brewing an 8% beer, with a notoriously tricky liquid yeast no less, for your first brew. I know you don't want to hear this, but think seriously about using the ingredients from that kit to make simple 5% pale ale with a dry yeast like US05. High gravity beers require more knowledge, technique and special equipment than any new brewer has.

 

'Topping up' post-boil doesn't necessarily mean mixing-in a gallon or two of water.
One might just need enough water to reach the targeted post-boil volume.

Me ... I let it ride. Quality vs. Volume
Dilution is not the solution to too much evaporution.

 

[QUOTE="HerbMeowing, post: 4375953, member: 524034]

Me ... I let it ride. Quality vs. Volume
Dilution is not the solution to too much evaporution.[/QUOTE]

I disagree. There are as many valid reasons to 'dilute' as there are to 'let it ride' - and it certainly needn't be detrimental to quality. My system is pretty damned consistent overall, but my evaporation rate is considerably higher in winter when the relative humidity is very low than it is in the summer. Also, every so often I might try a new grain and get a bump in extract that I didn't see coming. Point is - sometimes the gravity ends up being higher than I want a given style to be, so I'll dilute if I have to to hit my target. It's not about hitting a certain volume. It's about making sure my beer has only as much alcohol in it as I intended. 'More' isn't always 'better'.

FWIW, I don't boil the water I add. I usually have enough left over in my HLT. It's already been heated to ~ 180F, and it's going into 11 gallons of wort just off boiling. I've never had an issue with infection of any kind.

 

If you use bottled spring water just clean/sanitize the outside of the container and inside the spout if it has one, before you pour it in. Did that without any problems.

 

Once you get your boil off rate dialed in you can dilute pre-boil to get your pre-boil gravity number hit and don't have to worry about adding anything post-boil, I've always done it this way and it works out for me.

 

As with many homebrewing processes, there are 2 sides to this coin; it doesn't always land the with the same side up.

Features of partial boil: (1) A relatively smaller pot can be used, (2) less power is needed to heat and maintain the boil, (3) less time is needed to cool the boiled wort.

Features of full boil: (1) higher hop utilization, (2) less darkening of the wort during the boil.

A partial boil is a perfectly fine way to make beer, especially when one is getting started (and likely doesn't have all the gear one is likely to eventually obtain). Some styles are more difficult to pull off with a partial-boil process, which is the reason most brewers eventually move to full boil. A full boil is also the more natural way to do all grain brewing, although I'll note that partial boil does not necessarily equal extract based brewing, while full boil does not necessarily equal all-grain brewing.

I'll also add that back in the day when I did partial-mash + partial-boil brewing, I'd simply top off with my (municipal) tap water; this never caused an infection. I would guess that most municipal water supplies are sanitary enough to add directly to a fermenter -- that is the point of the chlorine/chloramine. I do suggest treating with Campden to remove the chlorine/chloramine before adding to the fermenter. Sure, you can boil and cool the top-off water, but it likely won't make your beer any better, and it will take more time and attention during the brewing day.

Cheers!

 

Boil then cool or used bottled water would be my approach regardless of the top-up volume.

 

I didn't see anyone mention this yet, but be sure to mix that water well before you take your original gravity measurement or you could get a false low reading of mostly water since it will be on top of the wort.