pliny recipe // full boil question ?

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by robwestcott, Jun 24, 2013.

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  1. robwestcott

    robwestcott Pooh-Bah (1,767) Nov 3, 2008 Indiana
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    taking a look at vinnie cilurzo's zymurgy article that includes the pliny recipe,

    http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/attachments/0000/6351/doubleIPA.pdf

    in the extract substitution paragraph, he notes:

    "Due to the large hop bill for this recipe, a full wort boil is recommended. Steep grains in 1 gallon (3.8 L) of water at 165° F (74° C) for 30 minutes, then remove and rinse grains with hot water. Stir in dextrose and top up kettle to 8 gallons"

    so here's my question... the largest kettle i have presently is 30qt -- 7 1/2 gallon -- what effect might i see if i attempt the full boil @ 6 1/2 or 7 gallons instead of 8 ?

    thanks
     
  2. DocT

    DocT Initiate (0) May 14, 2009 Idaho

    Your best bet, if you want the beer exactly as intended, you'll have to scale it down to 2/3 - 3/4 somewhere in that range.
    First off if you boil 6 1/2 or 7 gallons in a 30 qt pot for an extract beer you're gonna have a big boil over mess. Usually, a pot is measured to the brim. It's really tough to keep a rolling boil under control with only an inch or two from the top. I know from experience it can be done though, just a real pain in the ass turning heat up and down, cutting and skimming foam, it sucks but you can.
    Now the second part of the question, how will it effect the beer? With less water in the boil your wort is thicker, and therefore, the will be less hop utilization. How much less, I don't know without plugging it in to a calc. But as a totally theoretical assumption without any backing, remove ~12.5% and get about ~12.5% less hop utilization. Then one more problem will be for a 90 minute boil you will likely lose around 2 gallons of water depending on other variables. So you will have to add water to come up with enough in the fermenter.
     
  3. robwestcott

    robwestcott Pooh-Bah (1,767) Nov 3, 2008 Indiana
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    thanks. sounds like i better either get a bigger pot if full boils are in my future.

    which would beg another question - is anyone aware if someone has already completed a scaled back version of vinnie's posted recipe for a smaller kettle / smaller boil ?

    or, perhaps, is there a site that this novice is, as yet, unaware, that'll help with the calculations on all ingredient reductions ? or there are several pliny clone kits, and perhaps that is the way to go ?
     
  4. Applecrew135

    Applecrew135 Crusader (431) Jul 18, 2012 Pennsylvania

    BeerSmith has a scaling feature you could use to help you scale down the recipe to fit your equipment. I use it a lot as I am currently only able to do full boil for 2.5 - 3 gallon batches. My pre-boil volume is around 4.5 gallons. I lose approx 1 gal per hour to evaporation, plus other miscellaneous losses (trub, sampling)
     
  5. beerjay

    beerjay Initiate (0) Apr 12, 2006 California

    If you watch closely, there is no reason that you cannot boil 6 gallons in a 7.5 gallon pot. You can keep another small pot of boiling water to constantly top off to 6 gallons throughout the boil. Not ideal, but this is what I would do.
     
    PortLargo likes this.
  6. telejunkie

    telejunkie Savant (1,107) Sep 14, 2007 Vermont

    http://www.purplemath.com/modules/ratio2.htm
     
  7. Boonedog

    Boonedog Initiate (0) Apr 10, 2013 Illinois

    Fermcap works great. I had 7g in a 30 qt pot. NO boilover using fermcap.
    I would not have believed it unless I saw it with my own eyes.
     
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