Extract Boil (A little extra water ok?)

voltage · Post by **voltage** » Wed Apr 30, 2014 4:57 pm

Well I am very pleased with the few partial boils I have done but last night I started noble grapes "Paint it Black IPA". which is a nice strong, hoppy, dark IPA. This beer is supposed to come out at 6.4% or so and I added my usual 6 Litres of water to my brew pot. The steeping of the grains went well, and lots more grains than I usually get to steep. Then I added all the Malt Extracts. Long story short I decided to up my water to about 8-9 Litres because I found this to be a very thick, sweet Wort. I was afraid of scorching mostly.

Is it ok to up your water a bit for higher sugar builds? I figured it was getting diluted anyway at the end in the primary, so what's the harm?

Disadvantages I found were;
-Longer heating time to get larger volume to a boil.
-Higher risk of Boil over (less room in Pot) when adding Hops.
-Tougher time getting Wort cooled back down. (I use sink with cold water and stir trick)

Everyone's thoughts? I think my starting Gravity right after I pitched the yeast was very close 1060 which seems to be on par. Good Fermentation signs after 8 Hours. (20 Degree Room Temp)

spears104 · Post by **spears104** » Wed Apr 30, 2014 5:16 pm

No harm in adding extra water. It will actually help your hop utilization during the boil. Some Fermcap will be a great help to prevent boil overs. Also to help hop utilization when doing partial boils, I used to do a staged addition of malt extract.

Keith · Post by **Keith** » Wed Apr 30, 2014 5:44 pm

No issues there, thinner the wort, better the hop utilization. When you top up in the end you want to go to your 23L mark as normal.

voltage · Post by **voltage** » Thu May 01, 2014 8:21 pm

Perfect. Thanks a lot Keith and spears104. Going to rack it tonight, down to 1020 and foam is all but gone, it can do it's last gasp in the carboy over the next week or so. I will keep the staged malt addition and Fermcap both in mind too.

jtmwhyte · Post by **jtmwhyte** » Fri May 02, 2014 6:04 am

voltage wrote:Perfect. Thanks a lot Keith and spears104. Going to rack it tonight, down to 1020 and foam is all but gone, it can do it's last gasp in the carboy over the next week or so. I will keep the staged malt addition and Fermcap both in mind too.

when did you start this brew? April 29th? Not sure I'd be racking if it was still at 1.020 after 4 days (14-21 makes more sense). Best thing to do with Noble Grape kit instructions is to junk them and come here first

voltage · Post by **voltage** » Fri May 02, 2014 1:39 pm

Yep I started on the 29th. Used dry yeast and fermentation was extremely fast and aggressive. I suspect that this is due to the higher sugar content and initial wort temp? 12 Hrs in I had foam up to the top of the bucket and 48 hours in it was all gone except a few lingering bubbles. This is when the instructions say to transfer. I read on another post here you guys leave your festa brews in the pail for the full 5 days, which I did on my last festa kit and after transfer it has had hardly any activity in the airlock, maybe a cycle every 10 minutes.

Isn't it risky to leave it in the pail after the foam is gone? Is there a gravity reading you shoot for depending on the kit as to when you rack? (Say a Percentage of Fermentation).

LiverDance · Post by **LiverDance** » Fri May 02, 2014 3:15 pm

No rish at all to leave it in the pail to finish off. Mine is usually there for 3 weeks

voltage · Post by **voltage** » Fri May 02, 2014 3:42 pm

Good to know!

Post by **Jimmy** » Fri May 02, 2014 4:35 pm

LiverDance wrote:No rish at all to leave it in the pail to finish off. Mine is usually there for 3 weeks

And it's better for your beer!

jtmwhyte · Post by **jtmwhyte** » Fri May 02, 2014 6:18 pm

I go 3 weeks to a month with no Ill effects

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