How Much Water ?

[StuartR]

I am hoping to do my first extract brew this weekend and was wondering how much water I need to boil the hops in.

I have been playing around with the Beersmith software and that's telling me I need 24 litres on water to boil for a 20L batch

I can understand a large boil for All Grain but when I am just boiling liquid malt extract and hops I thought it would be a lot less.

[TazManiac]

The large volume of water means you use less hops to get the same effect as using more hops in less water.

It is possible to use less water but you need to take into consideration the utilisation figure of the boil your doing.

Someone else should be able to explain it better than me.

Aaron

[bhami]

Are the hops for flavour/aroma alone or are they also for bittering.

If they are for flavour/aroma, you have no worries, just use around a litre of water to put your hops in (tea bag style) and you can then add the liquid strait into your fermenter.

If they are for bittering then TazManiac is right, you will loose a little bit of utilisation if you use less water. But I wouldn't worry too much about it as it will be fairly minimal and the algorithms used on brewing software packages are less than perfect (try changing the algorithm used to see how the estimated IBU's change).

I am not sure exactly how you are brewing so it is a bit hard to answer your question further. But if you are using the hops for bittering you may be interested in reading this thread as I think it may address some of your question.

http://pint.com.au/brewforum/viewtopic.php?t=494

Cheers

Ben

[StuartR]

Thanks Ben,

That thread answers all my questions, guess I need to go out and buy a 20L stock pot.

This is what I am hoping to brew - English Bitter Style

3.00 kg Amber Liquid Extract (12.0 EBC)
0.40 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (145.0 EBC)
50.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [6.90 %] (60 min)
25.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [6.90 %] (20 min)
12.00 gm Fuggles [4.50 %] (10 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep)
0.35 kg Dextrose (0.0 EBC)
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale

Est Original Gravity: 1.052 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.06 %
Bitterness: 32.7 IBU
Est Color: 22.9 EBC

Just a thought, do you think one of those stainless hot water urns would work

http://www.sydneycommercialkitchens.com ... ctID=75353

I reckon you could pick one up cheaply 2nd hand but don't know if they would produce enough heat to get a good boil going ? Although if you got one with good temp control it might be ideal for mashing, escpecially with the tap on the front

[bhami]

One of those urns might work but I am guessing that you would get some scorching from the element. This is not necessarily a bad thing but the scorching would caramelise some of the sugars in the wort. Basically you want to spread the heat as evenly as you can so a pot on the stove would probably be better (and easier to clean). You also want to get a fairly vigorous boil going if you can (not sure if urns do this or not) which helps with hop utilisation as well as vaporising volatiles that you may want to get rid of (eg DMS), but volatiles are not a big concern with extract brews (but who knows you may get into grain brewing one day).

Basically what I am saying is that I think a pot is a better option than an urn.

Keep us informed at how it all goes.

Cheers

Ben