The main thing to consider in a boil kettle before buying a beginner's homebrew kit

November 5, 8:25 AMSeattle Home Brewing ExaminerJustin Boswell

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5 Gallon boil kettle w/steeped grains
Justin Boswell

     Okay, you have done some research on beginner's home brewing kits online and most retailers offer these kits with 5 gallon brew kettles. The only problem with that is you cannot fit enough water in a 5 gallon kettle in order to reach a 5.5 gallon ending volume after the boil. If you're putting the time into brewing a five gallon batch of beer you deserve to end up with 5 gallons.

     In these cases you are going to have to brew a "concentrate" that can be put into your fermenter after which water can be added to that in order to get a 5.5 gallon final volume. You want 5.5 gallons to compensate for volume loss from yeast doing its thing.

     The first thing you want to make sure is done is to boil 4 gallons of water before the brew day starts for topping off the fermenter. This will ensure it will be sanitary and you can just heat it to between 63-67 degrees F before adding it to the finished wort. This can also aid in chilling the wort.

     You will notice that in your 5 gallon kettle you will only be able to get 4 gallons into it in order to leave enough room to add extract and avoid easy boil-overs. Once the extract is added you will probably have about a 4.5 gallon volume. After the boil is finished you may have anywhere from 3.5 to 4 gallons of wort depending on how hard the boil was. If your recipe is being formulated in software like Beer Alchemy or Beer Tools then the calculations concerning original gravity after adding the remaining 1.5 to 2 gallons of water will already be done there. Otherwise you will more than likely be brewing a pre-packaged kit which this method also works for.

     Finally, chill your wort, whirlpool it & transfer it to your fermenter. Top off the fermenter with whatever amount of pre-prepared water it takes to reach a 5.5 gallon final volume and take a gravity reading before pitching your yeast into it. After all is said and done you should end up with 5 gallons of sweet, sweet homebrew 4-7 days later.

     In the end remember, if you buy a beginner's home brewing kit try to get one with a 6 to 7.5 gallon boil kettle. It will save you a little time and allot of effort in the long run. 

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