[BP79]

So it took about 50 minutes, but with two burners I was able to get 6.5 gallons to a boil.  Thanks for that link, I ordered some reflectix overnight on Amazon, so hopefully that time can get reduced... no hardware store w/in 30 miles of Manhattan has it. Pathetic, I know.

Great call on the heat stick.  I asked my wife to get me a stir-plate for Christmas.  I can't imagine how she'll react when I ask her for one of those too.

[gymrat]

Can someone describe how you do a partial boil? Do you only boil first runnings and top off with water in the fermenter? Or do you boil the first runnings and add the sparged runnings later?

[a10t2]

Can someone describe how you do a partial boil? Do you only boil first runnings and top off with water in the fermenter? Or do you boil the first runnings and add the sparged runnings later?

It would depend on what you were brewing. If it was a big beer you'd probably only be able to use the first runnings. For a smaller beer you could probably fit in a sparge by doing a thick mash.

http://seanterrill.com/2011/01/16/of-ice-and-10p/

[Jimmy K]

Most homebrewers are doing extract/partial mash recipes when they talk about partial boil.  This makes it easier to just add less water to the kettle. You could boil just the first runnings of an all grain batch and top up later with water - it will hurt your efficiency though so you'd have to mash extra grain. I don't know anyone who does this.

[euge]

Most homebrewers are doing extract/partial mash recipes when they talk about partial boil.  This makes it easier to just add less water to the kettle. You could boil just the first runnings of an all grain batch and top up later with water - it will hurt your efficiency though so you'd have to mash extra grain. I don't know anyone who does this.

It's that awkward intermediate stage before people go AG. Like puberty.

Useful technique if you have equipment/space issues- I actually built a 2 gallon tun to do this for AG test batches but could certainly do it's job for a partial boil.

I guess it (the term) could double for a late extract addition as well?

[bo]

Most homebrewers are doing extract/partial mash recipes when they talk about partial boil.  This makes it easier to just add less water to the kettle. You could boil just the first runnings of an all grain batch and top up later with water - it will hurt your efficiency though so you'd have to mash extra grain. I don't know anyone who does this.

It's that awkward intermediate stage before people go AG. Like puberty.

Useful technique if you have equipment/space issues- I actually built a 2 gallon tun to do this for AG test batches but could certainly do it's job for a partial boil.

I guess it (the term) could double for a late extract addition as well?

Once I started growing hair around my fermenter, I decided it was time to move on to all grain.

[a10t2]

I don't know anyone who does this.

I can only brew outside 7-8 months a year, so it's partial boils on the stove or nothing. For a 1.040 no-sparge beer the efficiency is about 70%, so it isn't like it absolutely kills you either.

[Bret]

It really depends on the stove and the heat output of the burners. My stove can easily boil 6.5 gallons of wort.  The pot will be loosing a lot of heat from the sides, so depending on how your setup is, you could put some insulation around the pot to help it boil.

Something like this
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=9969.0

^me too.  My GE gas stove has a high output burner. It's not ideal, but works just fine.

[madscientist]

Most homebrewers are doing extract/partial mash recipes when they talk about partial boil.  This makes it easier to just add less water to the kettle. You could boil just the first runnings of an all grain batch and top up later with water - it will hurt your efficiency though so you'd have to mash extra grain. I don't know anyone who does this.

It's that awkward intermediate stage before people go AG. Like puberty.

Useful technique if you have equipment/space issues- I actually built a 2 gallon tun to do this for AG test batches but could certainly do it's job for a partial boil.

I guess it (the term) could double for a late extract addition as well?

I have a 2.5gal mash tun that I use for partial mash batches.  I also do partial boils.  My mash volume + sparge volume gets me right around my 3 gallon boil volume. All the beers I have done this way come out great. I have everything calculated out in Beersmith though, so it makes it pretty easy. 

I can mash 2-3lbs of grain and suppliment the rest with DME.

[krustybb]

Yeah I do a full boil in an 8 gallon pot and have no problem. I do have a commercial gas stove with some serious output. I think the big pot is great.

Krusty

http://krustysbigbrews.blogspot.com/