Top Off Water Extract Kits

[Thegundog]

I keep reading to add top off water to the fermenter.

Is there any issue with adding the top off water to the boil kettle at the end of the boil (before adding my chiller to cool)? My kettle has gallon markers stamped in the side.

I have a 10 gallon pot doing 5 gallon extract brews, still trying to learn my equipment and have come a little short on volume - hoping I can nail down the evaporation rates and just do full boils...

Thanks

 

[jeffpn]

I did that yesterday on my new electric system. I added 1/2 gallon with about 20 minutes left to boil. My gravity happened to come out spot on. Too soon to tell if I’ll package a full 5 gallons. Keep records. You’ll learn your system. Hop utilization may be a little off, but correct gravity is easy to achieve.

 

[philjohnwilliams]

The advantage of adding top off water to the fermenter is that you can use chilled water thus reducing the amount of time it takes to cool the wort. Having said that, I brewed extract for years and found that doing full boils resulted in better beer (at least for me, ymmv).

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

for my extracts I freeze half the water then pour the boiled wort on top, it works fine, you mix it up as your adding oxygen, you will need to get your system down first as for loses and hop bitterness but in time you will