philm63
Grandmaster Brewer
I got a brewing kit last Christmas that included a Bear Tooth Stout, and finally broke it out and brewed it up a few weeks ago. The box from Santa also came with the book "How to Brew" - good stuff! I think the first batch went alright, I just bottled it a few days ago and am reading the instructions on a new American Pale Ale kit for my next brew. I noticed the kits all seem to call for 2.5 gallons for the boil. Seeing how much I enjoyed making the first batch, I went out and picked up a 5 gallon carboy to use for a secondary, and proceeded to order a larger brew pot and wort chiller thinking I'd like to try a full boil next time (my kit came with a 4-gal pot). My question is two-fold and based on the following; adjusting the water up to just over 6 gallons to yield a 5.5 gallon batch in the primary dropped the OG significantly, so I added some DME in the recipe to bring it back into range and adjusted the hops accordingly. I am using BS2, which helps quite a bit. Are there any disadvantages to doing a full boil with an extract kit, and am I going in the right direction reducing the hops and increasing the malt (or other fermentables) to keep the OG where it is intended (or even higher)? Are there any other brewers out there doing all extraction with a full boil? Are there any full (5 - 5.5 gallon batch size) recipes using extract?