Novice brewer question

So my buddy and I are going to brew our second batch tomorrow (Weizenbier Brewer’s Best extract kit). We’ve been arguing about whether or not we should follow the instructions exactly as they appear on the instructions provided in the kit, where it says to start the boil with 2.5 gallons of water, and after the wort is transferred into the carboy for primary adding water to get the wort up to 5 gallons. I am of the understanding that we should boil approximately 6 gallons of water (we have a 7.5 gal pot), allowing for some loss during the boil, and not adding any water when we transfer to the carboy. I’m sure that to an extent both opinions are correct, but what should we do? Also, are there any benefits to either method? Thanks so much for the help guys!

The general recommendation is to only do a full volume boil if you have the ability to chill it quickly, which typically means a wort chiller. Being in Missouri in february, you might be able to get away with a full volume boil without one. I don’t know what the winter’s been like there, but if you wanted to try a full volume, what I would do is immediately after knockout take the kettle outside and stick it right in a snow bank. You want to bring it down to pitching temp in 30 minutes or, ideally, less.

The reasons for this are pretty simple. The longer the beer is exposed to the air after it stops boiling, the greater the risk of infection. Also, the full volume boil gets better hop utilization, because there’s more liquid to interact with the hops. The partial volume can also theoretically lead to infection by introducing unboiled tap water to the finished wort, but I think that risk is overstated. I’ve rinsed or topped off with tap water plenty of times and never had a problem.

It might be too late for this batch, but I’d consider buying/making yourself a wort chiller. It’s a pretty easy project to get some food grade tubing, a coil of copper pipe and some hose clamps and put them together. Once you have one you’ll wonder how you lived without it.

Thanks so much for the quick response. I’m actually at school at IU right now in Bloomington and there’s no snow on the ground, so that’s out. Our last batch we were able to get into down to pitching temperature via ice bath in just about 20-25 minutes. I’m hoping that our transition to the wort chill will be a little easier this time around.

On our last batch it was difficult to gauge how much liquid we lost. Would you recommend starting our boil with less than 6 gallons of water? We had a boil over last time and are debating if it’s worth it to risk another one for a full wort boil.

I think a boil off of about 15%/hour is thought to be typical, though this will vary greatly with the humidity and the vigor of the boil.

As far as a boil over goes, that is more dependent on the volume that your pot can hold. One thing I have found useful: As you are approaching boil, have a spray bottle of water handy. You can "knock down" the protein foam as it comes up pretty easily with that.

Yeah I just bought a wort chiller because I got tired of buying 20lbs of ice to cool down my wort, then still having to wait till it reached pitching temp. Definitely worth the investment.