Boiling the Wort

We use a converted keg for boiling our wort. We use a high quality stainless steel spigot and Steve made a very cool and custom stainless adaptor for attaching our counterflow chiller after boiling is completed. We start the 35,000 btu burner after we have sparged about 2 gallons of wort. One thing we have found to add great hops flavor is to use "First Wort Hopping". This is where we add an ounce of hops as soon as the sparge is started.

Here is a nice picture of the sparged wort all ready to start boiling. Notice we ended up with about 14 gallons in our 15.5 gallon keg. This will enable us to end up with 10 gallons after boiling losses, trub loss during fermentation and racking. This is also something you will figure out for your own system as you brew more and more all grain batches.

This is the nice vigorous boil you want to achieve. You will boil the wort like this for 60 minutes and add hops as needed for bitterness, flavor and aroma. The good boil is essential to a good finished product.