It is said that for a lower boil gravity, you'll get better hop utilization, so logic would dictate adding no extract before adding the hops, but we still had about half the extract at the beginning of the boil. I don't know the exact number, but there is an ideal boil gravity that will get you the best utilization. I believe it's around 1.030, so add 3.4 lbs of DME to 5 gallons to get there.
It is said that for a lower boil gravity, you'll get better hop utilization, so logic would dictate adding no extract before adding the hops, but we still had about half the extract at the beginning of the boil. I don't know the exact number, but there is an ideal boil gravity that will get you the best utilization. I believe it's around 1.030, so add 3.4 lbs of DME to 5 gallons to get there.
Contrary to popular "wisdom", hop utilization isn't related directly to wort gravity.
Do you have any additional info on this? Rager, Garetz, Tinseth and a number of other folks who have spent time researching utilization would disagree.
There's been a number of threads here about it, but essentially, this was the finding from the 2007 International Brewers Symposium. John Palmer discuss it in the March 20th episode of Basic Brewing.
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