boil size adjustments question

I'm thinking about trying this recipe for a weizenbock http://***********/recipe/714.html, but it appears to be for a full 5 gallon boil. I don't have the stuff to do a full boil. What adjustments should I make to do a partial boil?

Assuming you are doing the extract version and a boil of 2.5 gallons, just delay adding the light malt syrup until 10 minutes before the end of the boil.

not to butt in...but why wait to add the rest of the malt syrup til the end fo the boil?

i thought you wanted all of the malt exposed to all of the hops, so the malt receives all the hop flavors and aroma equally?

(still learning all the fine points)
Right now I have to use two 12qt brewpots, and I very carefully split all the ingredients equally between the two so I get an almost complete boil and only have to add about 1gallon of cooled water to the fermenter to bring volume to 5gallons.

malkore said:

not to butt in...but why wait to add the rest of the malt syrup til the end fo the boil?

Click to expand...

If you boil the full amount of extract for the full length of the boil, hop utilization will suffer due to the higher gravity of the boil.

By adding extract near he end, you don't have to adjust the hop schedule.

Right on. You have three options. You can do the half-extract addition as suggested above in order to boost hop utilization as if it were a full boil. You can also just increase your bittering hop addition by about 20-25% to compensate for the lower utilization. So, if they want a 1oz, make it 1.25oz. Last you can boil for a little longer. Instead of 60 minutes, go with 75. I'd recommend doing a 2.5 gallon boil and only adding half the extract initially. Stick with the recipe for hop additions, add the second half of the extract with 10 minutes to go. You get the additional benefit of less carmelization which means you'll hit the target SRM more closely.

Ok, I understand now. Thanks for the information.

Just wrapping up an Irish Red Ale on the stove. I'll know this for next time.

Is it more preferred to add DME or LME in the last 10 mins? does either mix better at that stage? or is it pretty much the same difference?