Volume

Sorry if this question has been asked again but I tried searching for it and didn't really find much. So I've been looking at recipator and promash and they both ask for the boil volume and after boil volume. In my brewpot, I really only boil about 3 gals of wort. Maybe less. So I end up pouring it into the fermentor and pouring water in to meet the 5 gal mark. When calculating my IBUS, theres about a difference of 20 when I say I'm boiling 3 gals instead of 5gal. Whats up with this? Thanks!

In a concentrated boil the hops aren't utilized as efficiently so it takes more hops to get the same IBU's as when doing a full volume boil.

At least that's what my understanding is.

Let's see

Somerville said:

Sorry if this question has been asked again but I tried searching for it and didn't really find much. So I've been looking at recipator and promash and they both ask for the boil volume and after boil volume. In my brewpot, I really only boil about 3 gals of wort. Maybe less. So I end up pouring it into the fermentor and pouring water in to meet the 5 gal mark.

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The volume before is the amount of water you start with (let's say 6 gallons) as it boils you lose some to evaporation (or boil overs) you should lose 15-18% (so you end up with about 5 gallons). I'm not so good at using these programs, so I don't know if that's helpful.

Somerville said:

When calculating my IBUS, theres about a difference of 20 when I say I'm boiling 3 gals instead of 5gal. Whats up with this? Thanks!

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The volume issue is pretty important here because you're dilluting your 50 IBU wort with 0 IBU water. You'll need to either increase your hops, boil volume or both for that Arrogant Bastard clone.

Should I assume that most people on this forum (especially the masters) boil full volume? I ask for alot of advice on hops and perhaps I should be assuming that they are giving me advice based off of a full volume boil (5-6 gals). Perhaps I should look into a larger brewpot

Somerville said:

Should I assume that most people on this forum (especially the masters) boil full volume?

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All of the AG'ers are doing full boils because it's a requirement for the process. I'm not sure how the extract brewers sort out with respect to this...there are some advantages to a full boil, but they're not tremendous IMO.