Converting recipe to Full Boil

Hey guys. Im doing this recipe but I want to do a full a boil though, in the instructions it talks about steeping and then adding water to 2.5 or 3 gal. At that point can I just add water to take it to 6 gal and do a full boil and follow the recipe from there on out?

Ingredients:

4 lbs. Alexander’s extra light malt extract
1 lb. Laaglander extra light dry malt extract
1 lb. dry wheat malt extract
3 lbs. flaked wheat
2 lbs. 2-row lager malt (crushed)
2.25 oz. Saaz hops (3.2% alpha acid), 2 oz. for 60 min., 0.25 oz. at finish
1 oz. coriander for 5 min.
0.5 oz. bitter orange peel
for 20 min.
1-quart starter of Wyeast 3944
3/4 to 1 cup of corn sugar for priming
Step by Step:

Soak the flaked wheat and lager malt together in 1 gal. of 150° F water for 90 minutes, then rinse to kettle and add extracts. Add sufficient water to bring to 2.5 to 3 gals. Boil for 30 minutes, add 2 oz. hops. Boil for 40 more minutes. Add orange peel. Boil 15 minutes. Add coriander. Boil five minutes, turn off heat, and add remainder of hops. Add wort to pre-boiled, chilled water to 5 gals. Aerate thoroughly, and pitch yeast. Follow normal fermentation and bottling procedures, using 3/4 to 1 cup of corn sugar at bottling.

Yes, but you will want to reduce the amount of hops due to the increased utilization if you want to keep the IBUs the same.

Is there a calculation on how much to decrease it by or do you have a suggestion? Thanks

HoshBrew said:

Is there a calculation on how much to decrease it by or do you have a suggestion? Thanks

Click to expand...

Nah, don't worry about it. IBU calculations do take into account the wort gravity- but that has been shown to be an incorrect assumption. Don't worry about the IBUs.

A couple of things, though- I think Laaglander extract was taken off the market a few years ago. It was very high in unfermentables, so a simple replacement of Munton's might screw with your FG, but that's probably a good thing.

The recipe is "meh" at best. I'd probably try to find a better recipe if you can.

Yeah I already had some brand changes calculated into Ibrewmaster. I'm trying to replicate a local beer that I love and from all the reading I've done this should be on the right track, I'll give it a go and see what adjustments to make in the next batch. Was there something that really stood out to you wrong with the recipe?

HoshBrew said:

Is there a calculation on how much to decrease it by or do you have a suggestion? Thanks

Click to expand...

Beersmith calculates an IBU increase of 5 IBUs for that extra 3 gallons of boil. Thats fairly minimal but if you want to stay as close to the original as possible, then decrease the boil hops by .25 oz. That will keep you really close.

Thanks

HoshBrew said:

Yeah I already had some brand changes calculated into Ibrewmaster. I'm trying to replicate a local beer that I love and from all the reading I've done this should be on the right track, I'll give it a go and see what adjustments to make in the next batch. Was there something that really stood out to you wrong with the recipe?

Click to expand...

Well, "lager malt" is pretty non descriptive. But you could sub pilsner malt. But an ounce of coriander is a LOT. So, if the beer is mostly coriander I guess it'd be ok, but it sure is a lot. Laaglander isn't available any more, and alexanders only comes in cans which are sometimes quite old.

2 pounds of "lager malt" may convert 3 pounds of flaked wheat, but I didn't run the numbers to be sure.

I'm not a fan of the recipe, but that could be because I don't care for witbiers anyway. It just seems like a random sort of mess to me.

(5 calculated IBUs is below any human threshold so I'd ignore any changes in hopping- plus it's unlikely anyway)

I'll post the Ibrewmaster recipe when I finalize it and get some critiques before I go with it. Thanks

I disagree with Yooper on the taste threshold of 5 IBU's as I have adjusted my recipes numerous times from previous batches by 5 IBUs and can definitely percieve the difference. But everybody has different perceptions and there is nothing wrong with that. What I do agree with is that 5 IBU's will not make that much of a difference. Besides, when I originally entered the recipe in, I only came up with 13 IBU's for the PM. Which is a bit low, albeit within BJCP guidelines (10-20 IBU's). I do agree with Yooper that the recipe is a bit of a mess and the 1 oz of corriander is a bit much. Besides that, the beer is a bit high on the OG - but I suppose that could be from using the generic LME and DME that is found in Beersmith. I'm not familiar with Laaglander, so maybe the original author compensated for the high unfermentables that Yooper mentioned.

Here's where I am at so far with my recipe,I'm working it in Ibrewmaster.

3lbs Muntons Light DME
2.5lbs Muntons Wheat DME
3lbs Flaked Wheat(steeping)

2.25oz. Saaz
Wyeast 3942

.75 oz. Coriander
1oz. Orange Peel

Any suggestions on additions or changes?
Thanks

On Ibrewmaster it shows my OG at 1.062. At what point do you need a yeast starter or is it not just determined by the OG?

I would reduce the amount of flaked wheat and change your DME to all wheat DME since wheat DME is already a mixture of two row and wheat. Maybe add about 8 oz of Aromatic in the steep to add a little complexity. So to make things easier.. something like 6 lbs wheat DME and 1.5 lbs flaked wheat and .5 lbs Aromatic. Otherwise looks good. IMHO you should always use a starter with liquid yeast when your OG is over 1.050. But to really do your beer justice, you should use the pitching rate calculator at mrmalty.com

Thanks for the thoughts Big. I'm about ready to give this recipes go.