Using new kettle tomorrow

Going to use my new 5 gal kettle tomorrow that swmbo bought me. I am planning on doing about a 4 gal boil, possible 3.5. Should I even worry about adding the extra gallon or so of water or should I just make a 4 gal batch?

Making an IPA just so you know.

Using the extra water will get better utilization from the hops. This would seem especially important for an IPA. You could even pull off a 4.5 gallon boil if you are attentive. If you scrape off the proteins (the white film) as they become darker you will avoid a massive hot break that will cause a boil over. This is a tried and true method for me and one I know works from experience. I know of people that have used a small clip on fan and they have told me that they don't get boilovers. Then there's a chemical called ferm-aid (I believe) that others use all the time that gets the same effect. I am assuming that because you are brewing tomorrow that you already have everything you need so unless you want to go to the store I recommend you use the first suggestion I gave. Hope this helps...

histo320 said:

Should I even worry about adding the extra gallon or so of water or should I just make a 4 gal batch?

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If it's an extract or PM, I'd do a partial boil and use top off water. In this case you are already working with concentrates. If it’s AG, I'd go with a full boil on a 3-4 gallon batch.

Edit: If you're going with the smaller batch, be sure to scale your hops and malt to get the right IBU/SG ratio for the recipe. Use software like BeerSmith to make scaling easy.