full boil, less hops?

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strangebrewer

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I'm going to brew my second beer tonight and thought I'd make it a full boil this time. According to the directions it says to use 25% to 50% less bittering hops for the first 30 minuites of the boil. I trust them, but why do I have to do this? And do I subtract 25% or 50% ? How do I know how much to subtract? I am making a baltic porter from nothern brewer.
 
The reason you need to make the adjustment has to do with hop utilization and your boil gravity. In simple terms, the more water you boil, the lower your boil gravity, and the higher your hop utilization; so fewer hops are needed to extract the same IBUs.

If you post your original recipe one of us can help you with making the correct adjustments or you can use brewing software like ProMash or Beersmith to make the adjustments yourself ;) I highly recommend getting some brewing software if you are even remotely interested in playing around with your recipes.
 
Also, how do you plan on cooling your full-boil wort.

Do you have a wort chiller?

Quickly cooling the wort is important and without a wort chiller, it may be difficult. THat piece of equipment is usually the last barrier for people wanting to do full boils.
 
thanks for the quick reply!

Yes I have a wort chiller, and I just downloaded a trial of beersmith. But here is my recipie to see if I come up with same answer as someone more experienced.

.5 lbs durst dark crystal
.5 lbs simpsons black male
.5 lbs simpsons chocolate malt
.5 lbs briess caramel 120

3 lbs dark dry extract (boil 60 mins)
6 lbs munich malt syrup boil 15 mins

1 oz summit 60 mins
1 oz perle 30 mins
.5 oz german tradition 15 mins
.5 oz german tradition 5 mins

I just noticed that it says summit on the box and the packet says yakima magnum, does this make a big difference? Mabe I should of look this over sooner...
Do I put the dme in at the same time as the syrup?
thanks
 
ok, I just called northern brewer and they said that due to the hop shortage they had to start using the summit in place of the magnum and I got the new lable and the old hop. No problem... phew. :)
 
TheJadedDog said:
Yes, the DME and LME go in at the same time.

I thought that, my friend that I brewed with said to follow the instructions and we waited till 15 mins left to put the syrup in. I tried to heat the syrup up before I put it in, and it still dropped the temp about 15 degrees. He told me not to worry about it, and I'm still worrying. Stupid me forgot to take a gravity reading too!
Oh well, lesson learned, I'm sure it will still taste like beer.
 
If you were doing only a partial boil, then your friend would have been right about saving at least half the extract for the last 15-20 mins of the boil. its called late extract addition.
it helps partial boils get better bittering hop utilization, and helps get you a lighter beer, more true to style.

full boils don't need the late addition because your wort isn't concentrated...it will get good hop utilization.
 
Did the drop in temp hurt anything? It never fully got back up to 212, it was something like 205 when we were done. We both thought it would'nt be a good idea to make the process go past 60 mins.
 
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