TANSTAAFB
Well-Known Member
Newb questions, which may be answered elsewhere in this thread, but it's sooo long! lol.
OP says he does partial boils and adjusts the hops accordingly... am I understanding correctly, this means he is using recipes that call for a full boil, and adjusting due to using a smaller brew pot? And the hops adjustment is done via a tool like Beersmith?
And where he says he shoots for a certain starting gravity, but doesn't test this until everything is topped off... am I understanding this to mean that he figures his process will get him to the desired gravity... but if it's off, he just leaves it, as there is nothing that can be done to alter it once topped up in the fermenter?
If you are using software like Beersmith it will help you with both your questions.
1-hop utilization is lower in a partial volume boil so you need to increase the hops to get the desired hop character once you have diluted the wort.
2- software will also give you where your numbers should be pre-boil, post-boil (before topping up) so you can make adjustments if you need to, and then where you should be after adding X amount of water.
I wouldn't know what to do w/o Beersmith! And this is where a refractometer comes in VERY handy so your not trying to chill a big sample to use a hydrometer only to find out you undershot your gravity by 10 points and extending your brew day figuring out what to do about it 🤘