Full boil question....

So when doing full boils for extract, what is the percentage of hops you deduct? I thought it was like 25%...so if the recipe calls for 1oz of hops for a 60min boil you would use 3/4 oz of hops? Is this right?

Hop utilization isn't linear over either wort gravity or boil time, so no quick-and-dirty adjustment factor will work for all recipes.

Better to plug the recipe into one of the brewing programs (ProMash, BeerTools, BeerSmith, etc. -- or if you want a free online calculator, try Tastybrew.com) and adjust the hop amounts until you reach the target IBUs.

www.beertools.com has a free online version that'll help you calculate your hops using their recipe generator. only downside to free version is you only get to save 1 recipe at a time.

since different crops have different alpha acid levels, plus the variance due to boil volume (or rather, wort gravity hindering utilization), its just easier to use a calculator.

cool thanks for the links. It's a very simple Crystal cream ale.

6lbs extra dry
1lbs corn sugar
.50lbs flaked barley
.50lbs Dextrine

.5 oz Perle
.5oz fuggles

I used that calc above and did a 25% reduction and it came out spot on for IBU I want 12.1 and with a 25% split I got 12.2 so I think that will. Look right to you guys?



Thanks again for the help!

Bike N Brew said:

Hop utilization isn't linear over either wort gravity or boil time, so no quick-and-dirty adjustment factor will work for all recipes.

Click to expand...

Not to mention, partial-boil recipes aren't always the same boil volume anyway. Scaling a 2-gallon boil recipe up to a 5-gallon boil will require a much more significant hops adjustment than scaling up a 3+ gallon boil recipe to 5gal.

It's definitely in your best interests to pick out some brewing software and get familiar with it. Beersmith has been one of the most important pieces of my brewing 'gear' and was well worth the purchase price to me.