Boil Volume Answer This, Save the Universe!

Hello,

What does the "boil volume" value of an extract brew consists of in the equipment profile in BeerSmith? Water, plus extract or just water?

If water, plus extract, how do I know how much water to add (especially if I am doing partial boils)?

I assume using the formula in the link below to figure out how much volume the extract adds to the boil volume would get me the actual water amount to add to the pot?

http://www.madisonbeerreview.com/2010/11/five-gallons-at-time-malt-extract-vs.html

thanks,
gunrock

No one knows? Pre boil volume, extract brewing in beermith, Extract plus water or water only?

Thanks,

I assume water only

Really not sure but have you checked the BeerSmith site? Brad has a ton of info on there and will answer emails if you can't find it. Go to the source grasshopper!

Boil volume would refer to water and extract volume. It doesn't make sense to boil just the water or just the extract.
As for the partial boils -- the boil volume would be the volume that you are actually boiling. The program is trying to calculate bitterness which is dependent on hop utilization. Hop utilization is dependent on wort density, which is dependent on the volume of the boiling liquid (water and extract).

Sometimes people will have a late addition of extract to in erase hop utilization. I believe that this lat addition of extract would not be part of your boil volume calculations

I hope this helps. Mark

Yup I've scoured the forums..this originally started when I was evaluating BeerSmith, noticed IBU's being low on extract kits, which lead me to the equipment profile setup, Brad's videoes, etc...and to this question...the IBU values are closer to the particular style if I take the water addition the kit calls for and then add in the calculated volume (via madison link) for the DME/LME to the pre boil value.

However, if am not doing a kit, but a partial boil extract recipe of my own design, when pre boil volume is calculated automatically, and assuming this pre boil volume includes water, plus extract I was curious how you know how much water to add for your partial boil....so then I just figure the approximate volume the extract adds and subtract this from the automatically calculated value, to get the water I need to add to the pot.

Unless there is an easier way...one might argue, who cares, just brew, but I want to make sure I'm using the software correctly and for a good understanding.

thanks