Full boils

[ampsman]

So I finally got a nice 11 gallon kettle so I can do full boils.
What I have found though is that most if not all extract kits are designed for partial boils.
What type of calculations do I need to do to get the correct hop utilization when doing a full boil?
Also, I still only use about 2 gallons of water when steeping the grains and then top off before I add the extract.
Is this the correct way to do it?

 

[BamaRooster]

you can try Hopville . the free online community for homebrewers there is a recipe calculator on their site and it can help you determine your adjustments. I have used this several times to adjust for boil volume on extract brews.

 

[baldben]

This section of John Palmer's How to Brew should give you the calculations you need for hop utilization. Not being mathematically inclined myself, I'd stick to using BeerSmith or a similar program.

How to Brew - By John Palmer - Hop Bittering Calculations

As for the steeping grains, 1 gallon of water per pound grains seems to be a standard procedure.

 

[Yooper]

Those calculators are incorrect with the partial boil utilizations, for the most part. And John Palmer has recently come out and said he got it wrong in How To Brew- that hops utilization is independent of wort gravity.

What I'd do is just make the beer with a full boil without compensating a thing. If you're really really worried that a lower IBU beer may be too bitter, you can reduce the bittering hops by 20%. But I don't think you'll need to do that.

 

[hnsfeigel]

Wow, so I'm hoping Yoop is correct, because the recipe I used would be off the way I brewed it. The instructions said use 2.5-6 gal. I have a 4 gal kettle and boiled 3.5. The hopville calculator states I would only end up at 21.6 IBU vs. a 28.9 if I boiled 6 gal. If anyone can give us a little more detail on this, do tell!

 

[Grinder12000]

I'm with yoop on this one (like she needs me to qualify her). You will see very very very little difference and if you do it'll be for the better. I've done two half boils, one full boil and a half boil on an experiment a few years ago and frankly I could not tell any large difference.

 

[troub]

I've never compensated for anything, and everything comes out fine, all styles of beer.

 

[ampsman]

Thanks!
Once I again I over think it and you have put me at ease.

 

[hnsfeigel]

So, since this dead horse hasn't properly been beaten... I was hoping to get some clarification from Yooper (and any others in agreement on the lack of needing to adjust.)

If the major programs don't have the utilization calcs correct, how do you account for that when tweaking a recipe with software? Mainly for those of us trying to reverse engineer a full-sized recipe for a partial boil?