Recipe question

[bigbeer]

Hi, I was just wondering how much of a difference it makes. In my recipe it says after the boil, to add for example 2 gallons of water to bring it to 5 gal. Can I just put more water during the boil so that I end up with 5 gal by the end?

Cheers!

 

[vincentAlpha]

That would depend on what exactly you are doing but most likely you probably can't do this without making some sort of adjustment. If you are adding hops after you add the water it will change your hop utilization and IBU since your boil will have a lower gravity.

 

[Hello]

^ this. However, if you post the recipe then I bet suggestions can be made on how to adjust the hops. Or you could just go with a full boil (that's what you're looking to do) and not adjust the hops. What kind of beer is it?

 

[mrgrimm101]

How big of a kettle do you have? I would imagine that it figures you are only using a 5 gallon kettle for a 5 gallon batch. So your preboil volume will be about 3-4 gallons, and then they want you to transfer from kettle to primary (after it's cooled) and then top up with water to get up to the 5 gallon batch size before pitching the yeast.

If you have a bigger kettle and can do a full-volume boil, then go for it. As vincentAlpha said, your hop utilization and IBU will be different than the recipe had planned for, but I always thought that a full-volume boil is better than a partial-volume..I could be wrong.

 

[bigbeer]

Yea I have a 64L kettle. Always done full volume, just wondering if it makes a difference really. How would you adjust hops for if I add water after boil? More hops?

 

[mrgrimm101]

The recipe is probably already figured assuming you are doing a partial volume boil and topping up water after the boil. I don't know how you would adjust the hops for a full-volume boil. I would imagine that you would increase the quantity..but I can't say for sure.