Boil Amount Question

[KurtK9]

I'm trying to brew my 3rd batch which will be my first non-kit batch so I've been looking at a lot of the recipes on this site for an extract recipe I can try.

The question I have is, how much water should I use for each of the steps? I'd like to make this recipe: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/dead-guy-clone-extract-ag-see-note-25902/ How much do I steep with? How much to boil?

It's a 5 gallon recipe, but I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be boiling 6 gallons to end with a 5 gallon wort or whether I should do less and add water later? Do most recipes assume a full boil using extracts?

Thanks for the help!

 

[sprice37]

Being a newb myself but I found 6.25 to 6.5 gallons boils off to about 5-5.25 gallons so that is what I have done for my last batch that was a 5.25 gallon recipe.

 

[KurtK9]

Ahh, so the recipes on this site assume you account for loss during boiling and boil the full amount you want to ferment?

 

[ToastedPenguin]

Ahh, so the recipes on this site assume you account for loss during boiling and boil the full amount you want to ferment?

For the most part yes, even most kits make this assumption. The typical boil off rate for 60 min boils is 1-1.5 gallons but the only real way to know is to either brew a batch and measure or do an all water boil and do the same thing.

 

[VTBrewer]

Hmm. Kinda. They assume an extract brewer will top up to 5 gallons (many only do a 2.5 gallon boil but you'll get better hop utilization from a larger one) and that an all grain brewer knows how much his/her system should collect to end up with his/her desired volume, which for me is usually 5.25 to 5.5. I don't typically adjust recipes i find for this, but may the second time I make it.