First All Grain big beer with lots of hops. Some questions.

[MrMista]

Hello everyone,

I have made a few all grain beers, so far they have all been pretty average in their amount of hops and alcohol content. On July 4th I plan on making a Pliny the Elder clone and have some questions.

This recipe uses a total of 14oz of hops. 9oz in the boil (90 minute boil), and 5oz for dry hopping.

I understand that my efficiency may drop a bit, so that is fine. I am wondering if I will need to increase my pre boil volume to accommodate for the 9oz of hops that go into the boil? I usually boil off about 1 gallon an hour so if I were just following my previous brew days I would begin with about 8 gallons pre boil (I usually begin with 7.5 gallons, so I add another .5 for the half hour additional boil time). However, should I add more volume to account for the 9oz of hops? It seems as though Beersmith does so, because it is telling me to begin with 8.5 gallons to end up with 5gal in the fermenter.

Lastly, should I try to begin with 6 gallons or 5.5 gallons in the fermenter so I end up with 5 gallons in my keg after doing the 5oz of dry hopping?


Thanks for the help guys!

 

[duboman]

Basically yes on all accounts. The sheer amount of hops will increase the kettle loss as well as the trub non the primary/secondary for dry hops.

Keep in mind though that if you up your volumes and account for loss you also need to increase the grain to maintain the same OG.

When I brew these types of beers I just assume less finished product but Ymmv.

 

[MrMista]

Does it sound like the additional .5 hops accounts for the boil (I would usually do 8 gallons for 90 minutes but BeerSmith is saying 8.5)? I know that I would need to add more to not lose some from the dry hopping.

Right now I am brewing with a kit so I cannot increase my grain.

 

[duboman]

BeerSmith does not automatically adjust volumes like that. Something else must have been changed to add the half gallon. Did you perhaps increase your boil time?

It's up to the user to adjust for losses anticipated.

 

[MrMista]

Is there a good resource to find how much water 1 oz of hops will absorb during the boil, and how much they will absorb during dry hopping?

 

[duboman]

Is there a good resource to find how much water 1 oz of hops will absorb during the boil, and how much they will absorb during dry hopping?

A quick search yielded no concrete numbers and most were associated with whole hops

 

[MrMista]

I had the same issue unfortunately. Oh well, this first batch will be a learning experience!

 

[Peruvian802]

I brewed a Pliny clone yesterday and started with a pre-boil volume of 7 gallons. I usually loose a gallon per hour. After the 90 minute boil and all the hop additions, I had just over 5 gallons. Great, right? Yes, until I removed the hop spider and then siphoned the wort into my fermenter and had just about 4 gallons and the OG was really high! The siphon clogged a lot (even with a pain strainer over the end). I ended up adding water to the fermenter which worked out fine and dropped the OG to the expected level.

 

[stevedasleeve]

Adjust troub loss to compensate for hop sludge. My regular number for this is 1 gallon, I up it to 1.5 for very hoppy beers and 2 for monsters. It means of course to get the same gravity wort you will need to add more grain. If you are at mash tun capacity add DME.