Gallons per boil

[ETOHonboard]

I just picked up the ingrediants for my next brew and noticed that it had a boil of 3 gallons. My question is that I like to do full 5-6 gallon boils for a few reasons and I am curious if I deviate from this, what will be the consequences?

 

[RichmonS]

I do not think there will be any consequences.

 

[batty]

much discussed and debated, but some have said smaller boils decrease your hop utilization (ie you would have less ibu's into the beer with a smaller boil). most hop calculators i've seen calculate theoretical IBUs by taking boil volume into account.

 

[aggiejay06]

Yeah, IBUs the only discernible consequence I can think of, so if you went up in volume, you might raise the IBUs past the point you want it.

 

[aggiejay06]

Of course you could compensate for this by adding your hops later.

 

[ayoungrad]

I agree with others above. IBUs will increase. You might benefit from plugging your changes into a hop utilization calculator such as:

http://www.fattymattybrewing.com/ho...hp?page=tools&section=bitterness&action=entry

Or just wing it if you don't mind the possibility of over-hopped beer.

 

[ETOHonboard]

Thank you guys for your responses. I am going to check out the hop calculator when I get home. Thanks again