Hop boil length

[phillipb115]

I like to brew small batches of beer, usually about 2 gallons. When I'm making my wort I am usually only using 1 gallon of water. My question is...should I still boil my hops for an average of one hour still? or should I maybe reduce that to 30 mins since I am using only one gallon of water?
I'd appreciate a little insight into how that works.

 

[Faseel]

The time depends on several factors, however 1 hour is a pretty good rule of thumb to release the alpha acids your looking for, however the boil also has beneficial affects to the wort besides the hops. Are you doing all-grain, partial or extract?

 

[xjmox14x]

The length of the boil is what matters, not the volume. The volume merely dilutes the bitterness/flavor/aroma of the hops, that's it. The length of the boil is what determines the whether it will be a bittering addition, flavor addition, or hop addition.

 

[Faseel]

Heh sorry too many "however"

 

[phillipb115]

I am using a golden light extract and some red/carmel grains and going to ferment it in a Mr. Beer barrel. It's my first recipe from scratch so I don't want to brew too much for obvious reasons.

 

[phillipb115]

Thanks for the info guys! Already having a positive experience for my first post!

 

[HopSong]

I hope this is not a hijack..

So, what if your boil level ends up at say.. 5.5 gallons rather than the planned 5 gallons.. Once the spent hops are removed, is it OK to continue with a slow rolling boil till you get to the 5 gallon mark???

 

[BrewKnurd]

I hope this is not a hijack..

So, what if your boil level ends up at say.. 5.5 gallons rather than the planned 5 gallons.. Once the spent hops are removed, is it OK to continue with a slow rolling boil till you get to the 5 gallon mark???

Depends on the defintion of OK. You will drive off the aroma and flavor compound that you are trying to put in with the late hop additions. You will isomerize additional alpha acids from the late hop additions, while also degrading some of the isomerized hop alpha acids from the early additions.

So in short, as long as you don't want the beer to turn out as planned, then yes, its ok.

So in seriousness, what I would do is is put 5 gallons in your fermenter and throw whatever extra in a growler or gallon glass jug or something if you have something like that.

 

[dcp27]

I like to brew small batches of beer, usually about 2 gallons. When I'm making my wort I am usually only using 1 gallon of water. My question is...should I still boil my hops for an average of one hour still? or should I maybe reduce that to 30 mins since I am using only one gallon of water?
I'd appreciate a little insight into how that works.

actually, if you're reducing the boil volume, you should be increasing the hop add or boil time. the less volume, the lower the hop utilization