Unfortunately, for the time being, I am stuck doing partial mashes with a partial boil on my stove top. I've been reading a lot about hop utilization and partial boils, and I realize that I will need to compensate for some loss of hop utilization for my upcoming IPA.
Basically, I am able to boil 4.5 gallons right now, and in my previous beers, what I have done is continuously feed water that I have heated in a smaller pan into the brewpot, to keep the water level pretty much constantly at 4-4.5 gallons throughout the entire 60 minute boil, so I only need to top off with 1-1.5 gallons at the end. That said, my past beers were a hefe, a dunkel, a scottish ale and other beers without a strong hop profile, so utilization wasn't as big of a factor (and those beers turned out great btw).
My question to you all is, given my current process of adding water to the boil, what effect might this have on my hop utilization? I realize I will still need to account for the 1.5 gallons of top off water and DME addition, but what about my boiling practice? Might this negatively (or positively) impact utilization in some way?
Basically, I am able to boil 4.5 gallons right now, and in my previous beers, what I have done is continuously feed water that I have heated in a smaller pan into the brewpot, to keep the water level pretty much constantly at 4-4.5 gallons throughout the entire 60 minute boil, so I only need to top off with 1-1.5 gallons at the end. That said, my past beers were a hefe, a dunkel, a scottish ale and other beers without a strong hop profile, so utilization wasn't as big of a factor (and those beers turned out great btw).
My question to you all is, given my current process of adding water to the boil, what effect might this have on my hop utilization? I realize I will still need to account for the 1.5 gallons of top off water and DME addition, but what about my boiling practice? Might this negatively (or positively) impact utilization in some way?