Question about amount of water in boil

[joebagodonuts]

Hey home brewers:
I've been reading a lot of recipes and I'm looking for an easy one to start with.
I have all of my equipment ready to go I have a 10 gallon cooler for a mash tun and a 30 quart kettle.
The problem that I am having is with the recipes. All of the recipes that I find on the internet seem to have incomplete information about amount of water - but that's probably because I don't understand something.
For example, i just read an IPA recipe that said the batch size was 5.5 gallons, but on the boil section it said the boil should be 3 gallons. Is this person just boiling half of it and then pouring in the rest to make it 5.5 g after the boil?
Others seem to be for 5 gallon batches, and talk about steeping 3.5 gallons and boiling more than 5. I'm assuming that the rest is in the sparge - but there is no mention of amount of sparge or the sparge temperature.
Are there any resources that I can use to figure out what the missing pieces are?
Thanks

 

[Bobby_M]

Check out the all grain primer in my sig..

 

[Reelale]

It's variable with grain bill, and the boil-off rate of your equipment. All of the water additions for every recipe hinge on getting that pre-boil volume, so you will know that in 60 or 90 minutes, you will have your final batch volume (minus of course cooling loss, and deadspace). This is probably the best source for beginning all-grain, or even partial mash for that matter. DeathBrewer has a great thread that explains the process as well. Here.

EDIT: I didn't see Bobby M's link before. Him too, for sure.

 

[Pappers_]

Yes, read Bobby's all-grain primer, its tremendously helpful.

Second, make sure you are clear on the type or category of brewing you are doing (and that the recipe is for): 1) extract (often with steeping grains), 2) partial mash and 3) all grain.

It is common for extract batches to call for a "partial boil", where the malt extract is boiled in 3 gallons or less of water. Then, the wort is added to the fermenter and "topped off" with water to get to 5 gallons before the yeast is pitched.

Partial boils are not an option for all grain brewing. So if you see a recipe calling for a partial boil, it wasn't an all-grain recipe. Does that make sense?

 

[joebagodonuts]

Thanks guys.
I'm going to check those links now.
This forum is awesome - great answers in minutes. Where else on the interwebs does that happen?

 

[homebeerbrewer]

Thanks guys.
I'm going to check those links now.
This forum is awesome - great answers in minutes. Where else on the interwebs does that happen?

Only on HomeBrewTalk.com!

I was gonna say what Pappers said, but he beat me to it...