Reduce hops for full boil and any other adjustments?

[KELLEHERC]

Hey All,

I really did not get an answer the last time so I thought I would try one last time before I brewed today.

Full boil extract recipe meant for a 2.5 gal boil.
Russian Imperial Stout.

Do I need to reduce the hops at all?
Should I steep grains in 2.5 gal or full 5 gal?
Any other adjustments needed?

Thanks

 

[hodge]

By increasing the volume of your boil you will need to adjust your hops accordingly to stay within the guidelines of your recipe. I use a brewing software (beersmith) to do this. You're increasing hop utilization which means that in the end you will extract more bitterness per hop. I'm sure someone can pipe in with a free brewing software that you can use to make hop adjustments.

I once brewed a chocolate milk stout and went full boil with late extract addition and without adjusting the hops and I ended up with a whopping 78 IBU's!

I would steep according the the recipe as I believe that steeping in too large a volume might increase tannin extraction (don't quote me on this one though).

I'd say that hops are the only thing that you'd really need to play around with.

 

[KELLEHERC]

I will steep with the 2.5 gal. (won't be any harm in that anyway) and then add more water before the boil. Any ballpark on the hops reduction? Cut in half?

 

[deepcdan99]

Unsure of the hops, but why do you want to boil the whole 5gal?

 

[dcp27]

it should be roughly half the bittering hops if you're doubling the boil volume. don't change the other hop additions

 

[Yooper]

it should be roughly half the bittering hops if you're doubling the boil volume. don't change the other hop additions

I don't agree. You shouldn't have to adjust the hops at all, but if you want to adjust the bittering hops, lower them by about 20% at the most. I would be more inclined just to leave the recipe alone and do it as is.

 

[dcp27]

I don't agree. You shouldn't have to adjust the hops at all, but if you want to adjust the bittering hops, lower them by about 20% at the most. I would be more inclined just to leave the recipe alone and do it as is.

oops, good catch, not quite sure what I was thinking . 20% is probably a good range to use, although it does vary a bit with OG (20% around 1.050, 40% around 1.120). in any case, it'd have to be a pretty big charge for you to distinguish the difference, so just leave it as is like yoop said, and adjust next time if you feel necessary.

 

[KELLEHERC]

I ended up leaving it alone - thanks