what size boil do you do for extract?

[DarthMalt]

Hey gang. New to this but ready to jump into it after I bottle my first brew tomorrow. Does your boil size INCLUDE your extract then top off or are you adding your extract to x.x gallons?

I have a 5 gallon pot and was thinking of using a 3.5 gallon boil because at 4 gallon I get close to boil over height and also just harder to carry it steady from my burner. Is there any advantage of 3.5 over 3 gallon? I've read to a much as you have room for?

Also, will that extract .5 gallon boil size make much difference in hop utilization? I'm just using recipes right now. I reckon I could use brew target since it's free to recalculate the hops.

Thanks. Happy to be here.

Boil size includes extract (if its not a late addition) but not top up. This should be your pre-boil volume, before adding hops. Batch size (final volume in fermenter) includes the top up water. I don't think adding 0.5 gal will do much for utilization. I don't have beersmith accessible right now but it's probably not much.

 

[johnbrain]

Thanks for the reply. And by top up I meant adding any additional water to bring my pre-boil volume to x.x gallons before bringing to a full boil.