Newby here with a question. I am doing an American Wheat extract full boil, do I hop as regular, or do I adjust the recipe?
If you reduce the hops by about 10%-12% for your full boil you’ll be right in the ballpark. Using the full hop schedule in the recipe will yield quite a bit more bitterness in a full boil than it will for a partial boil. Bear in mind also that this recipe is noticeably hoppier than the average wheat beer. I actually reduced both hops in this recipe by about 25% for a full boil and it came out just about right for my taste. I’ll say right up front that I’m not a hophead by any means, though…
Thanks for your feedback, let’s say I already did the brew and hopped according to the original recipe. What do I have on my hands?
You’ll have beer. It’ll probably be pretty good beer, with firm bitterness and plenty of hop flavor and aroma for the style. I’ve drank similar beers that were much more “hoppy” than what you would have by the original recipe, and enjoyed them quite a bit. The only issue you might have is the hops overriding the malty, grainy flavors a little bit.
The consensus is reducing bittering hops by 10-20%, based on the gravity of beer you’re making. For low gravity beers- I reduce by 20%, 15% for mid-gravity beers and 10% for high gravity beers.
Thanks for the input, I’m assuming this is a rule of thumb for extract full boils across the board?
