Home Brew Forum

In the book CloneBrews by Ted Szamatuls, he always says, use 25% less hops when brewing all grain, than when using extracts. Anyone know why?

Some extract brewers use a smaller pan, so are boiling their malt extract in a smaller volume. This makes it a boil with a more concentrated (higher gravity) wort. They then add water in the fermenter to dilute it down. Higher gravity boil = lower hop utilisation, which means you get less bitterness from the same amount of hops, so you need to use more.

If you do extract brewing with a full volume boil then there should be no difference to brewing AG.

If this isn't why, then I haven't a clue

I reckon you are right, thanks.