Lerxst said:
What ABV do you want to shoot for? 9# LME + 1# C20 will net you about 10.25% That's a wee bit high for the IIPA style but still with in 1056's alcohol tolerance. Only problem is that you're going to want a BIG starter for this OG....we're talking like a steeped up 3L+ starter or pitching this wort on smaller beer's yeast cake (my preference, two beers for the price of 1 smack pack). Alternatively, you could just pitch a handful of Fermentis US-05 dry yeast packs.
Do you do full boils or partial boils?
How do you chill your wort to pitching temp and what temp do you normally pitch at?
Do you use the late addition extract method?
Wet to dry hop IBU ratio is generally considered ~5:1. So for every 1 ounce of dried hops you'd add to a recipe, you're going to use 5 ounces of wet hops. Do you have the capability to handle a large volume of hop material in your kettle? If not, you could split your wort between a couple kettles. Something else to consider is that a decent amount of wet hops are going to absorb a good bit of wort. You can press some of this wort out, but you'll still have a volume loss to some degree (same goes for dry hops). If you wind up topping off w/ water to get to a 5 gal finished volume, this will wind up lowering your OG and ABV so a FG reading will be important.
First, answers to questions, then an update. I was just going off a recipe I found for extract IPA. The recipe actually called for 8 Lbs. DME, but since the DME comes in packs of 3 Lbs each I have an extra pound. I was thinking of just throwing it in, but instead, now I am thinking of just using 8 lbs and using the extra pound for something else. In fact, that is what I am going to do. I had no specific OG figured out, but was basically following a recipe for that part. This is the recipe I was basically using as a starting point to construct my own recipe.
http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0093/2142/files/Das_Hopinator_IPA.pdf?1969 It is from a brew shop in Boise, though I ended up ordering from Williams because the Boise shop did not have staff on hand to help me with my order when I wanted to make it. Because the crystal comes in pounds rather than half pounds, I went for 1 pound of 20L, cracked, rather than half a pound of that and half a pound of munich. Also, I will be using obviously mostly my own hops, and just got a couple ounces of Cascade pellets for buttering/flavor. Also, after looking at reviews on the Williams site, I grabbed the 1056 rather than the 1028. But there may be a problem there. More later.
1. I like to do full boils and will try to do so here. It has happened that I had to add some water at the last minute to bring the batch up to full. I used to use a 5 gal stainless steel bucket, but that was not enough room, so I have access to a friend's larger, newer brew kettle with a spigot and screen so I can squish as much out of the hops as i can. I think it is a 7.5 gal brew kettle.
2. I use a home made wort chiller I made from parts from Home Depot way back when and try to pitch at 68. I have been anxious before and pitched more toward 70, but hope to restrain myself this time.
3. Not sure what you mean by late addition extract method.
I started brewing using processes taken mostly from the old Parpazian books with instruction from my old home brew shop back then. I tend get temp up to 155 0r so, steep the grains for an hour, pull the grain bag, bring to boil, pull off heat, add DME and go from there.
Now, update. First, I am concerned about my smack pack of yeast, 1056, and may have to obtain new yeast from my local brewer.
I ordered my stuff Tuesday night, and it arrived yesterday sometime while I was at work. The smack pack seemed already puffy, and I could not find the little ball in there to smack. It is now seeming to be kind puffed up.
I am not brewing until tomorrow, and I would not normally smack a day and a half in advance. So, now I don't trust it. Hopefully, Paul and Kevin at Sawtooth brewing may be able to sell me some of theirs.
http://sawtoothbrewery.com
I stopped there last night with my bag of dried hops I picture in my post above to get Paul's opinion on the hops. He had just been to Yakima for a hop seminar sort of thing, and had just gotten back. He was quite impressed with the hops, deconstructed one or two, did a little roll and sniff test, and pondered it. His conclusion? they are definitely beer hops and not an ornamental. He believes they are an American aroma hop, and that if dried would work well for bittering and flavor (Paul says aroma hops can be used for bittering and flavor, but that bittering hops don't do as well imparting aroma), and will work well for aroma either wet or dried. His believes they are not Willamette as the smell was not earthy or Willamette like, and that they could be some type of Cascade, Chinook or Citra. Though he and Paul backed off Citra for some reason maybe having to do how Citra is regulated or distributed. His best bet is that they are Chinook. In any case, he thinks they are good hops and that the ones I picked are in great shape and should do well.
So after talking to them, I was planning on adding the 2 oz of pellets at 60, (working backward on boil time), or I might go an ounce at 60 then an ounce at 45, then at 30 start adding the wet hops at a ration of 5:1 as you say. So at 30, 5 ounces, at 15, 5 more ounces, at 58, another 5 ounces, and 5 ounces during the chill, with nothing added after the chilling gets at or below 190 degrees. I will dry hop with some of my dried stuff in the car boy.
I hear what you are saying on the loss of volume due to all the hops. So I guess I will be adding. Hmm. So that makes me wonder if I should go ahead and put that extra pound in to help keep the gravity up. So, ok, that is the plan for now. The biggest thing on my mind at the moment is making sure I have good yeast, and a sufficient supply. I am leery of making a starter with this pack that seems compromised. Also, Paul thought I would have enough with this pack and should not risk infection. Hopefully I can get a sufficient supply from them of their stuff. They told me they use White labs WLP OO1 California Ale yeast for a lot of their brews. I may make the tea you suggest also just to get the idea about the flavor, just for fun.
So yikes! thoughts on this? It would be nice if there was a homebrew shop nearby so I could just go replace the smack pack. Oh well. Hopefully Paul or Kevin will get back to me.
