couple questions -first clone recipe

Hello everyone - it's my first post. I've been lurking for weeks and have spend hours reading tons of great info here.

A couple buddies and I have started homebrewing and the first 2 batches were just the standard pre-packaged kits from Brewer's Best. First one was bottled yesterday and the 2nd is one week into fermentation now. Today we are going to attempt a Dogfish IPA clone. The guy at LHBS hooked my friend up w/ all the ingredients - looks like we'll be doing a mini-mash w/ 2 liquid extract additions and several hop additions.
I just had a couple questions I wanted to clear up before getting this batch started:

1 - the final hop addition calls for whirlpool hops - I assume that means just add them right at the end of the boil when you take the pot off the heat? We don't have an IC yet and just do ice soaks at this point if that matters.

2 - the recipe talks about using a "hopper," I assume this just a bag or strainer to hold the hops to keep things cleaner? Any problems with just throwing the hops into the pot and stirring a bit?

3 - fermentation, the recipe states to ferment initially at 71 but let temp rise to 74 "towards the end of fermentation and then warm condition for 3 days to remove diacetyl. Then cool beer and add dry hops for for 2 weeks."
When they say warm condition is that referring to the 74 degrees? And when they say cool the beer, is that back down to 70 or so they want us to take it down into the 60's? We've been doing 3 week primaries in a room in my house that stays in the 70-73 range - can we just do that again and add the dry hops at the start of week 2?

4 - this questions isn't really for today but more for the future. We don't have a big (7+ gallon) brewpot yet but we do have 2 5-gallon SS pots. Is it possible to convert the recipes to do "full boils" in two smaller pots and then combine in the fermenter? The recipe we have today calls for topping off with water in the fermenter to reach 5 gallons and we'd really like to get away from that and start making full batches. We didn't realize we had a 2nd 5 gallon pot until the other day so we didn't know if it would be worth the hassle converting the recipes to account for this or better just to go buy one big pot. From what I've read you just have to scale back the hops when convert from a "concentrated wort w/ top off" to a full batch?

Sorry for the rambling post - thanks for any info you can provide

1 - the final hop addition calls for whirlpool hops - I assume that means just add them right at the end of the boil when you take the pot off the heat? We don't have an IC yet and just do ice soaks at this point if that matters.

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Your guess is as good as mine. Is it after all the timed additions? Probably you are suppose to stir the wort really well, throw in the hops, and turn of the heat and cool.

2 - the recipe talks about using a "hopper," I assume this just a bag or strainer to hold the hops to keep things cleaner? Any problems with just throwing the hops into the pot and stirring a bit?

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You can just throw them in.

3 - fermentation, the recipe states to ferment initially at 71 but let temp rise to 74 "towards the end of fermentation and then warm condition for 3 days to remove diacetyl. Then cool beer and add dry hops for for 2 weeks."
When they say warm condition is that referring to the 74 degrees? And when they say cool the beer, is that back down to 70 or so they want us to take it down into the 60's? We've been doing 3 week primaries in a room in my house that stays in the 70-73 range - can we just do that again and add the dry hops at the start of week 2?

Click to expand...

Take a sharpie and line out this part of your instructions. It is for certain types of lager yeast only. I'd have to hope you have an ale yeast and are using pale malt based ingredients, in which case a diacetyl rest is not needed. Find a cool spot where temp doesn't fluctuate and is between 65-70 and just leave it there for 7-10 days. Then do the dry hopping.

4 - this questions isn't really for today but more for the future. We don't have a big (7+ gallon) brewpot yet but we do have 2 5-gallon SS pots. Is it possible to convert the recipes to do "full boils" in two smaller pots and then combine in the fermenter? The recipe we have today calls for topping off with water in the fermenter to reach 5 gallons and we'd really like to get away from that and start making full batches. We didn't realize we had a 2nd 5 gallon pot until the other day so we didn't know if it would be worth the hassle converting the recipes to account for this or better just to go buy one big pot. From what I've read you just have to scale back the hops when convert from a "concentrated wort w/ top off" to a full batch?

Click to expand...

You can split everything. If the hop schedule is set up for high gravity boils, then you might want to reduce the hops a bit if you are doing a full boil.

thanks for the reply.
1 - Yes, there are several timed hop additions and the final one is "add whirlpool hops after boil and begin cooling." So were just going to add them right at the end, stir, start cooling and stir a little during the cooling. Seems like kind of a "partial dry hop"

3 - the yeast is a liquid "activator pack" and it looks like "1187 Ringwd ale" stamped at the top so I don't think we'll have to worry about any of the special things they referred to.

4 - so you think we can go ahead and get two 3-gallon wort boils going and just split all the hop additions during the boil? Split the mash/sparge equally when complete, add water and move on to boiling?

4 - so you think we can go ahead and get two 3-gallon wort boils going and just split all the hop additions during the boil? Split the mash/sparge equally when complete, add water and move on to boiling?

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You don't have to be anal about it either. You can put the mash in one pot with 1/3 of the extract, and do all the extract in another. You should divide the hops equally, but if you are off a bit it will be okay in the end.

thanks - that's what we'll try.
what a fun way to spend the Holiday