First Partial Mash Questions

Hey guys. I'm currently boiling up 6.5 gallons of water in my brand new 30 qt aluminum turkey fryer pot to sanitize it. It's been on the stover for an hr and just now hitting 180* so I'm not going to do a full boil today (dont have propane for the burner that came with).

Anyways the kit i'm doing is Austin HomeBrew Supply's Imperial Winter Ale. The recipe is as follows:

1lb Crystal 90l - 155* for 45 minutes
1 1/2lbs 2-Row - 155* for 45 minutes
7lbs Extra Pale Extract (Liquid) - 60 minute boil
2oz Palisade Hops - 60 minutes
1oz Cascade Hops - 15 minutes
1oz Cluster Hops - 15 minutes
1/2oz Cascade Hops - 5 minutes
1/2oz Cascade Hos - Dry Hop

When ordering it said for this type of ale to get two packages of yeast so I got two SafAle US-05's.

Expected OG 1.058
Expected FG 1.013

My questions are:

1) Do I definitely need to pitch both packets of yeast?
2) When I dry hop the 1/2oz do I just drop it into the secondary and then rack on top of it?

Thats it for now. I'm about to empty the pot and start the mash. Wish me luck!

*****UPDATED******

So its about 4 hours later and i'm done. This turned out to be a pain in the ass for some reason. I know its mainly my fault. Overall it was a success. Ran into a problem cooling the wort. I had about 3 gallons of wort in my 30 qt pot. Had an ice bath in the sink ready to go. Plopped it in. Earlier I had placed 3 gallons of spring water outside to cool down to help cool the wort. So the wort is cooling and I decide to pour one of the cold gallon jugs into the wort to speed the process. Well it didn't really speed much so I poured another one in, and like the first it didnt' cool it too much. So now I'm stuck with 5 gallons of 100*ish wort in a sink that barely comes up to half the pot. Not the brightest idea i've realized after the fact. So I got the wort down to about 85* in 20-25 minutes. Dropping it another 10* to get it to 75* where my yeast says its best at was a PITA. Took at least a half hour. So it finally gets down there and I pitch the yeast. DOH! I forgot to take a OG. Frustrated and not wanting to give up I swirled the bucket around to make move the yeast outta the way and i took a hydro sample. Alas something went right, OG was dead on at a corrected 1.058. I hope i didn't do anything too horribly wrong in this process. Bleh learn from your mistakes.

If you see any major problems i might have caused let me know. Thanks!

I'd say one packet of US-05 is perfectly adequate for 5 gallons @ 1.058. I routinely brew in that range, and with one packet fermentation is roaring along within 12 hours, and virtually completed within a few days. I usually just sprinkle it in, if you wish to rehydrate to maximize the cell count, make sure you're following Safale's instructions for water temperature and volume.

Some guys use stainless tea-balls or hop bags when dry hopping, others just toss them in and wait for them to settle out. Your choice.

I'm not sure about the yeast, I'm a noob, but would think to pitch them at the same time depending on the type and the temp of the cooled off wort.

Are you dry hopping pellets or leaves?

I alway put the hops on the bag, and dry hop them in wort while it is cooling with the lid on. I haven't had the beer yet so not sure what it does to the taste.

BlindLemonLars said:

I'd say one packet of US-05 is perfectly adequate for 5 gallons @ 1.058. I routinely brew in that range, and with one packet fermentation is roaring along within 12 hours, and virtually completed within a few days. I usually just sprinkle it in, if you wish to rehydrate to maximize the cell count, make sure you're following Safale's instructions for water temperature and volume.

Some guys use stainless tea-balls or hop bags when dry hopping, others just toss them in and wait for them to settle out. Your choice.

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Yah i was thinking that one packet would be suffice. Oh well now i'll have a back up just in case! Thanks.

histo320 said:

I'm not sure about the yeast, I'm a noob, but would think to pitch them at the same time depending on the type and the temp of the cooled off wort.

Are you dry hopping pellets or leaves?

I alway put the hops on the bag, and dry hop them in wort while it is cooling with the lid on. I haven't had the beer yet so not sure what it does to the taste.

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It's pellets. I think I'm just gonna drop them in and let the settle out like BlindLemonLars said. THanks tho

you might want to try a 3rd "fermentation" staged to make sure all the hop crap has settled.

fivehoursfree said:

you might want to try a 3rd "fermentation" staged to make sure all the hop crap has settled.

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what do you mean by 3rd fermentation? i have a better bottle for secondary

Well its been bubbling away since early yesterday morning so I know somethings going on in there!

do you have a fridge that your better bottle will fit in?

i just bottled an IPA last night that had alot of hop crap floating in it. just would not settle out after three weeks... ohh well.
if i had a fridge to put it in a day or two ahead of time, i think it would have settled better... maybe not, but probably.
im thinkin whole hops for dry hopping. these pellets make a huge ass mess.

as for your wort cooling, took me an hour and half to cool my first ag batch in the sink.

nosmatt said:

do you have a fridge that your better bottle will fit in?

i just bottled an IPA last night that had alot of hop crap floating in it. just would not settle out after three weeks... ohh well.
if i had a fridge to put it in a day or two ahead of time, i think it would have settled better... maybe not, but probably.
im thinkin whole hops for dry hopping. these pellets make a huge ass mess.

as for your wort cooling, took me an hour and half to cool my first ag batch in the sink.

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My fridge is plenty big enough, just don't know if SWMBO will go for that idea. If so when would you suggest the cold crash? I'm think 10 days in primary and then 20 in secondary. Would I do that at the end of its time in secondary and then take it out, prime and bottle while its still cold or leave it out for a day or two at room temp?

what i plan to do, primary for three or four weeks (this is a big IPA) and crash on say a friday morning, and bottle saturday. right out of the fridge into the bottles. i will rack to the bottling bucket with sugar, and put it in the fridge that way. less crap to stir up as i see it...we shall see if it works!

nosmatt said:

what i plan to do, primary for three or four weeks (this is a big IPA) and crash on say a friday morning, and bottle saturday. right out of the fridge into the bottles. i will rack to the bottling bucket with sugar, and put it in the fridge that way. less crap to stir up as i see it...we shall see if it works!

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Keep me posted!