First brew day coming up, a few questions

I've been reading up a lot in preparation for doing my first batch (Palmer's book and plenty of time lurking here on HBT), but I still have a few questions. The first recipe I'm attempting is an APA similar to the one listed in How To Brew:

0.5 # Crystal 50-60*L (steeped @ 155* for 30 mins)
6.6 # Gold LME

0.5 oz Chinook (11.5%) 60 mins
0.5 oz Cascade (6.0%) 30 mins
1.0 oz Cascade (6.0%) 15 mins

White Labs WL001


So my questions are:

1) If I have a large enough kettle to do a full boil, should I just add all of the LME at the start of the boil? Or should I do late addition with the full boil and adjust my hopping schedule accordingly?

2) I was planning on doing a yeast starter, mainly to check the viability of the vial. Would this create too many cells for a 1.050 OG wort? I don't want to over-pitch, but I also don't want to pitch a bunch of dead yeast.

3) I also got 1 oz of Cascade leaf hops for dry hopping. Would it be worth it to rack to a secondary to dry hop, or could I just toss them into the primary after about 2 weeks? I would keep it in the primary for about 3-4 weeks total if I went that route.

4) Again with the dry hopping: I got enough ingredients to do 2 batches of this recipe, minus the leaf hops (only 1 oz, d'oh). Would dry hopping with 0.5 oz impart enough aroma to be noticeable? If not, I was kinda planning on trying one batch with no dry hopping and just primary fermentation, and the other with dry hopping in the secondary. Any opinions on this are welcome.

Thanks in advance for any answers.

Phil

1) I believe you should do a full boil if you have a large enough pot. Just make sure you watch for scorching the wort.

2) There is no reason to create a starter for a 1.050 beer. I mean it is good practice but there is no need and just may add some extra headache for your first beer.

3) I would add it in the secondary to let it clear. Put the hops in 1st and then rack the beer on top of it.

4) Your recipe looks good but I think you should add hops whenever you flameout. I think you should move you 0.5 oz from the 30 min mark to the flameout. Where is the other 0.5 oz going? And then you should dry hop with 1.0 oz of cascade. I like to dry hop because it really gives it that kick in the pants. I would consider it highly for an APA. I don't think that 0.5 oz would impart enough to use it. I would use it solely for 1 batch

Also consider

1) turn off the heat when you add the extract, stir and let it dissolve before you turn the heat back on .

3) rack on the hop after you have gone through fermentation, don't splash, though. (I do my dry hopping in a bucket)

Thanks for all the replies.

beerjunky828 said:

4) Your recipe looks good but I think you should add hops whenever you flameout. I think you should move you 0.5 oz from the 30 min mark to the flameout. Where is the other 0.5 oz going? And then you should dry hop with 1.0 oz of cascade. I like to dry hop because it really gives it that kick in the pants. I would consider it highly for an APA. I don't think that 0.5 oz would impart enough to use it. I would use it solely for 1 batch

Click to expand...

Would you suggest entirely moving the half oz @ 30 min to flameout, or would it be better to keep that schedule and add another half oz to flameout? I still don't entirely understand the full effect of adding hops at different times, other than you get more bitterness and less aroma from early additions and vice versa from late.

Heck, I have enough ingredients for 2 batches, I'll just go with what you suggest for this one and try this for the next one:

0.5 oz Chinook - 60 min
0.5 oz Cascade - 30 min
1.0 oz Cascade - 15 min
0.5 oz Cascade - flameout
Dry hop w/ 2 oz Cascade

I do like hops, and I don't think this would be too much for an APA.

I guess I'll just have to order some more hops when I start collecting AG equipment.

You know if you wanted to save some hops then you should do this:

0.5 oz Chinook - 60 mins
1.0 oz Cascade - 15 mins
1.0 oz Cascade - flameout

And that could suffice plenty for your APA. I would not dry hop with more than 1 oz of Cascade because some times when you dry hop with too many hops, the beer becomes a little grassy. I have only dry hop with 2 oz or more when doing a DIPA. I don't even think you need to dry hop as long as you add some hops at flameout.