Is My Brewing Process Correct?

I'm going to be brewing a 5 gallon batch of Lemon Coriander Weiss from Midwest supplies tomorrow and I just wanted to make sure my brewing process which is a mixture of the kit instructions and John Palmer's How To Brew. Sorry for the length, but I just want to make sure I'm on the right track. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

Ingredients:
6 lbs Wheat LME
3.3 lbs Pilsen LME
8 oz Carapils
1 3/4 oz Saaz Pellet Hops
1 Tbsp Coriander
2 Lemons worth of Zest
White Labs Hefeweizen Ale #WL300

Steps:

1. Bring 1 gallon of water to 155F in your brew kettle.
2. Put the crushed grains into your nylon boiling bag and steep for 30 minutes.
   Question: In John's book he says that for best flavor results, the ratio of steeping water to grain should be less than 1 gallon per pound. The amount of grains I'm using is only 8 oz which means I would be starting out with very little water. Is it safe to assume that I should be ok with starting with 1 gallon of water?
3. After 30 minutes remove the grain bag from the pot, and let it drain.
4. Stir in half of the Wheat and Pilsen LME and add more water to the pot to bring the wort volume up to 3 gallons.
   Question: Should I take kettle off stove to add the LME so I don't risk scorching or is the temperature at this point not high enough to worry about?
5. Bring the wort to a boil.
6. Add 2-3 drops of Fermcap-S Foam Inhibitor.
7. As soon as you see a boiling bubble add ¾ oz Saaz bittering hops and boil for 60 minutes.
8. Add the lemon zest during the last 10 minutes before the end of the boil.
9. Add the rest of the LME during the last 5 minutes before the end of the boil.
10. Add 1 oz Saaz and Coriander during the last 2 minutes before the end of the boil.
11. Remove the brew kettle and cool.

Thanks.

2. You'll be fine with a gallon.
4. Correct. Remove since it settles and may scorch.

Brew on my friend!

Cheers!

Thanks for the confirmation

2. Water volume doesn't really matter when you are steeping.
3. It seems obvious, but you do put the drained liquid back in the pot.
4. You can add it while the heat is still on it, but you need to keep stirring and moving the spoon across the bottom to prevent scorching.
6. I would add this after adding the LME, and before the wort reaches boiling (it's to prevent a boil-over). Add 2 drops per gallon in the pot.
7. Wait until the break material has settled. If you add them before the boil has settled down (5 minutes), some of the oils can combine with the break material and be lost.
9. I add LME before any finishing hop additions, so that I can get correct timing of the hop additions. The LME will cool the wort, and will take some time to come back to the boil. Note item #4, you can scorce the LME at this point if not careful. I add this extra time (about 5 minutes) to the length of the boil. Since you only have a 2 minute hop addition, you are OK, but if you had a 15 minute addition, you might want to think about adding the LME at 20 minutes.

You seem to know what you need to do. Good luck.

4. If you're using 1 gallon or less of water for steeping, I'd add more water before adding the LME. If you have a second pot, I'd pre-heat that water while you're steeping.

sounds good. i always started with 5.5 gal water, bring to 155 and steep 30-45 minutes, add LME, bring to boil and then start adding hops. i got a 7.5 gal kettle so this always worked well. by time the boil was over i was always around 5 gal yield. if you boil and add more LME your going to drop temps and need to bring back up to boil. just seems like a lot of hassle to me to do split batches... how big is your kettle? i didnt brew with LME long before going AG so maybe im missing why your splitting your LME additions and not all in at once??

bige9920 said:

sounds good. i always started with 5.5 gal water, bring to 155 and steep 30-45 minutes, add LME, bring to boil and then start adding hops. i got a 7.5 gal kettle so this always worked well. by time the boil was over i was always around 5 gal yield. if you boil and add more LME your going to drop temps and need to bring back up to boil. just seems like a lot of hassle to me to do split batches... how big is your kettle? i didnt brew with LME long before going AG so maybe im missing why your splitting your LME additions and not all in at once??

Click to expand...

Extract brewing is usually a partial boil. Adding extract late, improves hop utilization, and reduces darkening of the wort.

ah good to know... my BIL does extract i will let him know... good experiment to see how it will effect taste... interesting