So tomorrow I am going to have a go at my third batch- a 5gal American IPA with a recipe that calls for 2.2lbs extra light dme, 2.2lbs amber dme, 1.1lb sugar and 3.7lbs tin of coopers IPA. I am also going to steep 1.1lb of crushed breiss caramel 40L for 30 mins at 160-170F before the boil.
This recipe calls for a lot of fermentables to reach an OG of around 1.073, and I can only do a 3 gal boil max at home (I am only going to do a 30 min boil as the coopers kit is prehopped), adding Amarillo and chinook for taste and aroma.
My question concerns the fermentables: the coopers kit I will add after the boil, but should I add all of the Dme and sugar at the beginning - will they affect the hops or should I add some at the beginning and some at the end?
I hope that makes sense!?
Not to sound diqkish, but ok dude, here's my advice. Find a brew buddy at a LHBC and learn from him. The practice you get with an experienced brewer will be invaluable.
Here's what you'll need to do:
1) Make sure your steeping grains are crushed, and that you have some sort of a muslin bag or something to steep them in your hot water. With a good rough crush on your grains, steep them at 155*f for 70 minutes in about 2.5 gallons of hot water. Be religious about holding them at this temperature for this length of time. Use a candy or meat thermometer if you need to and practice turning on the heat and removing the pot from the heat to hold that exact temperature. Check it every two minutes if it's an uninsulated brewing pot. It's great practice. The reason behind this is that caramel/crystal 40 is a roasted malt with most of the diastatic power roasted out of it. What's left over are caramel flavored sugars that don't need to mash to be utilized, and can just be steeped to remove the sugar. Do plenty of swirling and dunking of those grains in the grain bag to extract all that caramel sugar juice from the grain and squeeze out every drop you can at the end of the 70 minute steep. The reason for the lower temperature is to prevent accidental extraction of tannin and other bittering compounds that occur at higher temperature steeps.
2) I'm assuming the Coopers IPA tin is pre-hopped. This means that they've already added the hops to the malt extract. This means you won't need a bittering hop. For your other hops additions, add a small amount, say half ounce of each hop, at 20 minutes left on the boil and then 2 oz. each at 2 minutes or so left in the boil for flavoring and aroma additions. Use a hops bag if you like.
3) There's no need to add all of the fermentables at the beginning of the boil. After the steeping stage is over, remove your pot from the heat source and stir in about 1/2 of your fermentables. I'd probably stir in the DME's and leave the sugar and the LME in the can for near the end. Always remember to remove your beer from the heat source when mixing in LME/DME, as they tend to clump and/or stick to the bottom until thoroughly stirred. This will help prevent scorching at the bottom of the pot and remember to stir your wort a lot during the boil for this reason. Stir in the remainder of your fermentables at 15 minutes or so left in the boil. Again, remove from heat, stir it in, mix thoroughly, then return to heat.
