Beginner Questions (Late Extract Additions, Specialty Grains, Recipe)

[SamInNJ]

Hey, I recently started brewing.

Background -> I've read a bunch of articles, forums, magazines and also Palmer's How to Brew.

I brewed an american pale ale for my first batch. It's not ready to drink yet but things seemed to all go quite well so far. I created a pretty simple recipe to match BJCP style guidelines with a single malt pale extract and used only simcoe hops.

I wanted to do a northern english brown next and have been working on a recipe. Right now I think I'm going to try the following:

Steep @ ~160 for 30 minutes:
0.5 lb Crystal 80L
0.25 lb Crystal 120L
0.25 lb Chocolate Malt

3lb Light DME at 60
3lb light DME at flameout (allow 10 minutes before pasturization to cool)

Hops:
0.5oz East Kent Golding @ 60
1.0oz Fuggles @ 30
0.5oz East Kent Golding @ 15

Beer Smith has all my estimated metrics in the sweet spot for the style...
1.049 OG
25.2 IBU
19.3 SRM
4.5% ABV


Things I'm Wondering:

I thought from reading How to Brew that it was important to boil malt extract so that it reached hot break and had certain proteins solidify. I've also been reading that it is usually better to add about half of the extract late or after the boil though, so that the gravity of the wort is closer to the FG which helps the hops do their thing properly.

These seem a bit in conflict with one another and was hoping someone more experienced could help me figure that out. Also, is not cooling the wort for 10 minutes after the boil so that the second half of the extract can pasturize going to cause any problems with creating a proper cold-break during cooling?

Do I need to crush or prepare the grains in any particular way before steeping? What's the best way to do this?

Any other tips on the recipes or things that would be helpful for where I'm at?

 

[alexacuna]

I've only brewed a few batches so far, but I forgot to mill my Carahell at the brewshop and opted for using a new coffee grinder I had in storage. It seems to have worked fine, and I think i'd read that other people have done that when in a pinch.

 

[meatcleaver]

your recipe & process look good to me. that's pretty much what I do except I do mini mashes & use lme rather than dme.
as far as boiling for a good hot break...the way I look at that, its important to boil your recently mashed wort so that the proteins precipitate (fall out). but, if you think about extract (which is really a concentrate) its already been boiled so IMHO not necessary to repeat.
& yes keeping your boil gravity lower definitely helps with hop utilization, meaning you can use fewer of your hops for the same ibus.
Hope that helps.

 

[meatcleaver]

on...& the grains you steep do need to be crushed. your lbhs or whoever you order from can do that for you.

 

[SamInNJ]

Thanks! That's super helpful. I'm assuming letting the extract pasturize for 10 minutes after the boil won't cause huge issues with the cold break after?

 

[myerstyson]

Well, you do need to boil for the hops. My understanding is the boil is so the hop oils do something chemistry-ish.

As for late addition extract, my understanding is that is useful for LME and then only for "light" (color) beers.

I cool my wort immediately upon finishing the boil. I'm on batch 20 and all my beers except one (in which I added strawberries...yuck) turned out excellent and tasty.