Bigger boil of BB Holiday Ale to up IBUs?

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StophJS

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I just picked up the Brewer's Best Holiday Ale kit, and the directions call for a 2.5 gallon boil. I'm debating doing a bigger boil to up the IBUs because I definitely like my hops, but I'm not sure if it's a good idea or not with this style of beer. What do you guys think?
 
Actually another issue issue arises. BB's wonderful directions make no reference to the bag of spices provided. Should these be steeped with the specialty grains?
 
I believe the spices go in with 15 minutes left in the boil. It is listed on the brew schedule on the lower right side of page 1. Full boil should have a slightly better hop utilization. there's some debate on the forum, but maybe 5 or so % more IBU's. I made this last year, and it can handle the IBU's. The final gravity was 1.014, so there was some maltiness, some spiciness from the spice blend, and the hops were just right. I was pleasantly surprised for buying it on a whim!
 
cervezarara is right. I just brewed this a few weeks ago and pulled the instruction sheet out. On the "Brew Day Schedule" box on the bottom right corner is says that the spice pack goes in 40 minutes into the boil, then says boil 15 more minutes and terminate boil.

Oddly, the recipe calls for a 55 minute boil. I haven't seen that often. I adjusted the schedule a bit and did the customary 60 minute boil. (just let the bittering hops have an extra 5 minutes, then followed the schedule as-is.)
 
Thanks guys. Yup you're right, I was too quick to criticize BB's directions. It does say that the spices go in 15 minutes prior to the end of the boil. And yeah the 55 minute boil is a little strange.. hmm. Well I just brewed this bad boy up today and everything went just fine so hopefully I'll have a nice solid holiday ale in just a few weeks! :rockin:
 
I bottled this guy up about a week ago. It was an impulse buy. It smelled fantastic after a few weeks of sitting in the primary. Im having a hard time not tossing one or two in the fridge and sipping on an undercarbed beer. Thank goodness I have a stout and a porter lined up!
 
I will be brewing this tuesday just wondering if u guys just tossed the spices right Into the boil or did u put them in a hop bag first? Thanks
 
I threw them right into the boil. The spices are all dissolved and/or settled out, and the pieces of orange peel are floating at the top of the fermenter. Not really enough of them that I anticipate any trouble racking when the time comes.
 
As per the directions I threw the spices in with 15 minutes left on the boil. By the time I poured into the fermenter the vast majority of it had sunk the bottom so I didn't actually end up with much of the spices in the fermenter at all.
 
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