Brown ale help

[deathtractor]

Hello...I found a recipe for a brown ale that i am thinking about brewing and could use some suggestions as this is my first non kit batch:

6.6 lb. dark LME
.5 lb. caramel malt 80L
.25 lb. black patent malt
2 oz. fuggles hops (boiling)
.5 oz. cascade hops (finishing)
4 tsp. gypsum (optional)

steep grains 30 min. in gallon and a half water.
boiling hops 60 min.
finishing hops 5-10 min.

My questions are...

Can i use 2 and a half gallons of water for the boil?

Can i use more grains in the boil if i use more water?...i have a pound of each(because thats all the LHBS had and i dont want to waste any)

 

[frazier]

Can i use 2 and a half gallons of water for the boil?

Yes no problem. Add one can of the LME at the start of the boil, and the other toward the end. If you add it all at the start, it will decrease the effect of the hops.

Can i use more grains in the boil if i use more water?...i have a pound of each

I wouldn't do that - unless you want a very very black, caramelly beer. Measure the grains and keep the leftovers. If you want to scale the recipe up, you want to increase everything.

 

[thedude00]

Yes no problem. Add one can of the LME at the start of the boil, and the other toward the end. If you add it all at the start, it will decrease the effect of the hops.

Your saying when you use LME/DME Use half at start of the boil and then the other half with like 10 mins left of boil?

 

[frazier]

The higher the gravity of the boil, the less the hops are extracted. You want the gravity of the boil to be somewhat close (don't worry!) to the gravity of a full boil. So, half the boil size, half the LME. By the time you reach the ten-minute mark, it doesn't matter anymore, so dump the rest in.

This is all assuming you want to hit a specific IBU level. If not, then don't worry about it!