First partial mash, any recommendations?

[chungking]

Just made my mash tun and get to try it out this weekend. 5 gallon igloo cooler with stainless steel braid at the bottom.

Starting out with a partial mash kit from Midwest:

Cascade pale ale

3.3lbs light lme
4lbs American 2-row malt
8oz carapils
8oz caramel 10L
3oz cascade hops
US-05 safale yeast 11.5 grams

IBUs = 48
OG = 1.052
AL % = 5.2%

Mash the 5lbs of grains with 1.6g of water at 152* f for 1 hr. Mash out at 170* f for 15 minutes. Vorlouf as needed until clear. Drain mash tun completely. Batch sparge with 6.5 gallons at 170* f for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Collect second runnings.

Boil wort, add 1oz cascade hops at 60, 15, and flame out. Add 3.3 lbs of lme at 10 minutes.

Cool wort to low 60's. pitch yeast.

Ferment for 2 weeks. Add 0.5 oz cascade in primary for 1 week. Bottle beer.

Any recommendations?

 

[eastoak]

half ounce of dry hops is hardly worth the effort.

 

[chungking]

Just had a 1/2 oz sitting in the freezer, figured I'd use them. Would you recommend using them in the boil at some point? Perhaps at flame out?

And I haven't used this many hops before. Should I strain them out when transferring to primary?

 

[JimRausch]

Maybe someone with more experience will chime in, but if you are mashing in 5 lb grist with 1.6 gallons liquor, then sparging with 6.5 gallons seems excessive. Also, when batch sparging, add the water, stir to mix well, let it sit for about 10 minutes, vorlauf, then drain.

 

[chungking]

I'm just going by what sparge pal says. I want to do a full volume boil and end up with 5 gallons, so assuming 0.5g mash tun loss, 1.5g grain absorption, and atleast 1g boil off loss = 3G of loss.

1.6 + 6.5 = 8.1g - 3g = 5.1g

I guess I could do 2.5g in the mash and 5.5 for sparging?