So I stopped by my LHBS yesterday to pick up something for my second attempt at brewing (first attempt produced oxygenated beer that tasted like sour cardboard). I found a basic, all-extract kit called "Super Bowl Pale". It had a little sticky note next to it that mentioned that if I wanted to "Mirror Pond-ize" it, to add a variety of ingredients. I love Mirror Pond so bought the additions. The problem is, I'm now confused about hop usage. I've looked up a few clone recipes, but of course they are all over the place so I'm hoping you can help me clear up boil times for hops and answer a few questions about dry-hopping. Here are the original and modified recipe:
Original Super Bowl Pale (60 min boil)
6# light malt syrup
2.5 oz. Cascade hops (1.5 oz @ 30 min; 1 oz @ 2 min)
Modified recipe
1# light DME
2 oz Cascade hops (.5 oz @ 60, 1 oz @ 20, .5oz dry hopped)
So as you can see, combining the two recipes to the letter comes up with 4 hop additions during the boil (@ 60, 30, 20, and 2 minutes) and a whole lotta hops: 4 oz in the main boil before dry hopping. Should I combine any of the additions? Should I back off on the total? I have a 5 gallon kettle and an outdoor burner, so I'm going to shoot for as much over 3 gallons as I can for the boil.
And a question about the dry-hopping: I'm planning on a single fermentation, and have read that you can lose a lot of the aroma that you are trying to add out the airlock. Since I won't be kegging or using a secondary, my plan was to add the dry-hops during the last 1/3 of fermentation. Is this a good idea? I also read that sterilizing hops isn't completely necessary, but is that true and if not, how should I go about doing so? (I have whole hops that came vacuum sealed, if that matters.)
TIA
Jobu
Original Super Bowl Pale (60 min boil)
6# light malt syrup
2.5 oz. Cascade hops (1.5 oz @ 30 min; 1 oz @ 2 min)
Modified recipe
1# light DME
2 oz Cascade hops (.5 oz @ 60, 1 oz @ 20, .5oz dry hopped)
So as you can see, combining the two recipes to the letter comes up with 4 hop additions during the boil (@ 60, 30, 20, and 2 minutes) and a whole lotta hops: 4 oz in the main boil before dry hopping. Should I combine any of the additions? Should I back off on the total? I have a 5 gallon kettle and an outdoor burner, so I'm going to shoot for as much over 3 gallons as I can for the boil.
And a question about the dry-hopping: I'm planning on a single fermentation, and have read that you can lose a lot of the aroma that you are trying to add out the airlock. Since I won't be kegging or using a secondary, my plan was to add the dry-hops during the last 1/3 of fermentation. Is this a good idea? I also read that sterilizing hops isn't completely necessary, but is that true and if not, how should I go about doing so? (I have whole hops that came vacuum sealed, if that matters.)
TIA
Jobu