I need advice on a Pliny kit I'm brewing

[J2W2]

Hi,

I am brewing a Plinius the Wise extract kit this weekend and I need advice on a several items. I apologize for the length of this post, but I have a number of questions and I want to get this beer right!

This is a 5-gallon kit, but I'd like to brew a 5.5-gallon batch since I know I'll have loss along the way. I can maintain the target OG by adding additional DME, and I'm thinking of adding 1.5oz of 60L Crystal to the pound of included specialty grains. The questions I have on this part deal with the hops additions.

1) The recipe calls for 0.25oz of Amarillo during the first DME/LME addition (pre-boil), two HopShot additions for the full 90-minute boil, 1oz of Columbus for 45-minutes, and 1oz of Simcoe for the last 20-minutes. Based on the kit ingredients, the only way I can upscale this portion of the recipe for 5.5-gallons would be to increase the Amarillo up to 0.75oz (the other 0.25oz is needed for dry hopping). That doesn't quite hit the IBUs estimated in BeerSmith 2 for a 5-gallon batch, but it still puts it well over 200. Do you see any issues with that, and would you bump the Amarillo from 0.25oz to 0.75oz or something in between?

2) After flame-out, the recipe calls for 1.5oz Centennial and 2.5oz Simcoe for a 10-minute steep before chilling. I will not have any additional Simcoe, but I will have an extra 0.25oz of Centennial. Do you think I should bump the Centennial to 1.75oz if I do a 5.5-gallon batch?

These next two questions apply to my brewing procedures in general, although to this kit as well.

3) The kit instructions say to remove the kettle from the heat source before adding the Centennial and Simcoe for the 10-minute steep. That's not really possible with my setup; I'll need to leave the kettle on the burner. Even after I cut the gas to the burner, it still holds a lot of residual heat in the cast-iron burner. Should I add the hops right away, or should I cover the kettle and let it sit for 10-minutes or so to cool down a little before I add the hops for the steep? I assume these are added for aroma since it's after flame-out, but I don't know how much impact there is of say 210 degree water vs something like 200 degrees. What's your advice on this?

4) I bag my hops additions, but I have always left them in the kettle until after it's drained. I use an immersion chiller, and the bagged hops may sit in the kettle for up to an hour (depending on the wort temperature I'm shooting for) before I drain the kettle. Is there anything wrong with that, or should I remove the hops before I start chilling the wort?

The recipe has two dry-hop additions in the secondary; the first 10-days before packaging and the second 5-days before packaging. I typically secondary for 14-days, and for a normal secondary I let it sit at 70 degrees or so for a week and then cold-crash for the second week, adding gelatin finings the last four days or so. I use a ported 5-gallon Big Mouth Bubbler as my secondary, and I just purchased a Big Mouth Depth Charge to use for this beer. I can see at least three ways to handle the secondary.

* Rack to secondary, let it sit four days, add the first dry-hop addition, let it sit five days, add the second dry-hop addition, let it sit five more days, remove the hops using the Depth Charge, and cold-crash for a week before kegging (three weeks in secondary).

* Rack to secondary, let it sit four days, follow the ten and five day dry-hop schedule and cold-crash the last few days before kegging (two weeks in secondary).

* Rack to secondary, immediately start the ten and five day dry-hop schedule, then cold-crash the last four days before kegging (two weeks total in secondary). Using this method, I could either leave the hops in the secondary the entire time (14 days for first addition, 9 days for second) or remove them after 10 days using the Depth Charge.

What are your thoughts on the best way to handle the dry-hopping / cold-crashing process for this beer?

Thank you very much for your help!

 

[RM-MN]

I can answer a couple of the questions and offer opinions on some of the others. A 5 gallon batch starts with 5.25 to 5.5 gallons to account for losses to trub. Thus a 5 gallon batch should get you 5 gallons to bottle. If you only start with 5 gallons you will be short about 5 bottles.

200 IBU's is marketing. Your tongue can't taste any difference between 100 and 200 IBU. You might as well put the Columbus hop in right at the beginning because a 45 minute boil is going to get about the same bittering and boil off the aromatics.

Your batch size if 5 gallons, not 5.5. You don't scale up any of the hops. I'd put the flame out hops in at flame out. The point is to not continue the boil which will stop quickly when you turn the flame off.

I never use that much hops but all my hops go into the boil loose and stay until it's time to bottle. Late addition hops can be giving up their goodness until it is all extracted.

I see a 4th way to handle the secondary. Just don't. Your Big Mouth Bubbler really isn't suited for a secondary as it leaves too wide of surface of the beer available to infection. Do your dry hop in the primary.

I don't cold crash either. I leave my beer in the fermenter longer and longer in the bottle and they come out very clear. Cold crashing can speed up the process but it isn't necessary.

 

[MaryB]

Surface area has little to do with infection, sanitation does. I use 6.5 gallon buckets with a wide surface area and never had infection issues just because I moved something to secondary(very rare occurrence, I generally do not see the need for it unless you are brewing something that needs a very long ferment time). I ferment and bottle from the same bucket too. Yeast settles below the spigot and stirring in the priming sugar doesn't disturb the yeast cake unless you dig deep.

 

[J2W2]

Surface area has little to do with infection, sanitation does. I use 6.5 gallon buckets with a wide surface area and never had infection issues just because I moved something to secondary(very rare occurrence, I generally do not see the need for it unless you are brewing something that needs a very long ferment time). I ferment and bottle from the same bucket too. Yeast settles below the spigot and stirring in the priming sugar doesn't disturb the yeast cake unless you dig deep.

Agreed on the surface area. My primary is a SS Brewtech Brewmaster Bucket, which is 7-gallons and has a much larger air/surface area than a 5-gallon Big Mouth Bubbler does.

I still plan to secondary in the Big Mouth; I like the design of the Depth Charge and I'm interested to see how it performs with this kit, which uses 5 ounces of hops for dry-hopping.

When I use a secondary, I rack from the Brewmaster Bucket spigot to the Big Mouth with a modified racking cane. I rack through the stopper opening on the Big Mouth Bubbler lid, and cover that with a piece of sanitized tin foil while I do it, so I think my risk of infection is pretty small. I've also got a CO2 purge kit rigged up to my 5lb CO2 tank, so I purge the Big Mouth before I transfer to it. Regardless of primary only or primary/secondary, I rack from a spigot to the liquid connector to fill my kegs, so for the most part my transfers are as closed as they can be.

RM-MN, thank you for the advice on this beer. What you said about the starting volume on a 5-gallon batch makes sense. BeerSmith says that even at 5.5-gallons, I should see an O.G. of 1.078, ABV of 8.2% and IBU of 207 (which yes, I've read is double what most people can taste).

So, I'm going to brew the kit per instructions, but shoot for a final volume of 5.5-gallons in the kettle. And I plan to rack to a secondary to try out the Depth Charge. Right now I'm leaning toward adding the first dry-hop addition right after I transfer to the secondary, adding the second addition after five days, and cold-crashing after ten days, leaving the Depth Charge in place. I'll keg that after it's had a full two weeks in the secondary.

I'll report back when it's done to let you know how it comes out. I've heard a lot of good things about this beer, and this particular kit, so I'm really excited to see what I get.

Thanks again for your help!