Hi Mr. Beer folks! (I apologize for a long post!)
Doing a double batch next weekend with my younger cousin whose just getting his feet into brewing. Doing a big AG BIAB imperial stout for one, and the other making a mosaic IPA. On the latter, we are using (as an ingredient rather than the recipe), a Mr. Beer Northwest Pale Ale kit that he's had laying around for a few months.
A couple questions. The kit has 2.86 lbs of hopped extract from what I can tell. We'll be using this basically as part of a partial mash (utilizing the Mr. Beer canned HME intended for a 2 gallon batch as I would regular LME in a PM batch. Rest of the batch will come from mashed grains and hops.)
(1) Aside from trying to figure into the recipe how much bittering the HME will add to a 5.5 gal batch -- will the 2.86 lbs of HME contribute roughly the equivalent gravity of regular LME? (I use Beersmith, fwiw). I'm assuming so, but thought maybe someone here could confirm. Not needing to be exact, but hoping the HME is close to un-hopped LME, gravity wise.
(2) the kit comes with a gold packet of Mr. Beer "59 Brewer's yeast" (image attached for reference). Is this just the standard Mr. Beer ale yeast? It has a very wide temp range, so I'm not quite sure from everyone's experience what the best "clean" ferment temp would be (actual beer temp)? Also, since intended for only a 2 gallon batch, I doubt this would be sufficient for a 5.5 gal / ~7% ABV IPA. More inclined to just use the pack as nutrient in the boil, but just curious about the provided yeast.
Any insight from those with experience with these ingredients is much appreciated!
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