Please help me modify a BB Imperial Pale Ale kit

[sudsmcgee]

I purchased a Brewers Best Imperial Pale Ale extract kit. The kit calls for a 2.5 gallon boil for one hour with the malt added before the first hop addition.

I would like to do a late malt addition and increase the boil to 4 gallons, and I'm looking for help on how to modify the kit.

Here are the ingredients:

6.6 lbs of Breiss CBW non-diastatic unhopped LME
2 lbs of Brewer's Best Light spray dried DME
1 lb of crushed crystal 80L Malt steeping grain
8 oz Crushed Victory Malt steeping grain
4 oz Crushed Carapils Malt steeping grain
2 oz Columbus Bittering Hops pellets AA 14.2%
1 oz Columbus Flavoring Hops AA pellets 14.4 %
1 oz Columbus Aroma Hops AA pellets 14.4%

Estimated OG for this kit is 1.081-1.085.

The kit instructions call for a one hour boil with the following hop schedule: 60 minutes bittering, 20 minutes flavoring, 5 minutes aroma.

The kit instructions claim 65-69 IBUs with early malt addition and a 2.5 gallon boil. Beersmith says this kit will be 54.9 IBUs, so Beersmith appears to under-estimate the IBUs.

Now my questions: If I increase my boil volume to 4 gallons and add half of the malt extract at the start of the boil and the second half at 45 minutes, how should I adjust my hop additions? If I don't change anything else, Beersmith says it will be 147.5 IBU (I used an OG of 1.040 for the calculation to resemble adding half of the malt extract for the first 45 minutes). This IBU is way too high for me, especially considering Beersmith appears to underestimate the IBUs!

So playing with Beersmith I conclude that if I add only 3/4 oz of the bittering hops, 1/2 oz of flavoring hops and 1 oz of aroma hops I will end up with an IBU of around 65.2. This will then leave me with 1.75 oz of hop pellets to possibly use for dry hopping.

Am I on track here? This is only third time brewing and the first time changing the hops schedule.

Would it be OK to use the extra hop pellets for dry hopping?

Edited to ask whether I should add the DME or LME first? I guess I would have to add all of the DME and some of the LME to add 4.3 lbs, right? Or should I add 4.3 lbs of LME to start and add the remainder of the LME and all of the DME at flameout?

Thanks in advance BTW.

 

[PT Ray]

I would just use the wort created from the steeping grains for the boil. Right before flame out I would add all the extract. I would keep the original hop schedule, I side with the school of thought that your boil gravity does not impact the hop utilization that much.

 

[sudsmcgee]

I would just use the wort created from the steeping grains for the boil. Right before flame out I would add all the extract. I would keep the original hop schedule, I side with the school of thought that your boil gravity does not impact the hop utilization that much.

Beersmith and other hop utilization programs say otherwise, however, and I don't want an overly bitter undrinkable beer!

 

[PT Ray]

Beersmith and other hop utilization programs say otherwise, however, and I don't want an overly bitter undrinkable beer!

Yes the programs say differently. However, there have been studies with identical recipes but with the extract added at different intervals to test hop utilization. The result, the measured ibu's were almost identical in all the test batches. It's up to you, just throwing it out there what I would do.

 

[cuinrearview]

I'd do the DME for the full 60 and take one oz. of the 60 min. and use at flameout. Add the LME with 10 or 15 to go in the boil. An american IPA like this screams for dry-hopping IMO. I'd get another oz. or two of a "C" hop or my favorite combo Amarillo/simcoe and dry hop for 1-2 weeks in secondary.

 

[sudsmcgee]

I'd do the DME for the full 60 and take one oz. of the 60 min. and use at flameout. Add the LME with 10 or 15 to go in the boil. An american IPA like this screams for dry-hopping IMO. I'd get another oz. or two of a "C" hop or my favorite combo Amarillo/simcoe and dry hop for 1-2 weeks in secondary.

Pardon my newb ignorance, but what is a "C" hop?

 

[cuinrearview]

The "C" hops are the american citrusy hops like cascade, centennial, columbus, etc. One or two oz. of one of those in secondary after a couple weeks in primary will really add to the recipe. Centennial or Cascade are what I like but everyone's tastes are different.

 

[sudsmcgee]

Thank you. I picked up some Centennial hops last night, but only an ounce of pellets. I don't want to overdo it for my first time dry hopping until I see if I like it that way.

I also listened to the audio file on Palmers discussion of hop utilization and how he was wrong all along. He stated that hop utilization is affected by wort gravity and boil volume, but the maximum IBU potential for a beer is 100 and that is for a full boil. Anything less than a full boil will have it's maximum IBU's reduced by the percentage of top-up water that needs to be added. So whatever the IBU is for my four gallon boil, the final IBU for the beer will be 20% less due to a 20% top-up water being added as a diluent.

So what I have gathered is that for the most part PT Ray is correct above that the hop schedule doesn't really need to be changed because my max IBU is 80, which is pretty close to what I am shooting for anyways.

I will however follow your advice and use 1 oz of the bittering hops at flame out. My question here is how much will this impact the beer if I intend to pur the beer through a strainer to remove most of the sediment? Is it even worth it to add them at flameout if I filter the wort before it goes into the fermenter, or should I just not filter it? I've never filtered before, but I like the idea of having less sediment in the fermenter at bottling time.

 

[sudsmcgee]

I just wanted to follow up and state that this beer is done and it's awesome! I received quite a lot of compliments on it, with one person saying it's the best beer they've ever had. Nice.....

I would definitely make it again. It has the perfect amount of bitterness for me, and the hops flavor is abundant. Even though it's nearly 8% ABV, you can't really taste it. Overall it's great.