Should I change this?

[Old Gil]

I'm doing an extract brew next week and was hoping you guys/gals could give your opinions, any changes to hops or amount. It's only to 11Ltrs and I'm after about 4.5 - 5%

1.5kg Black Rock liquid malt extract
10g POR 60mins
10g Hallertau 20mins
5g Cascade @ flame out

Cheers

[Kevnlis]

I would replace the Hallertau with more Cascade, and drop the POR to 6-7g. Are you boiling the entire 12.5L boil to hit the 11L volume? Also by my calcs you are 4% ABV.

[Old Gil]

I was going to boil in about 6 litres and just top up with water in the fermenter, the biggest pot i have is only 8 litres, might add half a kilo of LDME to get a higher ABV

[Kevnlis]

If you add 250g LDME you will be at 4.75%

I would make the following hop additions for a 6L boil:

15g POR @ 60
10g Cascade @ 20
5-10g Cascade @ Flame Out or dry

[Old Gil]

Thank's Kev, does the boil size matter considering hop amount

[Kevnlis]

Thank's Kev, does the boil size matter considering hop amount

Yes, it matters to the efficiency of the AA isomerisation. The lower the gravity of the boil the more IBUs you get from the same amount of hops, within reason.

[Old Gil]

Thanks for the lesson, I always though that the smaller the boil the more you would get out of the hops due to the higher concentration of malt that woud hold in the hoppie goodness.

Cheers

[Tim...]

Thank's Kev, does the boil size matter considering hop amount

Yes, it matters to the efficiency of the AA isomerisation. The lower the gravity of the boil the more IBUs you get from the same amount of hops, within reason.

I read somewhere that the best gravity for a hop boil is 1040. Can't find my source, but I know I have read it somewhere.

[Kevnlis]

Yeah, a lot of breweries boil at a higher gravity and then water the wort (or even finished beer) down post boil/ferment for exactly this reason (not to mention they can make more beer from the same volume of wort). I am not sure what the exact gravity is but 1.040 sounds about right.