Pliny clone question

[brewinhard]

All good ideas. I will be brewing this on Friday and will let you know how it goes!

With this hop load, would you all recommend using hop bags or just pitch the pellets de novo?

When I brew my big double IPA, I use one large mesh bag for my 90-30 minute additions. the rest go directly in the kettle without a sack. I start with 8gallons of wort and finish with 6.5 gallons. After 10 oz of dry hopping I easily get at least 5 gallons into the keg.

[KJ]

Awesome. I will pick up a mesh bag tomrrow! Thanks for the detailed response.

[KJ]

Update on the Pliny: Just finished carbonating the beer and it turned out fantastic, as you all predicted. I sparged 14 gallons and used a slow, rolling boil, like Jamil says. After transfers and dry hopping, ended up with 10 gallons in the kegs! I used a hop bag for the first (6 oz) bittering addition but dumped the rest in freely (pellets) at the appropriate times.

My only mishap was over-correcting my pH (down below 5 with phos acid - dammit!) which, I believe, led to a decreased mash eff. OG was 1.065 instead of 1.070. Not too bad.

Thanks for the advice.