Adapting a beer kit for my first brew

[btbnl]

Greetings brewers,

I'm preparing for my first brew on Sunday, and will be using a gifted ingredient kit. The original kit is for 5 gallons of pale ale from a 3 gallon boil and contains:
• ½ lb Crystal grain 30-37
• ½ lb Crystal grain 77
• 6 lb Munich extract (liquid)
• 1 lb Light extract (dry)
• ¾ oz Millennium pellets (60 min)
• 1 oz Williamette pellets (15 min)
• 1 oz Cascade pellets (at knockout)
• 11 g Nottingham yeast (dry)
My kit comes with the IPA upgrade, which adds
• 1 lb Pilsen extract (dry)
• 2 oz Apollo pellets (dry-hopping)

From the Tinseth calculator the pale ale recipe is 37 IBU, and the add-on will reduce that to a 33 IBU with the extra sugar, so I was thinking about putting ½ oz of the Apollo pellets in for 60 minutes as extra bittering hops to bump it up to a more IPA-appropriate 55 IBU.

The amount of yeast also looks a little low, so I was thinking of adding an extra 4oz liquid California Ale yeast (straight from the vial, not through a starter, given my time constraints).

Any thoughts much appreciated.

 

[LarryBrewer]

Yeah that is fine to add more bittering hops!!

Go up to 80 IBUs if you want. Maybe do 0.5oz cascade, 0.5oz Apollo for the dry hop, use 1.5oz Apollo at 60, and reduce the 15 min cascade in half to make that work out.

You could also break up the malt extract additions. Half at first, then half with 10 minutes left. In the recipe editor, check the 2nd addition as 'late addition' (you have to expand the line to see that option). A lower boil gravity will give more hop utilization based on Tinseth/Rager equations.

I would not mix yeasts. Instead I would either get a 2nd pack of Notty, or get 2 vials of liquid yeast.

Here's to your first brew! Have a blast! Make sure to check out the 'Brew' option for the auto generated checklist of steps to follow - that will help.

 

[Nosybear]

Since it's a kit, I'd throw away the yeast package that came with it - you have no idea how old it is - and use fresh yeast. Otherwise, why not play with it a bit? More hops? No problem. Add a few oz of Crystal for sweetness or Melanoidin for maltiness, again, why not? Dry hop? Why not? A bit of molasses added at flame-out? Super! It's homebrew! Play with it.