[Hokerer]

The recipe I have has the grains already crushed, do not know if that makes a difference but should I still do the 2 gallons and then top off after the steep. In addition, if so I am assuming it makes no difference whether the additional water added is cold or already hot outside of the time to get to boil?

Yes, the grains should definitely be crushed.  Stick with doing the 2 gallon steep and topping off later.  Starting water temp is really pretty unimportant.  Just make sure you get the grains out of there before the water gets above 170F.

[Jimmy K]

Skip the extract late - the whole point of it is to avoid the too high gravity that results from all the extract in the reduced amount of water - full boil gets rid of that problem.

Yes, you'll get higher hop utilization.  Depending on how the recipe was originally calculated, that may result in either correct recipe bitterness if it was calculated at normal gravity OR higher than expected bitterness if it was calculated expecting concentrated gravity.

I have done some additional homework and here is what I have found: The folks that put together the recipes informed me the hop concentrations are calculated for partial boils. I am assuming then that my IBU's will wind up higher in a full boil?

In addition they stated that they try to do late extract whenever they can so I think for the first run we will try it, evaluate upon sampling and tweak accordingly if we do another run based upon the finished product.

Late extract additions are a work-around to combat problems with partial boils like hop utilization and caramelization. It is just not needed with a full boil. And if your hops are calculated for a partial boil and you do a full boil with dilute wort, you'll further mess up your hop rates. I wouldn't do it. (Wort concentration interferes with hop utilization)

[duboman]

So we bottled our beer last night and here are the results, at least until conditioned but at first taste this one will be a whopper! We brewed "ferocious IPA" from Midwest Supplies, love their kits!

6 lbs Gold LME
3.3 lbs Amber LME
4 oz Crystal 50-60L
1 oz Warrior Hops-bittering 60 min. (pellet)
1 oz amarillo and 1 oz Citra, mixed and divided into 5 equal parts added every 5 min. for last 20 min (pellet)

We steeped grains in 3 gallons 30 minutes, topped off to 6.5 gallons, did late extract method with half and half at 60 and the rest at 30min and added hops as stated above.

cooled and pitched Wyeast Headwaters Ale at 70 degrees. OG/SG spot on at 1.068

Primary for 8 days @ 67 degrees
Secondary for 8 days dry hopped with 1 oz Ahtanum (pellet), 1 oz Amarillo (pellet), 1 oz Simcoe (leaf) @ 67 degrees)

FG at bottling off a bit at 1.020 (1.018 ideal)

We have now done two full boils since and the set up is boiling off about 1.25 gallons and we have not had any boil overs~!

Definitely going to let this condition for at least a few weeks to let the flavors mellow and come together before sampling again! Can't wait!