Questions about full boil extract brewing

If doing a full boil, I would add all extract at the beginning of boil.

Without seeing the actual recipe and hop types and amounts, hard to tell if it is reasonable.

I don't brew with extract anymore, but I always kept the lid on when steeping grains to help the water warm up.

 

Why are you planning to steep in a separate pot? You can do it in the main boil kettle, and the temperature of the larger volume of water will be more stable.

 

Depends on the water and the grains, but I'd say it's not usually important for these reasons...
- grains suitable for steeping will typically limit the pH, even with a full volume of H20, with most reasonable water
- steeping temperatures are not very conducive to extraction of tannins (which is the reason pH is sometimes cited as being important in steeping). IOW, you need high pH and high temps to get excessive tannins.

If you have very alkaline water and are steeping only grains without much acidity (Carapils for example), it might be worth worrying about. But even then, the steeping temps will tend to limit tannins anyway.

 

I'll add this tip: when adding your LME, kill the flame and mix that stuff in very well. Otherwise it sits on the bottom and gets scorched when you light the flame again.

 

good advice from VikeMan and Mothergoose. I would kill the flame when adding any of the extract to reduce your chance of boil over and mix well. Adding the extract later in the boil helps keep the color lighter, but it looks like your making something in the medium brown color range so adding at the beginning of the boil won't change much.