Splitting recipes --hop stability, wort homogeneity

[dfh99]

Questions related to splitting recipes -- I have a couple of 5 gal recipes I'd like to make, but have only 3 gal carboys (and only want to make 2.5 gal at a time anyway). If anyone has any insight on these, I would greatly appreciate hearing it.

1) I know that the hops are subject to oxidation once I open the sealed foil-plastic packs. If I only want to use a portion of the hops, would I be able to put the unused hops back into an airtight bag and store for a time? Could I freeze the leftovers? Or should I just buy a new bag?

2) If I wanted to make 5 gal, but separate into two 3 gal fermenters, would I have to worry about vertical compositional variation of the wort in the brewpot (i.e., so that if I filled one carboy and then the other, I would have to worry that the compositions of the worts in each would be different?)? My instinct is that, after the boiling, the wort is fairly homogenous -- anyone have any experience with this?

And a beer finishing question: just bottled my first batch (a kolsch), and tasted it pre-bottling. It was kind of gross -- had kind of a sharp, almost soapy taste up front (though the aftertaste was good). Will this clean up with conditioning? And if not, any idea what I might have done wrong?

Thanks much for any help ---

[slothrob]

1) Seal the hops up airtight and freeze or refrigerate and they will be good for months.

2) The wort is homogenous. The only thing you will get is more of the precipitated break in one carboy than the other. Don't worry about that.

K

[dfh99]

Thanks a lot --


Is there a particular soap that you'd recommend for cleaning?

[slothrob]

B-Brite and PBW (Powdered Brewery Wash) are both great products made specifically for the brewery. Oxyclean is the identical chemical to B-Brite, and it's usually a little cheaper. Get the Oxyclean Free, it lacks any additional detergents or perrfumes.

You can make a cleaner equivalent to PBW by using 1/3 Tbs Oxyclean & 2/3 Tbs TSP-Substitute (sold in the paint section of the hardware store, sometimes called TSP-PF or TSP-90, but not TSP. I get Red Devil brand.) per gallon of water.