Dave's IPA homebrew kit

A while back I dropped into Dave's Homebrew to see what was new.  Dave has been very helpful in the past, particularly when I started doing all-grain batches.  But these days I don't seem to have the time to commit to the 6+ hours or so I seem to need to do a full mash. So, customised extract kits are the go. 

Having a good look around the shop, I noticed these sealed boxes simply with the name of a beer style on a Dave's Homebrew label.  He told me he put them together by demand, as lots of punters wanted to do the steeped grain and DIY hopping routine, but not want to get caught up in recipe formulation. I think it's a great initiative, although quite labour-intensive for Dave.

Anyway, I bought an IPA kit. It will be for an English IPA style (East Kent Goldings are the hops). It's got two tins of Morgan's unhopped lager extract, a bag of mixed grain (which looks like some crystal and a touch of wheat), a bag of dried malt extract with hops, two bags of hop pellets, a satchel of finising hops, and a packet of Safale ale yeast.

There is a comprehensive instruction sheet, including the wise words of not putting a lid on the boil pot.

So, I'll give this a go soon.  I'll probably fiddle with the procedure a bit.... for one I don't think I need to boil the Morgan's LME as the syrup is already "kettled for excess protein removal"; I'll warm the tins up and pour straight into the fermenter.  So I'll only boil the DME, the hops, and the extract from the steeped grains. This gives me more room in the boiler for the following adjusted step.......

I'm also going to give his recommended 15 minute ice-bath step a miss, and use several litres of frozen pre-boiled water instead as the wort-cooling technique.  I don't think ice baths cool quick enough (and, being a bit tight at the moment, I don't want to have to buy several bags of ice at $6 a throw).  So, throw the ice straight into the boiler at the end, and hopefully have enough to bring the wort temperature down into the 30's asap.

I reckon, judging by the amount of fermentable being used, we're looking at an OG of around 1.060. I plan to ferment in my glass carboy..... a pain to syphon from, but so much easier to clean, and to observe whilst fermenting.  I'll then keg it (hate bottle washing), cold-condition it, carbonate it, and drink it.