Welcome to the obsession!
Haven’t seen the exact recipe you’re talking about but yes, hopped or not extract will make a difference. Does the recipe call for you to add hops at times during the boil? If so, you should use unhopped extract. if the recipe never adds any hops, then hopped extract.
As for cooling, yes it’s generally considered best to cool as quickly as possible (at least down to 140F or so). Beyond that, plenty of folks make great beer letting it take it’s time cooling.
Yes, like hokerer said, it matters. You should use what the recipe calls for - if it’s not available, you’ll need to change the recipe. We can help with that if you tell us what the original recipe was and what ingredients you can get. If it calls for hopped extract but you can’t get any, you need to add bittering hops. If it calls for un-hopped extract but you can only get hopped, you need to remove bittering hops.
Generally, best practice is to chill it quickly, but it is better to cool it slowly than to not make beer 
So the recipe specifically calls for:
-3.75 lb Cooper “Bitter” Brewing Kit–I purchased their English Bitter kit (hopped), my local brew shop did not have unhopped bitter extract
-2 lb light dry malt extract
-1 oz Cascade hops–added last 15 mintues of the boil
I’m ready to get started, I just wanted to make sure that the hopped bitter kit is appropriate. Thanks for the help…
yeah the hopped extract sounds right with the rest of the instructions. It is only asking for late hops (15 minutes) which will give flavour and aroma and only a very little bitterness while the extract itself is already bittered.
A few things you should definitely do…
Before you brew, get all your ingredients, equipment, instructions, sanitizer etc together and make yourself a checklist of steps. I’ve done this every time so far (I’m coming up on batch 4) and it really helps. You will probably forget something or have a brain fart of some kind if you don’t make a checklist. I use large lined post-it notes and stick them to the cabinet and check off each step as I do it. You may need to revise your list a couple times before it’s perfect.
Keep good notes on everything you do, every ingredient, every calculation, everything that deviates from your plan, every worry, every concern, everything! Write it down, talk about it with friends, post on forums (I’m on a bunch of forums, some beer, some non-beer), get conversations going and get yourself thinking about brewing.
Realize that despite the above two steps being highly recommended by myself, there is one step that is much more important. Don’t over-think think it. RDWHAHB (relax, don’t worry, have a homebrew). Have a good commercial brew if you don’t have any homebrew ready yet. Your beer will probably come out good! The first batch is the killer when it comes to suspense though.
Cooling takes a lot of ice. The first two solo batches I brewed I used twenty pounds of ice (5.5 gallon batches, about 3 gallons of boiled wort, topped to 5.5 with chilled spring water). Get some ice before you’ve had four or five beers and realize it’ll take hours to cool without it. Sooner or later (probably sooner) after you’ve got the bug, you’ll want a wort chiller. I just got one.
Water. If you’re at all uncertain about your water, use bottled spring water. My water wasn’t good for beer (discovered when I was messing with Mr Beer). I had a couple of meh batches of Mr Beer. When I got my 5 gallon kit I switched to spring water and the difference is night and day.
Again, the biggest thing is relax, don’t worry, have a homebrew. I sense a great tasting bitter in your near future!
Also I’ve had good results with cascade hops. Very tasty. I bought a pound of them and intend to use them again on my next batch, a hoppy red ale.
Question for the pros out there…first batch brewed and now in fermenter. I finished it all on Saturday. After 48 hours went by with no bubbling through the airlock, I (by the guidace of John Palmer) proceeded through several measures:
I feel like my whole brew day process was good, I kept records of everything that I did and I can’t figure out why I don’t see bubbles to help me know fermentation is actually taking place. Like I said, I’ve been through Palmer’s diagnoses and cures and am just stumped–any ideas, or is my very first batch a loss?
take a gravity reading. was there any krausen? (a layer of foamy stuff on top)
The good news is that you probably didn’t hurt the beer to much by raising the temp because if it fermented then after a couple of days the worst of the temp related dangers are mitigated.
don’t trust the bubbles from the airlock. particularly if using buckets. they do leak. It is possible that the downward presure on the lid sealed it just enough to get a little upward action in the airlock. this doesn’t mean it is sealed when you are not pressing on it.
again. Take a gravity reading and you will know. I guess it’s pretty close to finished.
Yeah, step one should always be take a gravity reading. I think it is most likely fermenting away, you really can’t trust most bucket lids.
Next time, don’t heat the wort as high as you have, high 60s is as high as I would go for almost any ale strain.
Yeah, good advice abve. I however might suggest that the first step be the easiest when diagnosing problems. In this instance as Morticai alluded check for the krausen, a visual inspection of the beer can tell you what may be happening. Is there krausen or evidence of it having come and gone? Also using fermometers and monitoring temperature can also indicate fermentation is progressing, as it will rise. I have a carboy blowoff hood that doesn’t seal and I have never seen one bubble through numerous fermentations, I can see the beer though and know that its fermenting.
my batches haven’t been bubbling in the airlock either. they are clearly fermenting though, after a week I’m already at one point off target gravity on my latest batch.
Thanks for all the replies, everyone’s imput and guidance has been invaluable. I popped the lid this evening and there are a few areas on the surface that still appear like foam, or like foam fading so to speak. My OG was ~1.042 (brew date 3/3/12) and my gravity reading tonight was 1.010–I’m thinking this is good news, something ate the sugar.
Being new to this and most of my education coming second-hand per books and the AHA, should I be concerned that the bucket doesn’t seal airtight, doesn’t this put the fermenting process at risk for mold contamination or over oxidation? Should I use my carboy from now on, do you guys think this is easier and makes evaluation of the fermentation process less of a hassle?
Thanks again, good weekend to everyone…
It’s common for buckets to not seal. You don’t have anything to worry about as fermentation gives off CO2 and the pressure of that makes sure that things move in the right direction - away from your wort. Whether it’s out through and airlock or out through a leaky seal, keeping things moving outward makes sure that nothing like bugs or oxygen can move inward.
well there you go. you’ve got finished beer. bottle that stuff up and wait patiently for a couple more weeks and then drink them.
Yeah, the bucket lid not sealing doesn’t seem to be an issue with contamination or o2.
My third batch, sweet stout has come out pretty good. It’s got pretty good body, could be thicker but it ain’t bad, a good roasty flavor, a pretty nice head with some staying power and very nice sheets of lacing. The taste is pretty good and not too far off the style, perhaps a little bit hoppier than I expected but quite tasty!
Batch 4 will have to be bottled tomorrow or thursday and won’t be touched for six weeks. Goin’ on a mission, won’t be able to taste it till may!!