1st Time Hopping

[Goldfish]

HI guys

I am relatively new to the homebrew scene (this is my second season). i am looking to try adding some hops for the first time. Last year i spent brewing coopers can to the recipe's stated just to see what i liked and what i didn't. Believe me when i say i found them both!! Now i want to try adding some hops. i have some saaz pellets and am after some advice as too how best to use them. What quantity should i use and should i dry hop or boil them. As an example i am a big fan of james squires range of beer and am looking to brew something simillar using extract kits as i haven't gone down the mash road yet.

Regards goldfish

 

[Cocko]

Ok, I will try and help someone and not just make smart arse comments....

Hops: SAAZ is a nice hop. So if you wanna use it for flavour boil it for 30 odd minutes and for aroma 15 and under...

My favourite hops so far are Chinook for bittering and Cascade for flavour and aroma but each to their own!

So if you are going to boil them, get a pot and add about 100g of LDME per litre of water... this will give the pot contents a SG of about 1.040 which is what you want to boil your hops in to get full utilisation of said hop!

Then you need to learn that different amount of boil time will affect the hops differently in your beer..

I got this of the mighty 'Butters' and it makes it visually make sense.

View attachment 20926

So i hope this helps.

You can always start with 'teabag' style aroma's from your local HBS and work your way up but my tip is don't be afraid, jump on into a boil and use some bittering, flavour and aroma hops.. you will be amazed at the results ;-)

If you are happy with your brews from a can and sugars, adding hops will change your brewing for the better... forever!!

So.. no smart arse calls and all help full info i reckon - Whoo hoo, well done me!

Cheers
Cocko

 

[achy02]

Hi,
I too am new to brewing and have found this thread helpful. I have used tea bags before and steeped hops to add to brews so the graph and info have been excellent. Just a quick 'newbie' question: What is 'dry hopping'? I know there are probably a lot of audible groans out there but I figure that if you don't ask...
Regards
achy

 

[Brewtus]

Dry hopping is when you add dry hops as you rack to a secondary. Racking is in the articles.

 

[achy02]

Thanks Brewtus,
Read and understood. I have also been reading John Palmer's site and getting heaps of valuable info.
many thanks
achy
ps any suggestions about what hops would be be best to add to coopers pale ale?

 

[matti]

Nice little graph ,Cocko.

Goldfish, welcome! i see it is your 1st post.
Look out for M.A.L.E.s in MacArthur.Ale & Lager Enthusiasts.

Achy, as Brewtust said. dry hopping is adding the hops to the fermenter.
A lot of the impact can get lost in the initial fermenter as beer ferment out, thats why most people hop in there second fermenter vessel.

matti

 

[0M39A]

Thanks Brewtus,
Read and understood. I have also been reading John Palmer's site and getting heaps of valuable info.
many thanks
achy
ps any suggestions about what hops would be be best to add to coopers pale ale?

depends on what you are going for.

if you want it to be like coopers pale ale, add some saaz and pride of ringwood, and ferment with real coopers pale ale yeast (not the crap that comes under the lid of the can, real coopers yeast. its in the wiki).

if you want it to be like an american pale ale, go something citrusy like cascade, chinook, amarillo, d-saaz etc.

if you like english pale ales, go east kent goldings, fuggles, willamette etc.

ferment with applicable yeasts.

 

[rude]

Same here goldfish just doing k&k with steeped speacialty grain & using a portion of my kilo of malt (100grams to a litre of water ratio 1040 ) to add some hops. See below.
I normally use a stocking with say EKG (15g) for 20 mins then fuggles(15g) for flame out but lately thought it wasnt enough.
So I went 20 g ekg in the stocking & then threw 20gs of fuggles in loose at flame out. 3 weeks into bottle conditioning & the taste test
I also used BRITT 11 wyeast, bloody bitter (over hopped) 22 litre batch.
Used a Thomas Coopers IPA kit with 100g of crystal malt.
I have noticed it is much nicer when the beer is warmer as the yeast malt profile comes through & when it is really cold it is really bitter.
Allso goldy I have normally used my hops with the full kilo of malt so havent been utilising the hops at there best, thank god I did use the full kilo for this throw in job.
Hopefully the hops will mello out with age but its not too bad definately drinkable.

 

[matti]

Same here goldfish just doing k&k with steeped speacialty grain & using a portion of my kilo of malt (100grams to a litre of water ratio 1040 ) to add some hops. See below.
I normally use a stocking with say EKG (15g) for 20 mins then fuggles(15g) for flame out but lately thought it wasnt enough.
So I went 20 g ekg in the stocking & then threw 20gs of fuggles in loose at flame out. 3 weeks into bottle conditioning & the taste test
I also used BRITT 11 wyeast, bloody bitter (over hopped) 22 litre batch.
Used a Thomas Coopers IPA kit with 100g of crystal malt.
I have noticed it is much nicer when the beer is warmer as the yeast malt profile comes through & when it is really cold it is really bitter.
Allso goldy I have normally used my hops with the full kilo of malt so havent been utilising the hops at there best, thank god I did use the full kilo for this throw in job.
Hopefully the hops will mello out with age but its not too bad definately drinkable.

Just a short note on late hops.
It takes a bit longer for the beer to mellow out.
Once you start hopping throw away the the KG of sugar and exchange it for malts

Let it sit for about 6 weeks in bottle.
It'll taste like mothers milk after three months

 

[Goldfish]

Thanks very much all
Alot of usefull information has answered many questions. will let you all know how i get on.
Regards Goldfish

 

[LethalCorpse]

Goldfish, once you start adding hops to your brews, the next step is ditching the kits for what's called an extract brew - all malt extract, no kit can, and no sugar or dextrose etc.
Take the biggest pot you've got and fill it to about 10cm from the top. Work out what volume this is, and add 100gm of light dried malt extract per litre of water, stir it through then bring it to the boil. Then add your bittering hops, 40 mins later you add your flavour hops, then another fifteen minutes later you add your aroma hops, taking it off the boil 2-5 minutes later. The choice of hops is up to you, but have a look around the forums and on the internet for recipes of styles you like. A golden ale would be a good place to start if you like James squire. Your chosen recipe will give the amounts and times of hops to add, and your homebrew shop should be able to supply these or close substitutes. For a golden ale, try 30gm of Pride of Ringwood for bittering, 25gm Amarillo for flavour and 25gm Amarillo for aroma (thanks bconnery for the hop schedule).
After you take it off the boil you strain the mixture into your fermenter through a colander, and then stir in two tins of liquid malt extract. Again, depends on style, but probably one tin of pale malt and a tin of wheat malt for a golden ale clone (it's a bit heavy on the wheat, but that will be offset by the LDME you use in the boil, and it saves you trying to measure partial tins of malt). Then top it up to 21L with cold water, wait until it's under 25C, and add your yeast. Get a good quality ale yeast from your homebrew shop, US-56 is a good example.

There are no hard fast rules for what you use and how you use it, but the experimenting is half the fun. Once you've done a few extract brews you can start doing partial mashes, then it's just a hop skip and jump to all grain brewing.

 

[Goldfish]

Lethal Corpse
yes mate i hear you and i guess i'm a little afraid that a bit of fun will turn into an obsession!!!!!! one of my work mates is into the partial mash and i must say it is a fine drop!!!! slowly does it as i have a better half that is not as appreciative of a fine dropas am i!!!!! if i convert slowly enough maybe she won't notice?!? i can always dream!
Regards Goldfish

 

[LethalCorpse]

if i convert slowly enough maybe she won't notice?!?

It's worked for me :icon_cheers:

 

[buttersd70]

Or just do what I did - get a good divorce lawyer

 

[Crunched]

I'm about to try hopping for the first time also but have a question:

My understanding with dry hopping is that you add the dry hops (or pellets?) to the secondary fermenter at time of transfer - but can they go straight in without risk of infecting the wort? Do you just take your measured amount out of the packet and drop them in??

 

[Crunched]

Ah, ignore my question, it is answered in the very last sentence on this page: http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter5-1.html

When you are dry hopping there is no reason to worry about adding unboiled hops to the fermenter. Infection from the hops just doesn't happen.