Beer Kits and Brew Enhancers

[craftworkamber]

LHBS = Local Home Brew Shop.

Kit converters and brew enhancers are synonymous terms - it's not about the terminology, but about what's in it. You can have many different brew enhancers (even coopers has more than one) each made up of different malts (and sometimes simple sugaz).

The hop bag is for containing the hops you are boiling, so you can pull them out without them going into the fermenter.

The idea of boiling for 5 minutes is to get some flavour and aroma from the hops. If it didn't contain any hops, that's strange, but the bag will likely come in use for the future.

G'day Fellas,

Still quite a newbie here, so was wondering if someone could give us a little breakdown as to what the difference is between kit converters and brew enhancers? Correct me if i am wrong but i am assuming the kit converter contains dextrose and dry malt and something else? And are brew enhancers the same thing or just dry malt extract?

A lot of the home brewing stores here in WA are Brewcraft so all of my products come from there so i get a little confused when i hear different abbreviations etc on the forum, like LHBS???

I have kit converter that compliments a Pilsener wort i am going to try out, it also contains a hop bag etc, i understand i have to boil the contents of the kit converter in like 5 litres of water, just a lil confused on what to do with the hop bag, would be grateful for any advice.

cheers,

Dan :icon_cheers:

LHBS = Local Home Brew Shop.

Kit converters and brew enhancers are synonymous terms - it's not about the terminology, but about what's in it. You can have many different brew enhancers (even coopers has more than one) each made up of different malts (and sometimes simple sugaz).

The hop bag is for containing the hops you are boiling, so you can pull them out without them going into the fermenter.

The idea of boiling for 5 minutes is to get some flavour and aroma from the hops. If it didn't contain any hops, that's strange, but the bag will likely come in use for the future.

Hi there.

My recent extract attempt resulted in one of those hop bags (the pre-packed 10g variety) bursting during boil because I squeezed it like a tea bag. Seemed like the thing to do at the time, won't be doing that again though! I strained the contents into the fermentor as best I could but the resulting beer was still quite hoppy but overly bitter I thought. I've read in places that it wouldn't really change the quality of the beer to leave all those hop pellet pieces in during fermentation but I wasn't so sure that it didn't. Thoughts?

 

[pnorkle]

google TWOC. There at the stock rd markets. Cnr of stock rd and spearwood ave. they sell it all and will point you in the right direction

+1 for TWOC. I get the majority of my stuff from there, partially because they're close,but also because that have just about everything you could ever hope for in a LHBS.

link here Web site's not the greatest but the shop is a nice place to have a look in.

 

[brzt6060]

Hi there.

My recent extract attempt resulted in one of those hop bags (the pre-packed 10g variety) bursting during boil because I squeezed it like a tea bag. Seemed like the thing to do at the time, won't be doing that again though! I strained the contents into the fermentor as best I could but the resulting beer was still quite hoppy but overly bitter I thought. I've read in places that it wouldn't really change the quality of the beer to leave all those hop pellet pieces in during fermentation but I wasn't so sure that it didn't. Thoughts?

I had a similar experience. Over the course of a two week fermentation the bitterness dropped off a bit and a week of cold crashing did wonders for clearing the beer up. The end result was still a tad overly bitter but an extended bottle conditioning period has helped mellow it out and I expect that will continue to happen the longer I leave it.

 

[Major Arcana]

Hmmmm, i am not a massive fan over a rather hoppy beer so seeing as this is only my second batch i am going to just boil the hop bag etc and leave her to cool but i wont be throwing it into the fermentor, im doing this first up tomorrow morning, will keep you updated, and again thanks heaps fellas for all the advice, :drinks:

Dan

 

[Major Arcana]

G'day Fellas, put together the Pilsener yesterday morning, boiled up the kit converter and hop bag etc then added another 300gm of dextrose, all looked good until i realised i had put in 23.5 litres all up, will this make much of a difference being 500ml over? I also pitched to packs of the under the lid 5gm yeast packs at 22c. Love to hear ya thoughts!

Dan

 

[Major Arcana]

sorry meant to say i pitched 2 packs of the yeast!

 

[Cronessa]

500mls over won't make much difference (it's only about 2% over).

It's good to get into the habit of taking gravity readings with a hydrometer though if you haven't already.

Cheers

 

[Major Arcana]

500mls over won't make much difference (it's only about 2% over).

It's good to get into the habit of taking gravity readings with a hydrometer though if you haven't already.

Cheers

G'day Cronessa

Im all over the hydrometer readings mate the OG of the above batch came out at 1048.

 

[Major Arcana]

+1 for TWOC. I get the majority of my stuff from there, partially because they're close,but also because that have just about everything you could ever hope for in a LHBS.

link here Web site's not the greatest but the shop is a nice place to have a look in.

Indeed +1 for TWOC, they had quite a good range and definitey cheaper then Brewcraft, it did have an old feel and was rather cluttery in there. so when i go back im going to be sure to check expiry dates and packaging dates, especially on their kit beers etc, otherwise they are top notch!!

cheers,

Dan :beerbang:

 

[Cronessa]

G'day Cronessa

Im all over the hydrometer readings mate the OG of the above batch came out at 1048.

Good stuff - assuming you end up with an FG of around 1.010 you should be at about 5% abv. 500mls won't be enough to affect the body of the beer I wouldn't imagine. 2 packs of yeast will also be fine.

 

[RobboMC]

I had a similar experience. Over the course of a two week fermentation the bitterness dropped off a bit and a week of cold crashing did wonders for clearing the beer up. The end result was still a tad overly bitter but an extended bottle conditioning period has helped mellow it out and I expect that will continue to happen the longer I leave it.

Hi there.

My recent extract attempt resulted in one of those hop bags (the pre-packed 10g variety) bursting during boil because I squeezed it like a tea bag. Seemed like the thing to do at the time, won't be doing that again though! I strained the contents into the fermentor as best I could but the resulting beer was still quite hoppy but overly bitter I thought. I've read in places that it wouldn't really change the quality of the beer to leave all those hop pellet pieces in during fermentation but I wasn't so sure that it didn't. Thoughts?

When I boil up hops; which is every single batch now, I usually just pour the whole lot ( malt, boiled hops, left over pellets etc ) into the fermenter. You can do more damage than good by straining out the hops unless you know what you are doing. At the very worst, those left over pellets may add some more aroma to the finished beer.

 

[Major Arcana]

When I boil up hops; which is every single batch now, I usually just pour the whole lot ( malt, boiled hops, left over pellets etc ) into the fermenter. You can do more damage than good by straining out the hops unless you know what you are doing. At the very worst, those left over pellets may add some more aroma to the finished beer.

How long do you boil up for normally Robbo MC?

cheers,

Dan

 

[syke]

google TWOC. There at the stock rd markets. Cnr of stock rd and spearwood ave. they sell it all and will point you in the right direction

TWOC is great, the guy behind the counter brews and had some great info when I went there. My favorite is Malthouse is welshpool, always have good service there and never felt ripped off. There is another store in Armadale but never have I shopped there so can't comment. Plenty of places around in Perth.

 

[abe max]

How long do you boil up for normally Robbo MC?

cheers,

Dan

The last one I did where I wanted a nice amount of bittering, nothing too big, was done by steeping 250g of grains in 2 ltrs of water, got that to a light boil and added the hops for 10mins, I strained this and added this and the rest of the goop to the fermenter, I also added a different style of hop tea bag straight in, it turned out really well, good aroma and nice level of bittering.