Brew suggestion

[H@wkeye!]

Hi all

So pausing from an all grain brew for a once off last time kit brew, wondering if anyone could offer any suggestions.

I have a coopers dark ale kit as well as a range of hops, including American Cascade 2014, German northern Brewer and German Hallertau

Is there some way i could use some combination of these hops and the brew kit (as well as sugar kit) to make a tasty, non-kit tasting brew?

Would do an all-grain, but don't have the time, ingredients (shop only open sat here) and want to use this kit that's lying around.

Thanks for the suggestions

Hawk

 

[Danscraftbeer]

That dark ale makes a nice beer. I've done just a short small boil of dry malt rather than dextrose and added hops for ~ 10 minutes and flame out. You'll get finishing flavors plus a touch more bitterness. Other than that for the dark ale I have done more funky things. Rather than hops i've added fresh ginger (up to 90g for 5 to 10min) chilli, lemon or orange rind, cloves, bay leaves and made some excellent specialty beer.
Personally I'd be keen on the cascade for 5 minutes or flame out. Not too keen on the Hallertau, never tried Northern brewer as late hops.

 

[H@wkeye!]

So do you have a suggestion? Wanted to do the brew last week but ended up too busy. Definitely doing it this afternoon though. When you say dry malt, what do you mean? I have malted barley (left overs from other all grain brews), as well as the hops as described, but not sure what you're referring to as dry malt 0 is that the coopers extract?

 

[manticle]

Bitter with northern brewer, flavour with cascade, make a us brown.

Dry malt is malt extract that has been dehydrated. Presumably you don't have any but it can be dissolved in boiling water and aďded once fermentation has commenced.
Best way to make a non kit kit brew is fresh, healthy sufficient yeast, add spec grain or mashed grain wort (mashed obviously takes time you may not have), fresh hops and controlled fermentation.

 

[H@wkeye!]

Hrm so i was just thinking of doing the extract brew as directed, but adding some boiled hops (boiled for say 10 mins), then pitching yeast and fermenting. I could do something a bit more creative, but still getting to know the ins-and-outs of it all. From what i have, any suggestions? I'd love to make the park ale kit into a porter or Guinness type brew

 

[manticle]

You have german and us hops so getting a uk brew is less easy.
Extract plus nb to bitter and cascade for flavour gets us brown.
If you have a uk yeast, just bittering with nb might get something porter like.

 

[H@wkeye!]

nb?

 

[manticle]

Northern brewer

 

[H@wkeye!]

Ah right, thx. Say 30 g of each?

 

[manticle]

Depends on the aa%, desired ibu, recipe and timing mate.
String, piece, length, etc.

 

[H@wkeye!]

Umm, 23 L ferment, probably 2 weeks, just going to use the standard yeast (only one i have atm). Desired AA probably a usual full strength, 6% or so

 

[manticle]

AA =alpha acids. Do you know how hop bittering works?
Genuine question, not trying to be a smart arse or patronising.

 

[H@wkeye!]

Nope still on the steep learning curve.

 

[manticle]

Hops have 4 functions.
If boiled in acidic sugary solution, the insoluble alpha acids become more soluble, adding various characters to the solution. The main one is bittering which counteracts the sweet malt water.
The others are flavour, aroma (closely linked) and a preservative effect.
Very basically, the longer the boil, the more bittering effect, the shorter, the more flavour/aroma is favoured.

When you look at a packet of commercially prepared hop pellets, plugs or dehydrated flowers, it should have a percentage of alpha acids listed.
Consider this the bittering potential of the hops. Higher numbers = higher bittering potential. Bitterness is measured in ibu or bu (international bittering units). If you use software to calculate bittering levels, this will be an estimate only but many commercial beers will be measured.
The actual bittering gained depends on a number of factors - aa% is a big one but boil vigour, length and wort gravity also have a significant effect. AA% will differ significantly between hop varieties but also between seasons and regions.

 

[H@wkeye!]

AH right.

Thanks for that. Good to know.

Now have no idea what i want. Might run to the local brew shop grab something i can be more sure with

 

[H@wkeye!]

OK brew shop closed. Realised i have chocolate malt left (heaps actually), so thinking of 200g of chocolate malt and some NB hops. Should i boil them together, and any thoughts on how long? Yes am fishing a bit, hope you can help though. Want to get it started soon

 

[manticle]

So is there an aa% listed on the hop packets?

 

[H@wkeye!]

There is, i gave it a bit of a winger. Made notes and will learning from it either way - failure or success. Not too fussed, more keen for the learning experience.

 

[manticle]

So what was the aa, how much malt:water and how much and how long for which hops?
You say you've been doing ag brews. Where are you getting the recipes from?

 

[H@wkeye!]

AG brews - total 2! FIrst was more of a teeth cutting experience (only bottle 16 bottles), second went much better (so far taste good, still waiting to finish priming - have found a cold garage means longer priming).

Ultimate i'm not too fused about the outcome of this brew, just wanted to experiment a little. The AA's on the hops were 5.85 and 6.6. The 5.85 went in for about 10 mins and the 6.6 about 7. They were boiled with 1 L of water.

I used 220 g of chocolate malt with 520 mls of water and 'mashed' that for 30 mins at around 70-80 (tried to keep it at 70 but difficult on the stove).

All this went into the fermenter after the malt mix and sugar was added with 2 L of boiling water. Then cold water was added (with a little more boiling to keep at around 22). Coopers yeast was then added (after pitching - although about 30 mins later - another lesson - pitch way earlier).

Started fermenting almost immediately, had lots of foam by next morning.


Now will wait and see.

I've been getting my recipies from mostly suggestions here. You have any suggestions for where to go from here?