Chinese Hops Bonanza.

[manticle]

Harratau ragger, If you weren't Scottish I'd accuse you of being lacist :angry:


New lecipee is

Chinese Lager
International Strong Lager

Recipe Specs
----------------
Batch Size (L): 25.0
Total Grain (kg): 5.500
Total Hops (g): 92.00
Original Gravity (OG): 1.050 (P): 12.4
Final Gravity (FG): 1.011 (P): 2.8
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 5.12 %
Colour (SRM): 3.1 (EBC): 6.1
Bitterness (IBU): 27.2 (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 70
Boil Time (Minutes): 60

Grain Bill
----------------
5.000 kg Pilsner Barrett Burston (90.91%)
0.500 kg Maltose Syrup Chinese (9.09%)

Hop Bill
----------------
12.0 g Magnum Pellet (12.5% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0.5 g/L)
80.0 g Saaz Chinese Pellet (3% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil) (3.2 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------

Single step Infusion at 66C for 60 Minutes.
Fermented at 17C with Wyeast 2042 - Danish Lager


Lecipee Generated with Honourable BlewMate

Disclaimer SWMBO is half Chinese and assures me that the L and R thing are regarded as not offensive, just a bit like Irish Jokes and a bit of fun, like they call us round eyes.

Bitterness calculated using Rager?

 

[bradsbrew]

I've seen the Chinese hop buy referenced several times and not in a good way.
What was the issue, were the hops old or were they not the promised types or anything?
(just curious )

thanks
Bjorn

Pretty well sumed up by adamT in this thread The tale of Townsville

Cheers

 

[BjornJ]

Haha, that was funny!

Ok, so I'll stick to local hops for local people then.

(that are probably mostly grown overseas anyway)

Bjorn

 

[Rowy]

Hop Bonanza

Tell you what happenned to that Australia.............we sold out to the chinese.

 

[yardy]

Tell you what happenned to that Australia.............we sold out to the chinese.

love their take-away food, hope we sell out to the Indians in the near future, I do love a curry :icon_cheers:

 

[bigfridge]

Pretty well sumed up by adamT in this thread The tale of Townsville

Cheers

Yes, this is a cracker summary of one-side of the story. There were plenty that cautioned about the low quality that could be expected given the lack of specifications or actual analysis available and the absence of a track record as a hop producing area.

These soothsayers were met with:



It would appear that the hops offered were more suitable for bittering (where alpha content is the prime consideration) rather than the aroma hops that a lot of (vocal) buyers were expecting.

 

[komodo]

Seriously I've never understood the attraction to the cheap chinese hops when the likes of ellerslie hops selling 500g and 1kg lots of hops at fairly attractive prices.
When you break it down to cost per brew hops sourced locally arent that expencive.

 

[punkin]

I don't get why hops are popular from the states either. I'm new at the game, but the hops from Ellerslie are mostly cheaper than the ones from the states if you buy by the kilo according to the price list i'm using anyway.

There's bound to be something i haven't seen or don't know, but i got my third order of three kilos of hops in from ellerslie last week and i'm very happy. :icon_cheers:

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

I don't get why hops are popular from the states either. I'm new at the game, but the hops from Ellerslie are mostly cheaper than the ones from the states if you buy by the kilo according to the price list i'm using anyway.

There's bound to be something i haven't seen or don't know, but i got my third order of three kilos of hops in from ellerslie last week and i'm very happy. :icon_cheers:

How much?

 

[Bribie G]

At that stage the AUD$ was still at around 65 cents and Ellerslie weren't supplying to hobbyists unless you had some sort of an "in" with the company, and American hops were heading North with Cascade 90g foils over AUD$12, which was punishing.

Now we're a bit better organised and Hops Direct are well used to dealing with these strange bag waving barbarians from over the Ocean.

China grows some nice hops, the industry was set up with the help of Czech advisors - say no more.
I think the problem was:

First Buy: Graham got dudded with left-over "dross". I mean it was a stupid time of year to do the buy, we would have been sitting ducks to offload the old stuff onto.
Second buy: Not too bad, really - I'd put the Chinese Saaz on an equal footing with Saphir for example although not as aromatic as the Czech / GER
Third buy: who knows, I might try a kilo depending on the price.

Around Xmas I got a pound of GER Hallertau from HD and I had to bin it. It was stale, dusty and cardboardy. So HD / Ellerslie aren't bulletproof, I know last years' Ellerslie EKG re-imports were a bit dodgy according to many.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

My Citra from Niko has been somewhat dusty (or it got hammered over the pacific) - smaller pellets and higher amounts of dust in the sealer packets.

Having said that, it doesn't seem to have any effect on flavour - in fact, I'd rate their flavour really well, especially when 20g of Citra and 30g of Cascade are put into a large teabag and deposited at the draw tube in my keg of APA.

Without taking this :icon_offtopic: too much, I have to say that the Smaragd hops from CB are good. $6 a 90g bag, which is cheap for a keg filler if you 1. haven't got enough bulk hops or 2. Live close by and can go and get them yourself.

I've used them in a lager in a 60/20 split to about 25 IBU. Very smooth bitterness, flowery, slightly fruity (though not like an American hop) - similar to lublin - not spicy at all.

So for all the Brissy brau bretheren, requiring a quick fill in hop, it'll do the trick.

Goomba

 

[yardy]

ekul organised a hop buy from HD for us, mine were 500gm EKG, Fuggles, Strisselspalt among others, can't complain about the quality at all, as Bribie said, the 2010 buy here 2010 Chinese Hop Buy had some good reviews, maybe this year i might have a crack..

 

[punkin]

How much?

Tween $22 and $67 a kilo for single kilos. most seem to be tween $30-45. Delivery is cheap enough too and you're only waiting a few days instead of weeks..

Just seems when people are saying they're getting it from HD for $20 a pound (2.2lb/kg?) it's not really a cost saving. I was thinking it must be a quality thing, but every one i've got from Ellerlslie has been fresh looking and had a wonderful scent.

Not that i'd know a bad lot i spose.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

My hop buys have been around the $10/pound plus postage mark from the US.

Last time I got 2 1/2 pounds for about $48 and it would have been 3 pounds at the same, if I'd ordered a different variety and not a hard to find one.

Goomba

 

[///]

I'm never sure why folks buy and sit on large amounts of hops anyway. Unless broken down and cryo-vaced in oxygen barrier bags, all I see is plenty of folks with freezers full of hops all affected by Butyric Acid ... buy well handled fresh lots regularly i say ...

 

[Cortez The Killer]

I got a few of the chinese hops from last year and found the Cascade and Columbus to be acceptable

My NSW special case swap entry used them throughout and met with solid reviews

Cheers

 

[MarkBastard]

I'm never sure why folks buy and sit on large amounts of hops anyway. Unless broken down and cryo-vaced in oxygen barrier bags, all I see is plenty of folks with freezers full of hops all affected by Butyric Acid ... buy well handled fresh lots regularly i say ...

Have you tried storing hops in your freezer, made a beer, tasted it and gone "YEGADZ, TOO MUCH BUTYRIC ACID"! Or are you just trying to impress us with your knowledge of theory?

 

[Bribie G]

I'm never sure why folks buy and sit on large amounts of hops anyway. Unless broken down and cryo-vaced in oxygen barrier bags, all I see is plenty of folks with freezers full of hops all affected by Butyric Acid ... buy well handled fresh lots regularly i say ...

With 90g sleeves of USA hops reaching stupid levels last year - up to $14 IIRC, many people twigged that you could get a whole fricking pound of them for the same price. With hops at around $7 a sleeve I was more than happy just to pay as I went - now I note that they are once again dropping to 7-9 a sleeve so I expect I'll be back to ordering as much as possible from my usual supplier.
I fully realise that it wasn't the retailer who was gouging, they buy from hop dealers and they had to work through the "price hump" before the cheaper hops started flowing again.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Yup, my Cascade came in about $11 a pound plus amortised postage of around $4.

If I'd had the guts to try some relatively under-documented US varieties - it would have been less again.

Willamette was about $14 delivered.

The Citra killed me, but was still around 2/3rd price landed.

Most of the time, I'll pick up my hops on a PAYB (Purchase as you brew) system from my usual local supplier at Capalaba - I've got half sleeves of 5 or 6 varieties in the freezer and the prices seem to be coming down again for most of my favourite varieties.

 

[///]

Have you tried storing hops in your freezer, made a beer, tasted it and gone "YEGADZ, TOO MUCH BUTYRIC ACID"! Or are you just trying to impress us with your knowledge of theory?

Didn't even get to the beer, pulled about 10kg in total out of the cooler at about 12-18 months old and binned them all. Any butyric acid is bad by the way!

Scotty