First Brew With Hop Boil - Tips / Ideas?

[kdaust]

Hi all

So I've recently bought a Coopers Kit to try and make a few decent brews.

All my previous brews have been K&K and less than impressive in the taste department.

Supplies
Coopers lager 1.7kg tin
Brew Enhancer 1
Dextrose
Light dry malt 1kg
100g amarillo hops
Small pack Cascade hops
Safale US-05 yeast
8L pot (for extract boil)

Brew
I'm thinking about doing the kit, with 500g ldme (boiled with 5L water for 20mins with some amarillo and cascade), 500g dextrose, and the safale yeast. The details I'll probably work out in the extract spreadsheet I got from here.

What sort of hop schedule will give me a nice flavour and aroma?

 

[Joshisgood]

Maybe check out dr smurtos golden ale in recipe db and use the hop schedule from the kit version of that recipe(kit recipe is inside the all grain recipe) it's all Amarillo hops, maybe dry hop as well with Amarillo or cascade. I'd probably add the rest of the malt after the boil aswell

 

[kdaust]

So 1kg malt + kit + dextrose? Or extra malt instead of the dex?

 

[Joshisgood]

So 1kg malt + kit + dextrose? Or extra malt instead of the dex?

Yep 1kg malt + kit + dextrose, will be a bit stronger than your average kit (maybe 5.5% in the bottle) but the extra malt should give a nicer flavour. Thats what id go for anyway, there's alot more experienced brewers on here that will be able to give some good advice but I think something like that should turn out pretty well. Good luck with whatever you go for mate cheers

 

[kelbygreen]

ok Id go 800g malt and 300g of dex do a boil as big as you can get it 8lts being max and the best so boil 100g to 1lt and id prob do a 20min addition of maybe 10g of each or 20g of one and then at flame out add about the same as well or if you want heaps of flavour and aroma dump 60g of amarillo at flame out

 

[kdaust]

Thanks for the tips guys.

I tried out the spreadsheet and came out with this:

Kit + 1kg LDME + 0.3kg dextrose
10g each of Amarillo and Cascade @ 20 mins and 5 mins
Dry hop 20g Amarillo

OG 1.040
FG 1.009
4.7% abv
35.9 IBU
7.3 EBC

Hopefully will go ok.

 

[kelbygreen]

yeah sounds good but looking at the calculations you gave id drop the volume to 21lts and change the 20mins to 10 mins and 5 mins to flame out and tell me what you come up with. You wont get 1.009 with 1kg LDME maybe 1.012-1.014

 

[kdaust]

With those changes I get:

OG 1.048
FG 1,010
5.1% abv
30.4 IBU

10g each Amarillo and Cascade @10mins and at flameout
20g Amarillo dryhop

 

[kelbygreen]

perfect do that. It will improve the taste but dont expect it to be out of this world with K&K and extract you need alot longer maturing time I found 6 weeks is the least but not many of mine lasted that long. As I say it will prob finish around the 1.013 mark so it will still be around 4.5% if you done what you first put and wanted around that mark you would of feel short. Well thats from personal experiance but id rather it a little more alc then lower lol

dry hop only for 2-4 days so do it when it just about finished fermenting and you will be right, let it mature as much as you can and leave a few to try in 8 weeks or so. I know its not 23lts but you can brew beers as big as you like. I used to do 25lts and aim around 1.050 mark to get 5% beers with about 80% malt 20% dex. If you want a thinner beer try 50-50

 

[kdaust]

Thanks mate. Happy with that. Cheers for the tip on the dry hop too - I would have chucked it in at the same time as the yeast otherwise.
I think I'll keep the extra ldme for this one. I like a girl with a bit of malt on her bones!

 

[kelbygreen]

haha yeah same if you can get hold of it and can afford it try using all briess malt extract in a brew as close as AG as you can get with dry malt bloody lovely malt and have heaps of varieties. the plain old bintani cheap malt does the work but isnt like briess lol I paid $110 for 20kg sack bintani and $14 for 1kg of briess but the difference is not comparible well think I could get 22kg (sack) for about $190 from memory for briess

 

[kdaust]

**** Brew Day Update ****

So brewed this earlier today. I found I only had 12g of the Cascade because I bought the smaller pack. (For the price, I thought I'd have at least 20g, but I didn't look when I bought it.)

Hop schedule changed to:
Amarillo 10g, Cascade 12g @15
Amarillo 20g @0

Boil went fine, but had to be about 5L instead of 7. Because it was way to close to the top with 7L in a 7.6L pot! With 5L I was ablt to add the detrose, the extra malt, and the tin of lager extract at the end of the boil.

I cooled it in the sink for a while, but not completely. Then tipped in the fermenter and filled up with water to 23L. (Filled the fermenter up a bit too much, so ended up with a 23L brew. Need to be more careful next time).

Pitched my rehydrated yeast at 22.C (Can't wait to see the little buggers doing their job)

** Lessons learnt **

- Don't fill your pot too high. Tipping out near boiling extract wort is a bit sketchy.

- Hops smell amazing in the pack and in the pot!

- LDME reminds me of breakfast cereal

- Lager kit goo tastes pretty bad (rehydrated yeast doesn't taste that good either FWIW)

 

[kdaust]

Checked gravity last night - 1.015

Tasted the beer [can I call it beer yet?] - Nice bitterness, but not much (any) flavour or aroma I could detect. Once I cooled it in the fridge it tasted pretty good for flat, aroma-lacking beer. Also noticed it had quite a bit of body.

Dry hopped with 30g of Amarillo (instead of the 20g planned) to try and remedy the aroma situation.

Hoping that it clears a bit in the bottle too. Very cloudy at the moment.

 

[pimpsqueak]

It will clear if you give it a bit more time. It's only been 1 week since you pitched the yeast, right?
I'd be giving it another week at least for the yeast to finish up. Also, dropping the temp will aid in floccing out more of the particles causing your cloudiness.

 

[kdaust]

Bottled this tonight. Finished up at 1.008. But seems that my coopers hydrometer is out by .003 showing tap water at .997

Glad I got the bench capper too. So much easier.

Got my grain bag, big w pot, sparge bucket, and my grain and hops for the next brew today. Just need some time for a brew day.

 

[kdaust]

Couldn't wait any longer, I had to try one. Cleared up nice in the fridge overnight. Obviously under-carbed but still had some.

To my taste its brilliant! So happy with it. Bitterness I could taste in the gravity samples seems to have smoothed. Amarillo flavour and aroma are there. Possible stale beer type aroma a few times when I took a sip - but I can't be certain it was even there.

Overall I can't wait now to give it another few weeks to properly carb up.

 

[Diesel80]

Bottled this tonight. Finished up at 1.008. But seems that my coopers hydrometer is out by .003 showing tap water at .997

Glad I got the bench capper too. So much easier.

Got my grain bag, big w pot, sparge bucket, and my grain and hops for the next brew today. Just need some time for a brew day.

I just did my first grain steep brew 12 days ago. The wort smells deluxe, did mine on the BBQ
I had a tin of goo, hop pellets, grain, LDME and some raw sugar. receipe is in another thread here.

Tasted excellent first hydro sample, bit smoother in the second sample. Finished at 1014 and would not budge below that.

I was convinced to get into the grain steeping from brew #2 from a few guys on here, don't regret it at all.
Pasta mill will serve as a ghetto grain mill if needed, PM me if you want to know an easy way to score the rollers.

Go forth!

Cheers,
D80

 

[kdaust]

I just did my first grain steep brew 12 days ago.

Check out my first BIAB brew here - http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...&pid=815310

Easier than I thought, and I had never even done a steep before. You sound like you would smash it easy!

Anticipating the first tasting of that dark ale even more than my pale!

 

[Diesel80]

Check out my first BIAB brew here - http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...&pid=815310

Easier than I thought, and I had never even done a steep before. You sound like you would smash it easy!

Anticipating the first tasting of that dark ale even more than my pale!

Funny you should say that, my next brew will be a BIAB SMaSH (single malt and single hop) brew, pun inintended?

Just got to get hold of some mini kegs, and a small fermenter.
got a 15L pot so looking to make some 7L post boil BIABs to nail the process, then when the shed is cleared out the 60L pot and burner is getting procured

I already have the required swag so i can sleep out there keeping a close eye on my precious.... B)

Cheers,
D80

 

[soundawake]

I have a question....

I've noted that a lot of recipes show a hop addition @ 0 mins...

What exactly does this mean? Does it mean you add the quantity of hops, take it straight off the boil and strain into fermenter immediately, so the last addition is literally in the hop boil for 30 seconds or so?