Help With Hops For This Recipe

[Flippo]

G'day all,

Got this recipe off another topic, put it down and it came out a bloody ripper. Dead set, I'm a new brewer and people didn't believe that I brewed it. Before I go on, it was a recipe by peas_and_corn, so thanks mate, not gonna take the accolades and neither should I. The recipe is as follows:

Morgan's Wheat Beer kit
500g light dry malt extract
1kg honey (make sure it's processed, as pure honey will have pollens that will mess it up- I use bilo brand honey- good as any, really)

Whilst I can drink it and it tastes great, it probably just a tiiiiny bit on the sweet side for me and I was wondering if someone could suggest some bittering hops to throw in, just something to slightly take the edge off the sweetness. Really don't need any more flavour or aroma.......or maybe I do, can anyone advise?

I have 10g of Hallertau and about 20g of Golden Cluster in the fridge from previous brews. Can anyone recommend if these would be any good in this brew and at what point, or perhaps something else?

Thanking you in anticipation of your replies and although a little late, all the best for the New Year.

 

[blackbock]

Morgan's Wheat Beer kit

Whilst I can drink it and it tastes great, it probably just a tiiiiny bit on the sweet side for me and I was wondering if someone could suggest some bittering hops to throw in, just something to slightly take the edge off the sweetness. Really don't need any more flavour or aroma.......or maybe I do, can anyone advise?

I have 10g of Hallertau and about 20g of Golden Cluster in the fridge from previous brews. Can anyone recommend if these would be any good in this brew and at what point, or perhaps something else?

Hallertau is fine with a wheat. I probably wouldn't use the Cluster. Wheat Beer is not usually bitter though

 

[Flippo]

It's certainly not a wheat beery taste, it's very much like Beez Neez but a little sweeter, so I thought I'd try and balance it out a bit with some hops. I'll need to do some more hops research I think

 

[DJR]

You'll probably need something clean, 10g of Hallertau might not be enough, try to find some clean high-alpha hops like Simcoe, Amarillo, Northern Brewer, Magnum, Taurus, NZ Super Alpha if you just want some nice clean background bitterness. You could also try to find some isohop as you can play around with the amounts, it's a concentrated bitterness solution that you can add slowly after testing the dilution with a glass of beer and working out how much to add to the whole batch.

 

[pint of lager]

Use 30 gms of hallertauer. This is one of my favourite hops and great for your honey wheat beer style.

Boil 200 gms of your malt in 2 -3 litres of water.

When it is boiling, add 10 gms of hops, simmer for 15 minutes.
After the 15 minutes is up, add another 10gms of hops.
Simmer for 15 minutes.
Add the last 10 gms.
Simmer for 1 minute.
Put lid on saucepan.
Turn off heat.
Chill.
Add to fermenter with the rest of your ingredients. Strain the hops out as you pour it into the fermenter.

Watch out, when you add the hops, it may go beserk and boil over, be ready.

This is a great way to get some hop flavours going in your beers.
So many kits are lacking hop flavours. With the above method, you can use specialty grains too. Will really pick your beers up. Once you have mastered temperature control and sanitation, getting some more hops and malt into your brews is the next step.

Do make sure that you understand hops and alpha acid ratings. If you used 10 gms of cluster, Pride of Ringwood or other high alpha acid rating, 10 gms for 30 minute boil will add alot of bitterness.

Check the ingredients of Bi-Lo honey. Many of the generics are blended, boiled and have extra glucose added, rendering them bland. Do yourself a favour and seek out better honeys.

 

[bconnery]

You can easily use non-processed honey.

I've used orange blossom, leatherwood and macadamia with no ill effects.

I've always steered clear of bush honey because of things I'd read but I'm pretty certain people here have used it OK.

Hop choice - Hallertau is an excellent wheat beer hop. I've also used Centenial with nice results although it was quite bitter for a wheat.

 

[Coodgee]

if you want to make it less sweet, try to get better attenuation out of your yeast. Here are a couple of tips to achieve maximum attenuation:

1. Throw away the kit yeast and buy some more attenuative yeast. US-56 is a VERY popular dried yeast and is a very good attenuater. Nottingham is also good.

2. make sure you aerate your wort heaps before you pitch your yeast. stir till you can stir no more!

3. Keep the temp of the wort as stable as possible. don't let it get too cold!

4. If you want make the effort, a starter will ensure good attenuation. search the forum for help on making a starter.