Hop boil liquid

[Bax]

Now I'm hoping this is an easy question.

I'm a kit brewer, in the past with hop boils I have been boiling in 500g of ldme, to 5L of water.

Is there a reason for doing the boil with the ldme? Could I do the hop boil in plain water instead?

 

[LiquidGold]

From what I've read on these forums what you're doing is correct as you get more out of your hops by boiling them in a 1.040 wort. Someone else can probably explain better but stick to using the ldme.

 

[manticle]

You get more out of your hops, the lower the gravity so theoretically water should give you the most. However it's not actually the sugar content that pushes the utilisation so that may not hold true. It has been empirically observed that hops utilisation in wort decreases with gravity increase.

Anyway the higher the gravity, the less utilisation but 1030-1050 is considered the best compromise between utilisation and smooth flavour. Boiling in water or low gravity wort may pull harsh flavours from the hops.

As a caveat, I will add that I have never tried it and being an AG brewer, I would get nothing from trying. If you are curious, try two brews the same but with hops in water in one brew and malt to 1040 in another.

Other good reason is you get a chance to dissolve and sanitise your extract.

 

[mrsupraboy]

So I've just read this. And if I understand this correctly its better to do hops when boiling in a bit of wort instead of water

 

[verysupple]

So I've just read this. And if I understand this correctly its better to do hops when boiling in a bit of wort instead of water

Yep, you've understood manticle's explanation correctly.

 

[mrsupraboy]

So if Ur doing a kit and adding hops would I make the 23 litres of kit then take some out and do the hops the re put it back in

 

[pat86]

Depending on your recipe, if you are making kits it would be much easier to do say a 4-8L boil with just the DME addition made to 1030-1050 or use the steeping liquor if you are using some crystal. I tend to add some or all of my DME to the steep liquor. Get the volume right and then carry on with hop boil.

If you are just using a can, it would be trickier

 

[Bax]

Thanks everyone, in the end I think I added my full cans of goop into the 5L of water, completely spaced on the fact that I'm adding an additional 2L or so into the pot, so I stirred it through until it was dissolved, then shifted that 2L or so back out of the pot into another container.

Did my boil, did my hops, re-added the additional goop/water mixture into the freshly boiled wort before chilling a little and adding into the fermenter. Cold crashing today, everything looks like it has gone swimmingly.