Hop Hog Extract Recipe

[void]

You don't want to boil the grain bag, it will introduce bitterness. You want to:

1) Steep the grain bag in around 70 deg water. An easy method to get close to this temp is to add one part cold water to two parts boiling - I'd aim for at least 5 litres if you're doing a 60 min boil. Steep your grains for 30 mins, then let all the liquid drain out of the bag into your pot (I squeeze it to get the most out).

1a) If you want to take it a step further, you can pour extra water over the bag to rinse the remaining liquid out - this is called sparging. It helps to place the bag in a sieve sitting over your pot.

2) Bring your wort gravity up to about 1.040 to get the most out of your hops. Do this by adding 100g of your dry malt extract (DME) per 1 litre of liquid, so if you have 5 litres, add 500g.

3) Bring the wort to the boil. This will kill off any nasties that were in the grain.

4) Start your hop boil - some people use hop bags, others like myself just chuck them in the pot. Same with dry-hopping - straight into the fermenter.

The hop pellets will break up in the boil almost immediately. Once in your fermenter they'll settle to the bottom with the rest of the trub. At worst, your first gravity reading will have some solid particles that floated into your tap, but by the time you're ready to bottle/keg it'll be clear. I wouldn't bother with a sieve.

If you're after ultra-clear beer, there are a bunch of techniques you can use such as fining agents, secondary fermentation, cold-crashing etc. I'd worry more about getting the basics down first though. Keep it simple for now, there's always the next brew to try a new technique.

 

[clauddr]

Thanks gents...went out and bought a bunch of muslin bags but screw it, I'll just pop them straight in.

Holy crap, I miss read the instructions...I was going to boil the grains for 30 min then leave em in there for the rest of the boil - HAHA!

That might've ended badly

I bought a kilo of DME and was thinking of just chucking the lot in with 7L water (as opposed to the 100g:1kg ratio) - Will this effect the taste?

 

[void]

No, 1kg DME in 7L will be fine for the hop boil - your gravity will be around 1.050 which is fine. As for the extra malt, you're only going 300g above the recipe - the difference will be barely noticeable. These are best practices rather than hard-and-fast rules. You could screw up the measurements completely and still end up with a great beer - especially with those ingredients.

 

[clauddr]

Guys, a quick update:
Firstly, that cook took like 3,5 hrs. Longer than expected but it was f'ing exhilarating!
I think I nailed most of the measurements and timing, I just measured out the total amount for each hop and eye-balled them as I went through the boil.
MAN, I LOVE GALAXY HOPS! Citra's pretty nice too...I can't wait

All went flawlessly until, like a tool I used the wrong plastic spoon (which was sitting on the counter waiting to serve the lasagne in the oven!) to stir my wort in the FV. Luckily, the spoon was clean but it wasn't sterilised so I did panic a bit.

Then, the next day I panicked a little more because I had a look in the FV and there didn't seem to be any activity - with cans I'm used to seeing loads of foam within 8 hrs. But, I checked again this morning and CRISIS AVERTED, there was a sh*t load (official unit measure) of foam on the top...woohoo!

Loads of fun...I cant wait to do it again!

 

[void]

Good stuff. You'll get that time down after a few more brews. I brew with a mate and we can fill two fermenters in about 3 hours - and we've only done 13 brews so far.

Now you can start experimenting with different spec malts, different hop varieties and combinations, different yeasts...

How good did your kitchen smell?

 

[clauddr]

The whole house smelt amazing...although my pregnant wife wasn't much impressed:-/

Yeah, I can't wait to get into sampling different malt and hop variants...there're so many options and combinations out there, it's incredible!

I'm thinking of whipping up a Hoegaarden clone next which is my Mrs favourite after Hop Hog (for after the baby comes of course!) - Any ideas on a good recipe?
From what I've seen I need to include orange zest and coriander seeds, yet another thing I can tick off the how-to list!

 

[void]

Haven't done a wheat beer yet, but we use amounts of dry wheat extract regularly, and have done a Saison and a few Belgians (a tripel and a Rochefort 10 clone). The Rochefort 10 clone used coriander seeds, and in the Saison we used coriander seeds, cardamom pods and lemon peel. Roast the seeds in a dry pan, then throw them along with the peel into the hop boil for the last 10 minutes. Easy.

The Saison probably needs several months to age for the lemon & cardamom to mellow out - they're a bit too present at the moment, although it's a really interesting beer.

If you're interested in cloning well-known beers, I'd recommend this book (a bit US-centric, but still has a lot of international beers). Hoegaarden is in there.

http://www.amazon.com/Beer-Captured-Tess-Szamatulski/dp/0970344252

The Rochefort 10 clone we did came from there, and it is incredible. Hard to believe we brewed it.

Either way, google "Hoegaarden extract clone" and you'll find plenty of recipes - some probably straight from that book.

 

[burrster]

Hi Guys. I'm loving my first version of the Hop Hog Clone, and with the new information acquired since the first, I put down my second version today. Ingredients went as follows

1.5kg Breiss munich
1.5kg Coopers Wheat
700g light DME (used in boil)
300g Dextrose ( to up the ABV)
250g Caramalt Grain
US 05 yeast

Hop schedule:

8L boil with all 700g of light DME
7g simcoe @ 60 minutes ( Was originally going to use Magnum but never bought any when getting my ingredients)
15g galaxy centennial and simcoe @ 10 minutes
20g citra and amarillo @ 10 minutes

I will dry hop with 15g each of amarillo simcoe centennial and cascade

Final volume : 24L
IBU 46.9
EBC 10.6 (not allowing for the darkness of the Breiss extract)
OG 1.056
Estimated FG 1.013
estimated ABV 5.9%


I used the Breiss munich just because I'm loving it at the moment, and I kept Galaxy in because I'm loving that too( despite it not being in the official Hop Hog according to current information)
Hopefully this turns out better than the first. As you can see I've tried to match the IBU and ABV values this time, as opposed to my previous version, which came in at 41 IBU and 4.6% ABV

Quick question though What level of carbonation are people aiming for? I( using Ian's spread sheet) went for 2.4 Vol CO2. is this about right or should I be aiming lower?

 

[menoetes]

I generally aim for 2.4 vols of CO2 in most of my brews but I mainly make pales, faux lagers and bitters. American pales can go as high as 2.8 but I don't think you would want to go much higher than that for such a full flavoured beer. Too much carbonation can detract from that awesome hoppy flavour.

That munich malt looks good, you enjoying that malty richness with a hint of biscuit? You've almost got more of an english style IPA with that addition than an American Pale ale (if you wanted to be a stickler about it).

Either way your hop schedual looks amazing and I'm drooling a little just looking at it.

My first batch of hop hog clone is down to the last two bottles, they do disappear fast. I'll have to get another one on soon...

 

[mmcenall]

Ok after much impatient waiting finally cracked my first HH attempt over the weekend.

I ended up going with

1 coopers light tin
1 coopers wheat tin
1kg of light dry malt
250g crystal grain
US-05 yeast

10g amarillo @ 60min

20g centennial @ 10min
20g citra @ 10min
10g amarillo @ 10min

20g centennial @ 5min
20g citra @ 5min
10g amarillo @ 5min
20g simcoe @ 5min

Dry hopped on day 8 with
15g citra
15g simcoe
15g centennial

OG = 1.061
FG = 1.014 (note these reading were done on different hydrometers as i had a bit of an accident and learnt that hydrometers dont bounce)
ABV = 6.2%

Now the important stuff

Hop hog on the left and mine on the right

First appearance and they were very similar in colour. Mine is a little cloudy but looks very clear in the bottle so i will have to be a bit more careful when pouring

Aroma is where the main difference is. When you have that first smell of a hop hog you get that nice full aroma of fruit and citrus were as mine was lacking that with a much more resin smell.

Flavour. With so many hops in there i was struggling to decipher every flavour but I think i managed to get that resin flavor with the addition of the simcoe but it was lacking a little bit of the fruit and citrus flavors of the hop hog.

Overall i am very happy with it and overall it is a delicious beer that went down very well and i cant wait giving another crack again with a few minor changes to get that fruity/citrus flavour.

 

[clauddr]

Guys, my brew is going strong but I have a small concern.

The room the FV sits in is pretty cold, I've wrapped the FV in a blanket and the wort temp is constant at about 16deg...is this temp ok?

My LCPA clone fermented at a similar temp and came out really well but that was a simple K&K brew (dunno if it makes a difference)

C

 

[menoetes]

16'c is fine. It might take a bit longer to ferment but you shouldn't be getting any off flavours from the yeast at those lower temperatures. I wouldn't let it get any lower though, if your yeasties get too cold then the fermentation might stall or stop altogether...

 

[Major Arcana]

Hey Fellas,

I whipped up a batch of this on Sunday i do love a good Hop Hog, and tried out the recipe Wilson posted on post #30 in this thread, everything went to plan except the OG finished at 1.056, i ran it again through Ians spreadsheet and looks like it should end up quite nice,Going to Dry Hop on the 8-10 day fingers crossed. I will let you know how she turns out.

Cheers

Dan

 

[clauddr]

Ok, just dry hopped and decided to drop in 20g of each - Galaxy, Citra and Cascades...

...as I was doing it the realisation hit me...F*CK, I still have another 6 days before bottling & another 2 weeks before I can try it! Arrrgggghhhh!

(Oh who am I kidding, first test will be a week in!)

 

[SBOB]

How large a pot would i need to do this recipe? Looking at first 'non-kit' brew

 

[burrster]

How large a pot would i need to do this recipe? Looking at first 'non-kit' brew

Depends on your boil size, but I use a 12L pot which allows me to easily do 8L boils and 10L boils if I want. I would probably do a minimum 6L boil in an 8L pot or bigger if you can.

 

[SBOB]

Depends on your boil size, but I use a 12L pot which allows me to easily do 8L boils and 10L boils if I want. I would probably do a minimum 6L boil in an 8L pot or bigger if you can.

Thanks...
I have a 10L pot sitting around and thought I could do something like this recipe while I'm planning my move to AG...

 

[Major Arcana]

Just Dry Hopped last night (day 8) with 20g of centennial and 20g of citra, did a hydro reading aswell and all is looking well, had a taste. Fuckn hell that **** is awesome totally blown away by this. :lol: :lol: :icon_drool2:

 

[SBOB]

Planning on doing this on the weekend as my first extract brew... using Ian;s spreadsheet and a limit of the 10L pot i have (so about 8L boil volume) comes up with the following... Can someone tell me if I have anything wrong?

INGREDIENTS
1.5kg Light Malt LME
1.5kg Wheat Malt LME
1kg Light DME
150g Light Crystal grains for steeping
60g Centennial
60g Citra
30g Galaxy
US-05 Yeast

METHOD
1. Steep cracked Medium Crystal Grain for 30mins in 2.5L of 65-70C water (Ian spreadsheet says minimum of 2.4L)
2. Drain grains and rinse with 2.5L of 65-70C water (Ian spreadsheet says minimum 2.5L )
3. Liquid from steeping and rinse in pot and top up to 8L with ~500g DME. Bring to boil and take sample.. Cool sample and hope its about 1.040 (Ian spreadsheet says around 469 DME or 571 LME for 8 litre boil volume
4. Hop based on previously mentioned 60/10/5 min schedule, with weights adjusted slightly from Ian spreadsheet to hit ~40IBU
5. Let it cool, dump into fermenter with remaining LME/DME and water to ~21L
6. Pitch yeast when its at temp and etc etc as per usual


Have i missed anything or made any glaring mistakes?

 

[void]

No, looks good SBOB. I'd use 800g DME to get 8L to 1.040. 100g per litre is the guide I use. Wouldn't bother taking a grav sample either - just go straight into the boil. It doesn't need to be exactly 1.040.