hops in kit beers

[butisitart]

i just loaded some hops into a kit for the first time -
i'm a newbie, and i've been doing 3 of the same kit, then juggling this or that a little, to get a feel for what different malt, dextrose etc does to the brew. so now i've just tasted my first (3 week old) brew with a hop add.
so....
i steeped a lousy 8 gm of hops (not important what into what, but it were cascade hops into ipa kit). and it lifted the beer unbelievably well.
so my theory is - a tiny dose of hops is going to lift a kit beer, regardless of hop variety - (personal taste of hop varieties will come into play here). and i imagine you could run 3 batches of the same kit with 3 different minimal doses of hops and get some great subtle variations, and from there, develop your favourite flavours.
i'm now pretty excited about working through different hops at around 8gm per batch to see which ones i like. i found that the 8gm on the first try gave a pleasant subtle flavour without dominating everything else.

anybody actually been down this road with interesting findings????

 

[Yob]

Totes... Look what happened to me

 

[Yob]

My favourite was the coopers pale as a base, can be tuned into a really decent beer with not too much effort, in fact SWMBO still gets me to do one every so often, the kit works well with too many hops to mention, be careful mixing noble hops though, I had some shockers among my winners.

 

[dicko]

I would also avoid POR as a late addition. These can become quite harsh.

 

[menoetes]

Hops are both amazing and somewhat dangerous. They add so much to a simple beer kit that it seems totally transformed, however after starting down the road to becoming a hop-head my missus is getting a bit annoyed at the state of our little freezer. It is full of different hops.

That's where they can be dangerous, they get you in trouble... h34r:

 

[rheffera]

I would also avoid POR as a late addition. These can become quite harsh.

Ack i know this too well.

 

[butisitart]

let me see - try some coopers pale for a base, swap the wife for an industrial freezer, and be a bit selective - plenty to try without the POR. Sweet!

 

[indica86]

It is full of different hops.

Ahh yes, especially with that annoying prick Yob who has specials.
1.3 kg in my freezer.

Get bigger packs and do a small boil + dry hop - then you are stuffed.
Welcome.

Don't buy 8 g packs, but an

 

[pat86]

Yeah, even if you want to test out hops I think you should be buying 100g packs, pretty soon 8g will not be enough for you.

On that thought Yob, why don't you start offering Hop tester packs with say 50g of 4 or 5 different hops for people to experiment with? I reckon that would be a winner!





...And I only want a 10% commission (paid in hops) :drinks:

 

[Pilchard]

As above... I can't try them all without a try the highs try the lows hops kit, maybe a bittering kit and a nose kit, you just can't mix em up too much or you'll get mud? Maybe something with recommendation that will give a 2 week between brewer something to play with. Test em all out and find the one you really like. You can always just start at one and work your way through but some recipes for the said hops might be nice although recipes are there for those who look. Can't fault marks pages...

 

[Yob]

On that thought Yob, why don't you start offering Hop tester packs with say 50g of 4 or 5 different hops for people to experiment with?

The main reason I've not done something like that is time, it's a significant amount of time investment to maintain a 'packaging line' which funnily enough gets larger the smaller the package, then there is also storage and being able to access it easily which believe me, is not as easy as it sounds.. If I bought another freezer, SWMBO would not be best pleased

Re kits and experimentation. One of the main reasons I loved the coopers pale kit was that it only has a bittering addition leaving it wide open to add flavour and aroma to.

Cheers

 

[flano]

i just loaded some hops into a kit for the first time -
i'm a newbie, and i've been doing 3 of the same kit, then juggling this or that a little, to get a feel for what different malt, dextrose etc does to the brew. so now i've just tasted my first (3 week old) brew with a hop add.
so....
i steeped a lousy 8 gm of hops (not important what into what, but it were cascade hops into ipa kit). and it lifted the beer unbelievably well.
so my theory is - a tiny dose of hops is going to lift a kit beer, regardless of hop variety - (personal taste of hop varieties will come into play here). and i imagine you could run 3 batches of the same kit with 3 different minimal doses of hops and get some great subtle variations, and from there, develop your favourite flavours.
i'm now pretty excited about working through different hops at around 8gm per batch to see which ones i like. i found that the 8gm on the first try gave a pleasant subtle flavour without dominating everything else.

anybody actually been down this road with interesting findings????

hi mate,
I have been brewing for a few years now doing all grain stuff.
But I recently did a coopers real ale that was on special in the supermarket.
I boiled (from memory). 15 grms of Cascade for 15 mins with 1 kg dex and 500 LDME .
Then I dry hopped a further 15 grms of cascade ( straight into the fermenter) on about day 4 of the ferment.
I kegged it yesterday and it was pretty full on when I had a sample. Massive hop hit.
It is almost an IPA...I quite like IPA's though.
In the past I have had no success with the kits. This one however is not too bad. No shitty kit twang
I will give it a fortnight in the keg in the fridge before I crack it and see how it is.

So this probably hasn't helped at all .

 

[butisitart]

yep - probably hasn't helped at all :beer:

although i notice i keep getting steered towards coopers - but haven't brewed any yet.
done morgans, muntons, mangrove jack - i'll drink anything that starts with the letter 'm'.

moopers?? ok - next big challenge is to give it a whirl on the coopers. actually - my next kit will be a stout, so coopers it is, followed by maybe yob's pale ale.
and i've got 3 weeks off to watch the world cup, so that's when i'll start learning the grain mashes. cheers