New Kid On The Hop(s)

[birusuki]

Hi all, just signed up from the land of the rising sun (Tottori city, Japan)

I used to brew a bit back in my younger days so I`m no stranger to brewing. simple that is
right out of the can. bottles and kegs.

Well I got the urge to brew again, as I drink stuff called happoshu over here which is not real
beer, although very close. they changed the way its brewed and so its not classed as beer and is taxed
half that as beer. = real beer expensive. Happoshu cheap.

So I found a coopers home brew kit, comes with lager, on the net here,
getting that, and they threw in coopers enhancer 2.

So I have some questions as a simple way to enhance it. While I cant get everything
you guys can I found an online shop here that has a bit.http://www.sakeland.net/?mode=cate&cbid=115959&csid=0

So I want to get some hops, and try to make my come back brew special.
the hops they have

Morgans tea bag pack thingys

pride of ringwwod, cluster, goldings, hersbrucker, mb89, tettnanger, cascade.

in pellets
http://www.sakeland.net/?mode=cate&cbi...5959&csid=4

the translator doesnt do a great job on that page
but maybe its,

saaz, cascade, liberty and some others I could only take a guess at.
the alpha acid is quoted and they vary quite a lot. high means more bitterness right?
what do you recommend for lager?

yeast is the other thing of concern. I read that usually ale yeast is provided with kits even if its lager? true/ false.
should I buy some different yeast?
http://www.sakeland.net/?mode=cate&cbi...3286&csid=1 yeast page more or less easy to read.

and lastly what do you think of these kits,
http://www.sakeland.net/?pid=6900289
they have several of these. They come with as far as I can tell
Yale East S-04Recipes, manuals , kits can , Morutoekisu?? dont know what this is ,
Sugar (for priming ) , hop + Bag , Irish moss

How about malt for the lager? yes/no.

I just want a simple recipe, if anyone has the time that would be sweet.
I just signed up lastnight, havnt had time to do a lot of reading though but
I can see there is a wealth of info here. Really looking forward to more reading.
I can basically only use the net at work, while the cats away.

thanks everyone.

 

[sinkas]

Hi there and Welcome,
I think alot of Jap brewers buy thier hops from craftbrewer, as seen at the top of the page shipping isnt all that expensive and you get good prices

 

[manticle]

Hi all, just signed up from the land of the rising sun (Tottori city, Japan)

....
thanks everyone.

Saaz, hersbrucker and tettnanger will give you a euro lager type flavour. Saaz is common in most commercial varieties but the others are great hops (personally love tett). Pride of ringwood will give you an Australian lager type flavour. Higher aa does mean more bitterness but that also relates to how long the hops are boiled for. Your kit will be pre-bittered so you will probably be looking at adding flavour and aroma. Pellets will generally give better value for money than teabags and are often fresher, depending on storage.

Yeast is the next important thing. As you suggest - most basic kits (not all) come with either lager/ale hybrid or ale yeast. Ale yeast tolerates higher temperatures and a beginner brewer trying to keep to lager temps (~7-12 degrees C) will struggle. If you don't have temperature control, try using Fermentis safale US05. It's an ale yeast but clean and at low temperatures can give a similar profile to a basic lager yeast. A lager yeast at high temps will taste less like a lager than an clean ale yeast at low temps. Aim for 16 if you can but up to 20 is fine. Above 20 will work but you might start getting unwelcome flavours.

Malt is a good addition to a kit but don't be afraid of sugar either. Just don't use loads. I'd go with 1 kg dried malt and 250g dextrose.

To use the hops just get a ratio of 100g of the malt to 1 litre of water, bring to the boil and add in some of the hop pellets. Boil for 5 - 10 minutes. This will add a tiny bit of bitterness and you will get some hop flavour that will be missing from the kit. Personally I would dissolve all your malt in boiling water (try whisking it if it looks too clumpy) so if you can do a 10 L boil that's great. If you don't have the pot or the space, do it in batches.

Let the whole brew cool to around the temperature you want to ferment at (eg 20). Try not to pitch at 28 just because the tin tells you to.

Irish moss is unnecessary for this brew.

If you end up getting dextrose, use that for priming.

 

[birusuki]

Sinkas, thanks for the tip about craftbrewer. I`ll keep them in mind for my next brew. I have acouple of days off next week
so I want to use that time to get the brew down.

Manticle, thanks for the advise.

I dont seem to bea able to find dextrose, must use a different name?? Everytime I search for it
I keep getting grape suger, thats not dextrose is it.

Anyway I`ve decided to hold off on the lager that came with the kit, and go with a pilsner
as the weather is still a little warm here. When It cools down I`ll do the lager.

Just a quick question though Manticle you said "Malt is a good addition to a kit but don't be afraid of sugar either"
does that mean sugar instead of malt?

So If I have it right, Manticle your advise to enhance my lager is

Hopps (about 12gms??)
Malt or sugar. or malt and sugar
dextrose.

is that about right.

I can get 500gm bags of died malt would that be enough?
And is there an alternative to dextrose? I read on this site that dextrose will increase the AA but not affect the taste or anything
so If I leave it out and just go for Hopps and malt would that do?
Also I have coopers enhancer 2, would this be best left out if using above recipe?

this is the kit I`m going to use first it malt extract, yeast, hopps and grape sugar. Says to be brewed between 14-24dec.

 

[manticle]

500g of dried malt will give a very low ABV if you don't add in extra fermentable.

By sugar I mean something like dextrose (also known as glucose) or sucrose. Technically malt is a sugar too. No idea what grape sugar is - can you find out? Might be fine.

A Pilsner is a type of lager so same thing applies - clean, crisp and fermented cool is better - especially if you do use a true lager yeast.

A bit of sugar to baance out the malt is a good thing - all malt extract beers can be a bit cloying - sugar will help balance, help attenuate (means the yeast eats through more of the fermentable) and help give a bit of dryness on the palate. Too much can make things taste a bit thin.

There is some debate as to whether a whole lot of table sugar can stress yeast and cause green apple flavours which is why dextrose is often used but a small portion of cane sugar/table sugar is fine in my experience.

I'd buy 2 x 500g packs of malt and add in 250g of normal cane sugar.

Boil the hops for at least 5 minutes in some of the malt and water (say 5 litres and 1 pack)

 

[earle]

Sometimes dextrose is also sold as corn sugar.

 

[manticle]

But shouldn't be confused with corn syrup (known also as maltodextrin and not very fermentable).
OT but I've been meaning to comment on your avatar for some time Earle. How often have we all felt like that?

 

[birusuki]

every source and english/japanese dictionary I have used this morning says dextrose = grape sugar and corn sugar is also on that site.
Sweet, That means pretty well everything I need is here.

so pilsner should be brewed the same as lager, that site said up to 24dec?? just looked my mistake. supplied with ale yeast, lager yeast is an option
if you want to brew at the cooler temp.

That said, two choices, 1) pilsner kit with ale yeast /buy Fermentis safale US05 that manticle suggested
2) they have the same kit but with nut brown ale. the yeast supplied is ale yeast s-04

cheers all.

 

[manticle]

Depends entirely on what you want to brew - a pilsner or a brown ale. Hops should probably differ for brown ale too.

Even though the instructions say 24, don't go that high with an ale yeast. Very few yeasts benefit from those kinds of temps (saison yeasts are one of the few exceptions). It's not that it won't work - it will and very quickly. It's just that the yeast will produce unwanted flavours in the resulting brew.

Have you seen this site: http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html ?

Contains a lot of really useful, easy to follow information for beginer brewers and much more advanced brewing. Bit of a bible in many ways.

 

[birusuki]

500g of dried malt will give a very low ABV if you don't add in extra fermentable.

I'd buy 2 x 500g packs of malt and add in 250g of normal cane sugar.

So with the 1kg of malt and 250g of sugar, that is used instead of brewing sugar (1kg) that came with the kit?
or on top of that? just for clarification.
then no need for coopers brew enhanver either?
thanks again

I`ll go there now. boss is out.

 

[manticle]

That would be in place of but what is in the brewing sugar? Probably contains a good amount of dextrose already and maybe some maltodextrin which will give body.

Coopers brew enhancers are similar. There are 2 types. What do you actually have on hand at the moment?

 

[earle]

But shouldn't be confused with corn syrup (known also as maltodextrin and not very fermentable).

Good point about sugar/syrup. I've been to some HBS where they don't know the difference.

OT but I've been meaning to comment on your avatar for some time Earle. How often have we all felt like that?

Yep good old Black Books
Bernard: I went to the chemist to get some Fizzy-Good.
Fran: Some what?
Bernard: You know, some Fizzy-Good, Fizzy-Good-Make-Feel-Nice.
Fran: Oh, Alka-Seltzer.

 

[manticle]

Who are you? Have I joined a cult?

 

[earle]

Well, I didn't ask for the job of insulting you. In another life, we could have been brothers. Running a small, quirky taverna in Sicily. Maybe we would have married the local twins instead of wasting each other's time here in this dump. But it was not to be. So hop it.

Sorry Monchan

 

[birusuki]

That would be in place of but what is in the brewing sugar? Probably contains a good amount of dextrose already and maybe some maltodextrin which will give body.

Coopers brew enhancers are similar. There are 2 types. What do you actually have on hand at the moment?

on hand at the moment,

I bought a coopers starter kit,
lager , coopers brewing sugar 1kg, coopers enhancer 2 1kg.
I just thought I`d find a quick way to make a bit better than
right out of the can.