New To Brew

[Pennywise]

Just wondering, will I have enough fermentables in my planned brew? (Coopers Pale Ale Can, 500g LDM, 250g Dex, 250g Corn Syrup)

Any idea on approximate ABV% from this?

According to this calc http://www.liquorcraft.com.au/wa.asp?idWeb...p;idDetails=107 if you make it to 23 ltrs it'll end up 4.4%

 

[QIK86]

Where was the slice of lime in the cerveza?

I actually tried it with a slice of lemon in the jug last night. Was quite nice and refreshing after a long session of cleaning and sanitising bottles.

According to this calc http://www.liquorcraft.com.au/wa.asp?idWeb...p;idDetails=107 if you make it to 23 ltrs it'll end up 4.4%

Thanks heaps for that. That calculator is a very handy bit of gear.

 

[QIK86]

Thanks once again butters. I'm sure that calculator will cop a flogging over the next few brews.

As for the marks on the fermenter, I hadn't even considered the possibility. I'm probably putting down a brew tonight so I'll check it first.

 

[QIK86]

Ok, couple of quick questions..

First one is straight forward.. What is the correct dilution rate for Neopink?

Now, if I do the short boil with the Cascade bag as butters suggested and add that at the start, would it be worth then also dry hopping a second Cascade bag after fermentation has slowed? Would this be too much?

Sorry to go on, but this is my first try at using hops and don't want to completely overpower it.

By the way, 23 litres in my fermenter shows as 21.5 litres going by the marks.. Thanks for the tip!

 

[buttersd70]

Cant help you with the neopink question, have never used the stuff.
As to whether you should dry hop as well as the boil....well, this one is purely a matter of taste. Theres no straight answer on it, I'm afraid. There are 2 types of beerlover....hopheads and malt lovers. Personally, I'm a malt lover, so I rarely dry hop at all, cos most of what I brew is based around the malt complexity. (roasting my own grain as I type....love that smell ) I get enough hop flavour and aroma to balance the malt from the boil, and within my taste preference. Other people prefer more hop charcter in their beer. It is still balanced with the malt, its just that the hop flavour is more dominant.

So you need to work out what your own preference is, on this one. My suggestion, however, would be to hold off on dry hopping on this occasion, as it is your first go with hops. Next brew you do, do it the same (assuming this one turns out good ), and if you feel that you can handle more hop flavour and aroma, dry hop it for comparison.

And I thought that 23L of actual volume would end up around the 21L mark . This is why there are so many posts where people say 'my og is lower than expected. why???'. Its cos they think they have 23L in the fermenter, but they actually have closer to 25 :lol:

 

[QIK86]

If I enjoy beers such as LCPA, It'd be a fairly safe bet that I'd enjoy the extra flavour and aroma from dry hopping, correct? (I'll still leave this one as is for a comparison, but just so I know for my next brew.)

Speaking of dry hopping, can anyone recommend a place I might find a stainless steel hop ball to use for this? Craft Brewer don't have any in stock and I haven't seen them in my LHBS. Could I also use one of these for future hop boils to keep things a little tidier than just throwing pellets around?

Anyway, my first hop boil went well. Boiled in the teabag with 1.5 litres of water for 4 minutes, then placed the saucepan into the sink, which I'd filled with cold water. I added some ice to the sink to try and cool it a little quicker, as everything else was taking a little longer than I'd anticipated. (I was too keen to start the boil and forgot to get everything else ready. ) Would the extra time (maybe up to 15/20 mins) spent in the warm water affect the flavour/bitterness at all or is boiling the only way to change the hop flavours given off?

 

[wyatt_girth]

Speaking of dry hopping, can anyone recommend a place I might find a stainless steel hop ball to use for this? Craft Brewer don't have any in stock and I haven't seen them in my LHBS. Could I also use one of these for future hop boils to keep things a little tidier than just throwing pellets around?

try a tea shop.....you know....... that sells tea

 

[buttersd70]

If I enjoy beers such as LCPA, It'd be a fairly safe bet that I'd enjoy the extra flavour and aroma from dry hopping, correct? (I'll still leave this one as is for a comparison, but just so I know for my next brew.)

Speaking of dry hopping, can anyone recommend a place I might find a stainless steel hop ball to use for this? Craft Brewer don't have any in stock and I haven't seen them in my LHBS. Could I also use one of these for future hop boils to keep things a little tidier than just throwing pellets around?

Anyway, my first hop boil went well. Boiled in the teabag with 1.5 litres of water for 4 minutes, then placed the saucepan into the sink, which I'd filled with cold water. I added some ice to the sink to try and cool it a little quicker, as everything else was taking a little longer than I'd anticipated. (I was too keen to start the boil and forgot to get everything else ready. ) Would the extra time (maybe up to 15/20 mins) spent in the warm water affect the flavour/bitterness at all or is boiling the only way to change the hop flavours given off?

If you like LCPA, then absolutely go ahead and dry hop. You'll likely not be able to get that much flavour from dry hopping, they use a hopback .
As for the time spent whislt cooling......that one is a can of worms in the whole plate chiller vs immersion chiller debate.
Short, uber-simplified answer is.....don't stress on it. slightly less aroma, perhaps slightly more flavour. With the quantities in use here, quik, its not really worth considering. Particularly if you're going to dry hop as well, which will make any differences between rapid chill/slow chill purely academic.

Good to hear it went off well. :beerbang:

 

[QIK86]

I had no idea such a place existed.. :huh:

I shall keep my eyes peeled.

 

[Bribie G]

Speaking of dry hopping, can anyone recommend a place I might find a stainless steel hop ball to use for this? Craft Brewer don't have any in stock and I haven't seen them in my LHBS. Could I also use one of these for future hop boils to keep things a little tidier than just throwing pellets around?

I used hop teabags with my first six or seven kit brews. Now that some of them are approaching two months they are nicely hoppy. For example a Morgans QLD Bitter with LMDE, Dex and a Cluster teabag has turned out (according to the tasting panel) crisper, cleaner and more refreshing than megaswill such as Toohey's New and VB. I didn't use so much water for the boil, just boiled in a small saucepan.

And here's a tip that I read somewhere: Gently boil the hop teabag until it stops smelling like new mown grass and smells like hops then tip it into the fermenter with the rest of the wort.

Usually about ten minutes. Since then however I realised that I can get 90g of pellets from Craftbrewer for the price of 36g of teabag. So I add aroma hop pellets as dry hops four days into the fermentation.

Doesn't make too much mess but I have taken the 'sediment reduction' inserts out of my taps as that narrow slit can become blocked. I wouldn't be too worried about pellet debris. Some kits like ESB are full of pellets.

 

[buttersd70]

pellets usually sink out, anyway. Usually. But if not, nothing that a good rack can't fix

The only thing about your big purple statement, though is that some hop types do smell grassy, and some people like that in some styles. Depends on the hop type.

 

[T.D.]

If you like LCPA, then absolutely go ahead and dry hop. You'll likely not be able to get that much flavour from dry hopping, they use a hopback .

I beg to differ, you can achieve LCPA levels of hop aroma easily by dry hopping. In fact after brewing several hopburst APAs (and not even dry hopping) I tried a bottle of LCPA and was a little underwheled by the hops. They weren't as "big" as I remembered. A hopback isn't a magic piece of equipment - just one more way of infusing hop flavour and aroma into wort. A large flameout addition will get you very similar results, and dry hopping in my experience gives you even more of a "raw" hop character still.

 

[Bribie G]

A large flameout addition will get you very similar results, and dry hopping in my experience gives you even more of a "raw" hop character still.

Perhaps wandering a bit off topic here but I have just watched the Late Michael Jackson's Beer Hunter series from Discovery Channel and in the British Ales section he visits Bateman's :icon_drool2: Brewery :icon_drool2: in Lincolnshire (In my 20s went on a cycling trip around the UK and it took me three days to get the sixty ks or whatever through Batemans country )

The chief brewer says that dry hopping in the cask gives good results but the hopping at flameout gives more consistent results with extraction of some bitterness as well as aroma (shot of trusty British workman pouring hessian sacks of Golding Flowers straight into steaming copper.)

 

[buttersd70]

I beg to differ, you can achieve LCPA levels of hop aroma easily by dry hopping. In fact after brewing several hopburst APAs (and not even dry hopping) I tried a bottle of LCPA and was a little underwheled by the hops. They weren't as "big" as I remembered. A hopback isn't a magic piece of equipment - just one more way of infusing hop flavour and aroma into wort. A large flameout addition will get you very similar results, and dry hopping in my experience gives you even more of a "raw" hop character still.

My reference was aimed at the level that qik is currently at with his brewing, and the method he is going to be using, as per his post. An experienced brewer, using hopburst, particularly when combined with dry hopping, is able to achieve this, as you say.

My point was, that employing the methods that qik is going to use, his concerns of it being too hoppy are not valid if he likes LCPA.

And bribie, I saw that too.....sack upon sack of lovely golding flowers. Yum!

 

[QIK86]

Hmmm.. I'm now thinking I might throw the other Cascade bag into this brew when fermentation slows down a bit more. Do most people steep it first or just take it out of the foil packet and throw it in dry?

Also, can someone tell me what a hopback is? I understand it's a piece of equipment for infusing hop flavour and aroma into wort, but how does it work?

 

[buttersd70]

Hmmm.. I'm now thinking I might throw the other Cascade bag into this brew when fermentation slows down a bit more. Do most people steep it first or just take it out of the foil packet and throw it in dry?

Also, can someone tell me what a hopback is? I understand it's a piece of equipment for infusing hop flavour and aroma into wort, but how does it work?

for the bags, 6 of 1, 1/2 doz of the other.

A hopback is a tube filled with hops, when wort is run out of the kettle, it goes through the hops then immediately through a plate chiller, which cools it immediately, so the volatile oils are, for want of a better term, trapped. Beerbelly.com.au sells them and has good piccies if u want to see what one looks like. Nice shiny stainless stuff :icon_drool2:

 

[andrewg1978]

pellets usually sink out, anyway. Usually. But if not, nothing that a good rack can't fix

The only thing about your big purple statement, though is that some hop types do smell grassy, and some people like that in some styles. Depends on the hop type.

I have a stainless tea ball that fits 10gms of pallets. I find perfect to dry hop with from day 1 of fermentation.

+ 1 for racking, but I have also not done this and had no issues with floaties in the beer after keging.

 

[buttersd70]

I have a stainless tea ball that fits 10gms of pallets. I find perfect to dry hop with from day 1 of fermentation.

+ 1 for racking, but I have also not done this and had no issues with floaties in the beer after keging.

A lot of people use a hell of a lot more hops than 10g :lol: depends on if you want subtle flavour, or a real kick in the nuts by the hops.
Dry hopping at the start of primary is fine....but again, it is more subtle, as the yeast activity adn co2 production drives off a lot of the volatiles. Not saying don't do it this way, I do myself if I'm after a more subtle and rounded flavour, particularly if it will be drunk green.

 

[wyatt_girth]

I had no idea such a place existed.. :huh:

I shall keep my eyes peeled.

Here's one . Some handy bits and pieces there too. Maybe a call to check what they are made out of.

 

[QIK86]

What scales do people use to measure out such small amounts for things such as hop pellets? Where from/how much, etc? Found myself a big fat tea ball in a kitchen shop too.

Next brew being planned is below (LCPA style):

1.7kg can Morgans Stockmans Draught
1.5 kg of Morgans Extra Pale Malt Extract
15g of Cascade pellets - 15min
10g Cluster pellets - 15 min
Brewcellar American Ale Yeast (Dry)
12g of Chinook Pellets (dry hopped into primary after fermentation slowed)

I'm having trouble finding the Morgans Extra Pale Malt Extract locally, so could I just use Light Malt Extract from my LHBS? He only sells it in 1kg containers, so I'd have to measure out 1.5kg myself. Another option would be to use a 1kg Morgan's Master Blend (which are in stock) and then just 500g of the LHBS Light Malt Extract. Would there be a Master Blend suitable for this style?

Also, would the Cluster pellets really add much to it, or could I just substitute more Cascade instead? Just after some opinions.