PoR hop tea question

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Lachlan Helbig

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Hey fellas,

Planning in brewing a lager with a Morgans Blue Mountian Lager kit and a can of morgans extra pale master malt. As well as this, I'm steeping about 300g of Carapils and using Morgans premium lager yeast.

Now I've seen that people often use hop teas with this kit, and I'd like to add some aroma but I only have some Pride of Ringwood to use. I've seen some mixed feelings about this hop, especially when it comes to using it for aroma purposes. Should I omit the hop tea or just do it anyway? Any advice/past experiences are appreciated! Cheers! :cheers:
 
I know quite a few members use POR as a later hop and not just as a bittering addition. I like POR myself and it puzzles me that it has a bad reputation. I think part of that could be because earlier on in the Home Brew Universe in Australia it was really the only widely available hop from home brew shops until the craft got bigger and they started importing overseas hops. A lot of POR sold over the counter would have been stale, heat affected and just kept on LHBS shelves. I remember back in the 1970s it was often really cheesy but apart from hop essences it was all we had. The modern fresh green stuff is light years ahead.

Personally rather than "hop tea" I'd boil it in a litre of wort for about 20 mins then cool and pour it into the FV.
 
Easy answer is to try making a hopped tea or small amount of hopped wort and taste it. Is it a character you like? While I don't think it lends itself to large, late or dry hopping, aipa style, the flavour in the right amount, right beer, when fresh is as good as any other hop (taking preference into account obviously).
 
Hmmm thanks for the advice Bribie and manticle. I think I'll try the litre of wort with a 20 minute addition. The PoR I got is vacuum sealed so freshness shouldn't be a concern.

I guess the main thing is that this is for a camping trip with a couple of my mates in January, one almost exclusively drinks megaswill (tooheys) and the other likes most craft beers but also likes megaswill. I asked them what they'd like and the mate who likes craft said I should have a bit of hopiness in it, so I figured PoR was a good compromise. I had Mosaic and still have Chinook but using those would be an awful waste.

I'll report back fellas, just gotta wait till the IPA isn't occupying the brew fridge [I live in a single bedroom with my girlfriend with an ensuite and I use it as a brewery (uni student)].
 
If you're going camping with mates, just focus on well made beer. Context means a lot and if the beer is clean, has some flavour and is free to mates sitting round a fire with other mates, complaining would be bad behaviour.
 
Yup, if it's for public consumption, go light on the hops. When I lived in Cardiff, Wales I also brewed in the ensuite with the boiler sitting on the dunny seat - the bathroom had an old fashioned sash window so I always got a good plume of steam billowing out into the frosty air. haha.
 
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