Quick Hop Question

[pokolbinguy]

G'day all,

im just about to start a rogers' replica Kit and being a newbie to brewing have a quick question about adding taste hops.

do i boil the hops for ten minutes then strain and add the solids (into a hop bag).... or do i boil it in a certain amount of water and add the liquid to the ferment?

OR do i just put the dry hops in the hop bag with out boiling and add to the ferment??

i realise this would have been covered many times but i have a few things i need to do and havent got the time to look for it.... got to make sure everything is clean..... so while i await your answer i shall go and clean... cheers folks



Pok

 

[benno1973]

Ultimately, there's three types of contributions that hops makes to beer - bittering, flavour and aroma.

Bittering: Add the hops to the boil for between 60-90 minutes.
Flavour: Add the hops to the boil for between 10 and 25 minutes.
Aroma. Either add the hops just at the end of the boil, or you can 'dry hop' (we'll discuss that later).

A good rolling boil ensures that the hops do their thing. If you're looking to add hops 'taste' to your beer, you're probably after flavour, so boil them for 15 minutes, then strain them out as you're pouring the wort into the fermenter.

If you're after aroma (that beautiful hops smell!) add the hops right at the end of the boil (to be strained out), or you can even throw the hops into the fermenter (which is called dry hopping). If you dry hop, it's common practice to add the hops to the secondary fermenter, not the primary.

Still based on your question, I'd say you're looking for flavour, so throw some hops in to some liquid (are you boiling the kit?) for 10-15 mins, and then strain and add the LIQUID to the ferment...

Hope this helps!!!

 

[Aussie Claret]

You can do a few things :-
1. You could make a hop tea with boiling water (simply cover allow to stew for a few minutes then add.
2. You could boil some of them with a little wort and add to the fermenter, doesn't matter if you leave them in or strain out they will settle to the bottom of the fermenter, if left in may impart a little more flavour.
3. Add to secondary and dry hop (which would give you the most aroma/flavour).

If you do boil them or stew them the longer you do so the more aroma will be driven off, so 5-10 minuted is quite sufficient.

Cheers
AC

 

[pokolbinguy]

thanks alot guys (Kaiser Soze & Aussie Claret) for your response.. here is what i have done..... ive may have gone to far already...eeep... but im sure you guys can help me out.

1. washed everything yada yada
2. did not boil wort... added kit wort to fermenter with fermentables (500g pre-mixed midstrength from local HBS) and 2 ltrs boiling water....
3. Dissolved fermentables in wort
4. topped fermenter to 20 lts
5. pitched yeast when temp leveled to 20 deg

i left the hops in the fridge so i dont stuff them .... should i now boil them (in say 1-2 ltrs of water) and strain liquid into ferment ..... or another method....

thanks alot folks.... and if ive done a complete no-no let me know i want to make sure i get it right....

thanks a mil..

pok

 

[pokolbinguy]

bump

 

[Stuster]

Sounds fine. Just dry hop those hops (what kind are they?). You can do various things but I recommend just chucking them in the fermenter either after fermentation has finished (if primary only) or in secondary if you do that. Leave them for a week. Bottle/keg. Easy. Will add lots of aroma. :super:

 

[pokolbinguy]

i want to add taste...... im using willamette.... 1/2 for taste.... then 1/2 for aroma .... im confident on how to add them for aroma but want to make sure i get maximum taste...

 

[Weizguy]

For the hop flavr, just add the hop in the last 15 min of the boil. Simple as that.

More hops = More flavour, so U can add more next time, if this one is not up to the required level.

Seth

 

[Stuster]

You'll need to boil up the hops with some wort rather than just plain water. If the wort is already fermenting away I wouldn't bother trying to boil up the hops this time. Dry hopping just adds aroma, but this will affect the taste as taste is heavily influenced by your nose (some more so than others of course ). Why not dry hop this time and then next time boil up some as Weizguy suggests?

 

[benno1973]

Will boiling them up in water not impart any hoip flavour? I'd say you'd get some from a 10 minute boil in water, but hey, I've never tried it myself.

Pok, if you're going to try it...
Just get about 2L of water boiling and add the hops to boil for about 10 minutes. Strain it out as best you can (no need to be too pedantic) and then put the liquid in the fermenter. Should do just fine...

 

[James Squire]

Hop utilisation for flavours is no good in water. Has to be wort.

Pok, follow Weizguys advice. Make sure to weigh how much you put in so as to know where to go the next time if you decide it needs more/less/same amount....

Cheers,

JS

EDIT- Just read your brew is in the fermentor already. Forget boiling anything, just dry hop this brew with your Willamette for 5 days in secondary, then next brew you can boil hops with your kit. This way you can see the diff results between dry hopping and boiling too...

 

[Wardhog]

I'm still a kit brewer, but have lately taken to adding hops (gonna have my first go at steeping grains next brew), and what I've found works well for me is to do this:

Boil about 2.5 litres of water for however long you need to boil (bittering ~60min; flavour ~30min; aroma ~5min - about 60 min in total) in a pot, along with about 1/4 of your fermentables - dextrose, dry malt, sugar, etc, but not the can contents - adding hops as required by your plan.
After half an hour of low boil, the water will evaporate down to about 2 litres.

When adding hops to a can-of-goo-brew, don't forget to take into account that the can may already have a certain value of IBU to it already.
For instance, I planned to add 30 IBU of bitterness to a Cooper's Bitter, but didn't realise that the Cooper's Bitter comes out of the can with 20 IBU already - would've been more bitterness than I reckoned on. I wound up adding 10 IBU to the brew for a total of 30.

Once the boiling is done, tip your can of goo and the rest of your fermentables in the fermenter. Strain what you've had boiling (secondhand pellet form hops are just about the most toxic/disgusting looking substance on Earth, and make sure dogs can't get to them when you dump them), and use this hot liquid to dissolve the can goo and your fermentables, top up to 23L or whatever your batch size is with cold water, then continue on.

 

[RobboMC]

What Wardhog says about kit cans coming pre-bittered it spot on. Most I have tried seem to have hop bittterness there Ok, but lack flavour and aroma. For kit plus beginners I wouldn't suggest boiling the hops much past 45 minutes. I stick to about 35-40 minutes to mostly increase flavour and only get a small amount of extra bitterness.

 

[Boozy the clown]

I'm not totally sold that dry hopping only adds aroma.

I dry hopped some hallertau and my tasters comment on the strong yet nice hop presence.

That being said, the sense of smell is a significant factor in what you can taste.

 

[dubzau]

Hop utilisation for flavours is no good in water. Has to be wort.

I could be wrong but I believe that this has to do with pH - and reduced bitterness, not aroma (the latter might be affected too, but I wouldn't say it's "no good").

I regularly make a hop tea, which I add at kegging time. The flavour and aroma contribution is pronounced (not "grassy" like dry-hopping however). I believe that the key is a fairly large volume of water - not just a cup or two, but a couple of litres at least.

 

[eteo]

Hop utilisation for flavours is no good in water. Has to be wort.

I could be wrong but I believe that this has to do with pH - and reduced bitterness, not aroma (the latter might be affected too, but I wouldn't say it's "no good").

I regularly make a hop tea, which I add at kegging time. The flavour and aroma contribution is pronounced (not "grassy" like dry-hopping however). I believe that the key is a fairly large volume of water - not just a cup or two, but a couple of litres at least.

Hi, another newbie here. Would the same go for hop pellets? I intend to make an IPA next and would like to add some hop pellets to the boil for about 30 mins. Do I just add in the hops and how much? I am thinking of 1 oz cascade hops pellets in a Coopers Kit IPA. Thanks.

 

[goatherder]

hey there eteo,

that may not give the effect you are after. it will contribute some bitterness, some flavour but not a lot of aroma.

Tell us a bit more about how you want to brew this beer. What are you adding, are you boiling the entire amount of ingredients or just a part of it? If so, for how long?

 

[eteo]

hey there eteo,

that may not give the effect you are after. it will contribute some bitterness, some flavour but not a lot of aroma.

Tell us a bit more about how you want to brew this beer. What are you adding, are you boiling the entire amount of ingredients or just a part of it? If so, for how long?

Hi Goatherder,

I intend to follow the recipe given by Coopers themselves from their website:

Ingredients

1.7kg Brewmaster IPA
1kg Coopers Light Dry Malt
500g Sugar or Dextrose
Method

Place the Coopers Light Dry Malt into a drained, sanitised fermenter.
Add 2 litres of hot water.
Immediately pick the fermenter up and swirl the contents until dissolved (approx 15 secs).
Mix in the balance of ingredients then top up the fermenter with cool water to the 20litre mark.
Pitch the yeast and seal.


But I intend to boil the ingredients for 1 hour first. Not the whole 5 gallons but a small part of it cos I don't have a large enough pot to boil it in. Perhaps I will boil one gallon and add the cascade hops at the 30 minute mark. Perhaps I should add some more hops for the last 10 minutes for the aroma. Please suggest. If necessary, I will get a larger pot that can fit all the ingredients. I really don't intend to rack the beer as this will only be my second batch. But I am open to any suggestions. Thanks once again.

 

[goatherder]

That's more like it, now we can see what you are up to.

The IPA kit is going to have a fair amount of bitterness in it. You probably don't want to add too much more bitterness. If you are going to boil the hops, probably do 1/2 at 10 minutes and half when you turn the heat off. 1 oz should be about the right amount.

If you are doing a partial boil, only do it with the dry light malt - if you boil the IPA kit you will drive off any hop aroma that is in it. Add the IPA kit and your final water volume to the boiled hop/DME wort after the boil.

Good call on not racking your beer - get a good handle on your santiation and fermentation before attempting this.

 

[Fingerlickin_B]

The IPA kit is going to have a fair amount of bitterness in it.

Not nearly enough.

You probably don't want to add too much more bitterness.

Hell yes, he does :chug:



My suggestion for ramping up this kit:
Add a kit of Malt Shovel Pale Ale in place of all the sugars and do a "hop tea" in the empty cans (helps dissolve the remaining goop at the same time) with boiling water...around 18g of any Fuggles in plug form should be around the right mark.

Yummo! :chug:

PZ.