Using Hop Pellets

[uniiqueuser]

I need to know from my esteemed fellow brewers a little bit about hop pellets.

I have purchased some POR pellets, two packets of 25gm each.

Are there any recommendations of how many I might add to a 23 litre brew?

I am leaning towards boiling them, if so how long for?

I have read a few things about using pellets. Apparently they are somewhere between 10-15% more concentrated than fresh hops and they tend to leave more sediment.

I am not too concerned about sediment, if I was I would probably give racking a go, and probally will when I am set up a bit better (moving house soon).

No doubt this is a question of personal taste.......

I am more concerned with adding too little to have an effect! I understand there may not be a simple answer, but I would appreciate any guidance that might point me in the right direction.

I recently made my first brew with additives:

Cascade Golden Harvest lager
1kg dextrose
250gm Coopers brewing sugar
15gm 'unknown' fresh hops (suspected to be POR) boiled 90 minutes
Saflager 23 yeast
Start SG 1.036

I have left this alone basically at room (ie shed) temperature at an average of around 13 deg C. for perhaps 3 weeks. I have yet to sample this brew but I think it must be close to bottling- I will check SG sometime this weekend.

The plan is to use the yeast cake for a bigger brew of 200 litres (these 'mega' brews have met with some astonishment and derision from some forum members but I don't give a fat rats a...) with yet more Cascade Golden Harvest lager kits.

Some people have commented that the Cascade kits are crap (I got them for $3.00 each on clearance from Coles) but they can't be any worse than Coles or Safeway (Woolworths) home brand kits which I have made in the past, and consumed every drop, except for the odd burst bottle (perhaps 1 in every 300). I am sure if I find homebrand kits drinkable then the Cascade lager with a few additions should be slightly better.

When I went to my local HBS (ie bongshop) the other day they had Cascade Golden Harvest lager cans priced at $27.00 each. Believe it or not! :huh:

 

[boobiedazzler]

Dont know for sure but fresh cones are probably a lot less efficient to pellets due to moisture content. <br /><br />The rule of thumb - boiling them for longer in your brew - say 60 minutes - will add more bitterness. 20-30 minutes will add less bitterness but more flavour. Adding a tea made from them after you have made your brew will be mostly the lovely aromatics in the plant, and will do nothing for bitterness that's recognisable by your tastebuds. <br /><br />If you are using a can/kit, that's already hopped, so you wouldnet do a 60 minute boil unless you like really bitter beers. It seems like you have already done it, so the proof is in the tasting, you can then adjust for future.

 

[Cube]

In my humble opinion:

Buy hops in larger amounts like minimum 90 grm packs. You are being raped. I now buy in 500 grms minimum.

Adding amounts try 15 grms at 30 minutes, 15 grms at 20 mins and 15 grms at 10 mins.

Sediment - don't worry about it.

Cascade cans are crap and YES, $3 expired or close to cans are like sucking on grandma's fermented poo. Best to boil the shit out of them for 60 mins to rid them off all 'cascadeness' and use it as a malt addition. Better still laugh at it move on and spend the $3 on some fresh and quality malt.

Drop the cascade tin can hope and drop the 200 mega liter ferment wish you have until you have at least produced a half decent 23 liter brew and have temp under control.

I would actually favour the homebrand and coles shit over cascade. In any case - I would boil the kits for 60 mins to rid of the ISO hops etc and start from scratch.

Cheap can kits made as cheap as possible will produce shit beer and even worse no temp control. Think about it - another 10 bucks spent will produce a beer that you would gladly offer to a mate and most importantly really enjoy yourself.

 

[manticle]

Hopefully I won't be accused of offering loudmouthed, bad advice.

First PoR are generally considered a bittering hop. That's not to say no-one has ever tried flavour and aroma hoping with them, it's not to say that some of those brews have never worked and it's not to say that you couldn't try it.

Basically hops are used for bittering, flavouring and aroma in beer. How long you boil them for affects these - long boils (20+ minutes, most often 60, sometimes up to 90 or even120 minutes) will result in bitterness being extracted. As you lessen the boil time you start to extract compounds responsible for flavour and aroma.

Keep in mind the kit will already be bittered. How much you use and how long you boil for depends on what bitterness, flavour and aroma you want to add to the kit. Alpha acid rating is particularly relevant to the bittering. If you boil for (for example) 30 or 20 minutes you will extract both bittering and flavouring compounds although a fairly often used falvour addition time is 20 minutes. 5 minutes will not add much to bittering.

Hops tend to settle out and can be left behind although you can also strain them out after the boil.

As for using the yeast cake - you can probably do it successfully as people have reported good results but to my mind it is better to calculate how much you need and use that rather than just tip straight on. You can calculate using the MR Malty pitching rate calculator - it will change according to the suposed health of the yeast and the gravity of the brew. If you're brewing 200 L it's probably worth the time taken to get the right amount. The yeast cake may be too little or it may be too much. Either can affect your brew in ways that taste bad.

 

[Nevalicious]

I need to know from my esteemed fellow brewers a little bit about hop pellets.

I have purchased some POR pellets, two packets of 25gm each.

Are there any recommendations of how many I might add to a 23 litre brew?

I am leaning towards boiling them, if so how long for?

I have read a few things about using pellets. Apparently they are somewhere between 10-15% more concentrated than fresh hops and they tend to leave more sediment.

I am not too concerned about sediment, if I was I would probably give racking a go, and probally will when I am set up a bit better (moving house soon).

No doubt this is a question of personal taste.......

I am more concerned with adding too little to have an effect! I understand there may not be a simple answer, but I would appreciate any guidance that might point me in the right direction.

I recently made my first brew with additives:

Cascade Golden Harvest lager
1kg dextrose
250gm Coopers brewing sugar
15gm 'unknown' fresh hops (suspected to be POR) boiled 90 minutes
Saflager 23 yeast
Start SG 1.036

I have left this alone basically at room (ie shed) temperature at an average of around 13 deg C. for perhaps 3 weeks. I have yet to sample this brew but I think it must be close to bottling- I will check SG sometime this weekend.

The plan is to use the yeast cake for a bigger brew of 200 litres (these 'mega' brews have met with some astonishment and derision from some forum members but I don't give a fat rats a...) with yet more Cascade Golden Harvest lager kits.

Some people have commented that the Cascade kits are crap (I got them for $3.00 each on clearance from Coles) but they can't be any worse than Coles or Safeway (Woolworths) home brand kits which I have made in the past, and consumed every drop, except for the odd burst bottle (perhaps 1 in every 300). I am sure if I find homebrand kits drinkable then the Cascade lager with a few additions should be slightly better.

When I went to my local HBS (ie bongshop) the other day they had Cascade Golden Harvest lager cans priced at $27.00 each. Believe it or not! :huh:

Pride of ringwood... With a kit... Hard to say, considering kits are already pre bittered and POR is a bittering hop more so, maybe only a short boil of 10 or so mins so as not to end up with tongue burning bitter lager which apart from other things would be way out of style

Off topic also, but I am jealous you can pick up cans for $3. I work all round adelaide and my job takes me to alot of shopping centres... I always have a sticky beak for cheap cans just for a 'shits and giggles' brew. I brew mainly extracts and have heaps of LDME ready to go, but i'd love to come across a $4 stout can!

Tyler

Edit: Beaten...

 

[Aaron86]

If you are boiling up 50 grams of PoR be aware that you already have a hopped tin. 50 grams of PoR alone is alot. I boiled 30 grams for my current batch and I think it is way over the top.

 

[uniiqueuser]

In my humble opinion:

Buy hops in larger amounts like minimum 90 grm packs. You are being raped. I now buy in 500 grms minimum.

Adding amounts try 15 grms at 30 minutes, 15 grms at 20 mins and 15 grms at 10 mins.

Sediment - don't worry about it.

Cascade cans are crap and YES, $3 expired or close to cans are like sucking on grandma's fermented poo. Best to boil the shit out of them for 60 mins to rid them off all 'cascadeness' and use it as a malt addition. Better still laugh at it move on and spend the $3 on some fresh and quality malt.

Drop the cascade tin can hope and drop the 200 mega liter ferment wish you have until you have at least produced a half decent 23 liter brew and have temp under control.

I would actually favour the homebrand and coles shit over cascade. In any case - I would boil the kits for 60 mins to rid of the ISO hops etc and start from scratch.

Cheap can kits made as cheap as possible will produce shit beer and even worse no temp control. Think about it - another 10 bucks spent will produce a beer that you would gladly offer to a mate and most importantly really enjoy yourself.

1) The Cascade kits are no where near close to code even after sitting on my shelf for 12 months. I don't think Coles wanted to sell them any more.

2) If I had been sensible enought to enquire as to their quality on AHB forum maybe I would have thought twice before buying them. Now I have them I am going to use them.

3) For perhaps the last 2 years I haven't touched a homebrand kit and have only used Coopers, Tooheys, or Wander kits in my 200 litre brews. Each brew uses 9 cans. Perhaps the best K&K I have had to date was a Tooheys Dark Ale which was f*cking brilliant, and also had a awesome laxative action.

4) I am trying to shake myself loose of my history of being a cheap ******* brewer but a $3 can of goo (x15) was too hard to resist- no doubt I am going to hell but at least I'll have friends!!

5) I have closely scrutinised the temperature of my most recent brew and it did not need to be heated. If I wasn't using the Saflager yeast I would probably have connected up the urn elements mounted in each fermenter to my German made thermostats and kept them a bit warmer.

I am currently at about step five of a self imposed 12 step program to rid myself of my 'cheap *******' brewing practises. My latest purchase (today) was a 25 kg bag of dextrose- the 9 kg of white sugar waiting for my next brew will go to the kitchen cupboard and will end its days mixed with Nescafe in a cup.

New territory for me, but well may you say...whoopy f*cking do!

Don't get me wrong- any advice is warmly recieved from all concerned.

If it tastes better than Victoria Bitter it was worth brewing! (I think I might add this to my profile). Based on this standard all of my brews have had a 100% success rate.

 

[Aaron86]

If it tastes better than Victoria Bitter it was worth brewing! (I think I might add this to my profile). Based on this standard all of my brews have had a 100% success rate.

You dont raise the bar very high :lol: My urine tastes better than VB !!

 

[uniiqueuser]

You dont raise the bar very high :lol: My urine tastes better than VB !!

LOL!

Do you compare regularly?

 

[Bribie G]

Dex is good but if you are only using a smallish amount (i.e. not whacking in a whole kilo) then sugar is just as good so by all means use up your supply, mixed in with the dex perhaps. The idea that sugar gives beer a thin cidery taste is really a bit of an urban myth, arising more from using waaay too much and fermenting with an inappropriate yeast at too high a temperature.

As Manticle said above. If using hops with kits - which are already bittered - it's a good idea to stick to the more aromatic hops such as Saaz, Hallertau, Styrian Goldings etc. and add them either dry to the fermenter after a few days of fermenting, or boil briefly and add at the same time as mixing up the other ingredients. Pride of Ringwood gives a coarse earthy flavour which is great in a Coopers Sparkling etc, but they don't use it as a late hop, it's just put in as a single addition and boiled for 90 minutes.

 

[uniiqueuser]

Dex is good but if you are only using a smallish amount (i.e. not whacking in a whole kilo) then sugar is just as good so by all means use up your supply, mixed in with the dex perhaps. The idea that sugar gives beer a thin cidery taste is really a bit of an urban myth, arising more from using waaay too much and fermenting with an inappropriate yeast at too high a temperature.

Thanks for that. I was never really convinced that sugar was that bad, I do tend to use a little more than a kilo per can but never have had the cider taste unless I was making 'get pissed fast lager' when I was younger and stupider (say 20 years ago) with alcohol getting close to the 15% mark. :icon_vomit:

The consensus on the hops appears to be that not too much is the idea. I've had a few batches which have ended up tasting a bit sweet, if I can knock this down a bit I'll be happy.

Thanks to all for your input.