What Hops For Unreal Ale

[Steve the Zymologist]

Hi Guys
Just preparing a recipe for my first ever double batch for kegging.

Plans thus far:

2 x Coopers Real ale
2 X Coopers BE 2
1kg Light Dry Malt
Water to 45 - 48 litres

firment in 50 odd litre fermenter till finished

Rack to 2 x 25 - 30 lt fermenters to settle out

Rack into keg onto priming solution of melted brown sugar (315g = 7g / lt @ 45lt)

Purge with CO2 (if I have it set up buy then) and lett mature like a bottle till I get the rest of my gear sorted out.

At racking was planning too dry hop (Just picked up 50g Brewcraft Goldings for $5 from dodgey brew shop, is this reasonable or did I get shafted once again?)

Any other suggestions (I know I could substitute about 6kg cracked malt steeped at about 65C for an hour or so for the 2 tins of coopers but I'm not currently set up for much more than K & K and I dont have a good grain supplier handy)

Cheers
Stevo :beerbang:

 

[WillM]

I'd think out substituting dextrose or light malt for one or both of the brew enhancer 2. (or leave one out all together) Just personal taste, I don't like my beers too thick.

The hop price is pretty normal, are they flowers or pellets? For dry hopping use flowers.

Good luck with it

 

[Trent]

Steve
Thats about the going rate for hops, and I dry hop quite often with pellets. If ya plan on leaving it for a few weeks, I just chuick em in loose and wait for em to fall to the bottom, if yer only gonna do it for a week or so, then whack em in a hop bag, or just a piece of (unused) stockings, well sanitised. It should turn out well
All the best
Trent

 

[Steve the Zymologist]

Thanks for the replys so far guys

I think they are pelletts Trent

2 more questions:

So Goldings is a suitable choice for this brew?

And should I add them in primary or secondary? if they go in primary they are less likely to end up in the keg as they will have 2 chances to settle out. What do you guys think?

Cheers
Stevo

 

[Steve the Zymologist]

come on guys I want to make this one up on the weekend anyone else got any last minute suggestions????

Cheers
Stevo :beerbang:

 

[Gout]

Goldings go well in english ale's so if thats your aim and or you would like that, then yeah the goldings will work.

If you have never used them before and not sure if you will like it, then shy on the lighter hopping rate untill you are happy with it. Wouldn't want a beer thats over hopped with a hop you hate.

however it will drop off with age. say 20g per 25lt brew?

edit: you could throw them in the secondry ("dry hopping" gives a different result, i find it more powerfull and hit more harsh, than in a boil)

so you could boil a small amount of malt and water in a large pot, add the hops and boil 10-20 min (depending of if you want flavour or aroma) then add to the fermenter.

alternativly dry hop, but go a bit lighter on the hops. Boiling water in a cup, add hops wait say 2 min, the green grassyness goes away and the high temp should kill any pos. bugs. add that to the secondry, they will drop out to the bottom and then you rack to keg after say a week.

If you add to the prim, the CO2 will "scrub" the aroma out of the beer (eg it will leave with the co2) and the yeast will cover the hops on the bottom of ther fermenter very quickly and hence limit the flavour you would get.

give it a go and see what works for you
:beer:

 

[Duff]

come on guys I want to make this one up on the weekend anyone else got any last minute suggestions????

Cheers
Stevo :beerbang:

[post="93171"][/post]​

Steve,

I've never used a real ale kit before but guess if it an english style you are after then Goldings are a good hop choice to use. I use either Fuggle or Goldings in my english beers. I love my hops, so I don't think 50gms in a 50L brew is over the top, toss them in secondary when you rack and it should turn out well.

Cheers.

 

[tangent]

i agree, fuggles or goldings are both tasty and go with an ale like vegemite with toast
how you apply them..... if you're kegging, i'd leave them in the tea bag and add like Gout suggests
last thing you want is bits of hops clogging up stuff (although saying that, my 1st AG is pouring with the occasional green bit every now and again :blink: and nothing's clogged yet)
there's nothing like the smell of a handfull of fuggles at 5 minutes to flameout though :super:

 

[Steve the Zymologist]

Thanks for the positive reinforcement of my thinking on this one. it may get a fair amount of time to matureas well as my parts supplier has yet to come up with the beer and gas lines he promised me but thtas not entirely his fault... and I havn't got off my butt and got the reg yet. But I do have 3 sodastream bottles waiting (BUGGER I'll have to get an adaptor for them too) and a 5kg fire extinguisher is on the way too. So still a bit of kit to gather before I'll be able to serve this one. just going to treat the keg as a large bottle and prime and keep warmish till I finally get my $h1t together

Cheers