What Hops/grains To Use And When ?

[mika]

I'll probably get myself into all sorts of trouble with this thread as it's fairly broad (and probably covered before).

1./ My LHBS has a little chart that basically says, If you're brewing this kind of beer, you need this kinda Hop. The list is reasonably comprehensive but of course is to be used as a guide only. While I could probably ask him for a copy, does anyone have such a list ?

2./ Whenever I see a recipe involving grains (extract or full blown AG) there always appears to be someone saying "Well I'd use only 100g of the crystal malt as this will better compliment the flavour of the dead chooks head you're using
How have you guys figured this out ? Is it just one of those, keep brewing till you work it out things ? or is there a manual/ set of rules/ suggestions for each style/type of beer and how various grains react with each other. Something akin to a periodic table as in chemistry (not that I ever really understood that either )

3./ While I think of it, which yeast to use is probably also a good thing. Again I've seen a whitelebs chart at the local HBS, but something more general and less "We're the best, use our yeast" based would be good.
Ie S-04 - Use only on beers that are similar to apple cider (or something like that)

 

[Doogiechap]

This is coming from an AG newbie but FWIW Promash has a basic guide for many beer types (albeit mostly American grain not Aussie or NZ).
There was a Beer Periodic Table Posted here
It's fairly informative. I'm looking forard to the trial and error with AHB guidance method as well though
Cheers
Doug

 

[PostModern]

Learn about all the malts, their origins, categorisations, and what they're used in. Then learn about hops and hop additions. Then learn about yeast strains. The BJCP guidelines are pretty good for a starting point about styles. ie, you can't make a hefeweissen with roasted barley, a lager yeast and american hops at flameout. When you know why, you know how to brew hefeweissen.

 

[Duff]

Go and buy 'Designing Great Beers' by Ray Daniels. It's a very good start for questions like those.

Cheers.

 

[Stuster]

For the yeast part of the question, the White Labs site is a really good place to start. For each yeast they give a list of which styles it can best be used in.

For hops, this site gives lots of good info on the hops.

I'm with Duff on the Ray Daniels book. A bit of history, some different ways the styles can be done, and his advice as well.

 

[mika]

Cool, the book is sounding like the way to go.
I just thought someone may have created a fairly basic reference somewhere, like what I've seen at my LHBS for the hops.
Mght try and get a copy of the hop chart and post it here for everyone to look at.

 

[Mr Bond]

Try hooking onto your local library data base and having a search through the catalogue(you may be surprised).

Between my local TTGully,and the Adelaide city council libraries I've found heaps of info books.Not all all specifically about HB'ing,but some interesting ones on beer history and styles that are a big help in understanding styles and flavas.
Protz has written some good books.

 

[Jazman]

I agre go for damiels as the front part is do with brewing the back half has the stylse the amounts of grain to make it in style hops ect and history on the styles i reckon dymocs may have if not i kbow g+g would have it

 

[Stuster]

Amazon is cheap as well. Get two/three books and the postage becomes reasonable.

 

[Darren]

Go and buy 'Designing Great Beers' by Ray Daniels. It's a very good start for questions like those.

Cheers.

[post="126078"][/post]​

I third or fourth this suggestion.


cheers
Darren

 

[mika]

Alright, alright, already, I'm buying the damn book
Have found it on Dymock's webiste for $44, was just too lazy today to go and grab it, probably next week.
Thanks for the info on Amazon Stuster, might check there yet too.

Went into the LHBS today, asked him about a copy of the hop chart and he'll have one waiting next time I'm in there.

 

[Stuster]

ML, I got that book plus Radical Brewing for $60 from Amazon delivered so it's worth a check. Just don't carried away and spend all your beer budget on books.

 

[Tony]

all good advice above.

Read, learn, ask questions but the best way to learn about how to make good beer is to brew it and change it to suit.

Also......enter your beers into competitions, bigger the better. Dont be intimidated by the words "state champipnships". often these comps have good judges present ans the comment sheets you get back are great.

If your beers are shit..... they will tell you and often will tell you why and then you can corect the problem. If they are good, you will be told that too and why.

my advice is to read read read, google google google and brew brew brew drink drink fall over

designing great beers is a good book too. but it is american and everything from english bitter to pilsner is referenced as containing cascade so take this into acount. thats the only thing that cheeses me about the book but great reference to what to use in certain styles and also the whole science of brewing.

cheers

 

[mika]

What's Radical Brewing about ? is it worth getting the package deal from Amazon ?

 

[mika]

Thanks for the advice Tony, so you'd be suggesting it's a better book for the malt/garin content rather than a good explanation of what hops to use ?

 

[Tony]

no.... it is good for hops too but it references to the second round enteries to the national american home brewing comp for recipes as well as comercial brweries so these recipes are usually american hop based no mater what the beer style. but thats only a small part of it i have to say. It is a great book.

generally speaking you use german hops in german beers like german pils, wheats, bocks, ect.

you use english hops in bitters, brown ales, proters ect.

but thats not to say that european hops cant be used in a bitter or american hops cant be used in a bitter.

like i said..... brew brew brew and if you have a question on a style or recipe, post it and im sure we can help a bit.

When i was learning i asked lots of questions and still do...... you never stop learning.

I like the theory of...... someone has made the mistake before and learny from it...... lets ask them

works for me

cheers

 

[Stoodoo]

I got "Designing great beers" from Amazon a while ago, from memory somewhere around the $37 or $38 AU mark, including delivery (depending on aussie dollar). If you don't mind waiting a while for it, certainly ordering from Amazon will save you money. I regret not buying "New brewing lager beers", by pat noonan, at the same time now (our regional library has it in). It's meant to be a great book, a fair bit above my understanding, atm. However, I'm sure given time to both read it further and brew more, that I will get the jist of it.

Cheers

 

[Trough Lolly]

Daniels and Noonan are, of course, excellent references...

If money's a problem, there are heaps of free resources on the net that you can use to further your brewing education. For example, if you want to get the formal style guidelines, then check out the BJCP style guidelines (google it). They're handy if you want to brew and enter your beer in comps.
If you want to brew a particular style of beer, then you can easily yahoo or google it as well, eg "Altbier recipe" just gave me 18,000 responses on google!!
I like going over the hbd.org archive - a search there will reveal lots of info from real life brewing sessions and not just theory...
It's interesting to visit the beer recipator, skotrat, beertools.com and bodensatz web pages and trawl through the particular style you like - you'll get a common theme of grains, hops and yeast that most brewers like to use and between that consensus and the BJCP guidelines, you'll be brewing good beer to style in no time. As I mentioned before, I get as much fun out of brewing beer as I do drinking beer!
Oh, and don't forget, if you like roasted barley and Amarillo in your hefeweissen, then what the heck, go for it - it's your beer and who knows, you might kick off a new beer style - just ask Jeff Renner!! :lol:

Cheers,
TL

 

[Fingerlickin_B]

Im thinking of steeping some specialty grains for use in an extract IPA this arvo.

Does anyone have suggestions on which grain for IPA?

I could have googled, but Im at work (not much time to google) and I know I can get an answer here, what with all the shared knowledge on here :beer:

PZ.

*spelling edit*

 

[MHD]

you want some malt on the finish with an IPA so I would use a caramel or light xtal grain... Maybe 500g caramunich....