What I Am Brewing With My Chinese Hops

[jimi]

Flipped on my idea to do a fau-lager with the Saaz and am looking at an IPA with the MP. ATM it'll be someting like 95% Marris Otter 5%Vienna with an OG mid 60's and a IBU mid 50's.
It's poor science to alter multiple variables but bugger it I'll do my first ever NoChill hopping as well with 20g or so in the cube.

 

[NickB]

Thanks KS, thought that the late hopping would be preferable to a big, bitter IPA in terms of assessing hop character...

Shall see if either become a house brew, and if so, how many multiple kilos will be ordered in the next BB h34r:



Cheers!

PS: Just sparging the first batch now

 

[Sully]

I'm willing to swap favours for some hops boys :wub: ...

 

[Batz]

What about a chinese hop brew swap?

Batz

 

[FNQ Bunyip]

I'm willing to swap favours for some hops boys :wub: ...

You Slut .... B)

 

[NickB]

That sounds the goods Batz, however those with an aversion to APAs and IPAs should avoid h34r:

I'll be in though. Shall we say the Bat Cave, March 2010?

Cheers

 

[NickB]

You Slut .... B)

You will note that the :wub: in this post in BB code is [chappoluvs]



Cheers

 

[Batz]

That sounds the goods Batz, however those with an aversion to APAs and IPAs should avoid h34r:

I'll be in though. Shall we say the Bat Cave, March 2010?

Cheers

Absolutely
March 20th it is, so a Marchinese Fest?
Or just stinky, cheesy, lack of color, crumbly, don't smell right, I won't use them...chinese hop night.

Batz

 

[NickB]

AKA InCider on a good night........




Sounds good to me no matter what. As those real estate wankers say, Location, Location, Location. Any any function at the Bat Cave is good enough for me

I'll be in regardless of the theme, company or kind of beers.

Will bring you a keg of Weizen if I remember Batz.... h34r:

Cheers

 

[arogers]

Just brewed a wild cat to take the Marco Polo for a test drive.

4kg pale
1kg munich
500g wheat

30gm 40mins
30gm 15mins
40gms 0mins

wlp013 london ale slurry from the last IPA

lets see how she goes

 

[clarkey7]

IPA down to 1024 (from 1071), will dry hop tomorrow for 3 days or so, then keg etc.... Not long now.
Tasted good, but not attenuated enough yet - I reckon it'll get down to about 1015ish.

It has been chugging along nicely at 18 degrees since Tuesday morning.

Very rounded hop flavour profile, with a lovely lingering bitterness. Not the massive Cascady hop aroma I was hoping for, but I don't get that from no-chill anyhow. DH will fix that.

Can't rush these things......

PB

 

[Damian44]

This recipe isnt going to put a big hole in my hop supply, but i need to use the Wheat malt.

Batch 23L OG 1.045

3.00 kg Wheat Malt
2.00 kg Pilsner, Malt Craft Export (Joe White)
10.00 gm Marco Polo [12.00 %] (60 min) Hops 15.6 IBU
15.00 gm Cascade (Chinese)[5.50 %] (10 min) Hops 2.1 IBU

Any suggestions for a yeast? I was thinking 1010 American Wheat or 3942 - Belgian Wheat?

 

[benno1973]

Very rounded hop flavour profile, with a lovely lingering bitterness. Not the massive Cascady hop aroma I was hoping for, but I don't get that from no-chill anyhow. DH will fix that.

Totally agree. I put 100g in 10min after flameout. Even with 30-40g I'd normally get a lot of aroma, but not from these Chinese hops. Having said that, the flavour is really pronounced and nice, and maybe the aroma was stripped because I used the Nottingham yeast (which crawled up the 10L headspace and blew out my airlock on day 1). It's been a pretty violent ferment...

 

[real_beer]

Sort of :icon_offtopic: but relevant to some.

While reading through a chapter on hops today in one of my books, I thought the following statement so obvious that it could be easily overlooked by a lot of people (me included) who might have bought the Chinese hops:

"Hop powder should be used first because of the likelihood of deterioration".
​

I think many people might use them like breakfast serial where all the crumbs and dust get eaten in the last bowl of the packet. As some in the hop buy might have got a bit of powder I thought this might be worth passing on.

Also this reference from Chappo's post when he picked up the hops:

"Now all the baggies arrived in good condition and sealed. Surprising considering the condition of the carboard boxes they came in quite bashed and battered. They have not been vacuum sealed but I do feel they have been at least flushed nitro or CO2. As for refridgeration during transit I also have my doubts but I'm no where near being an expert in these matters. I haven't cracked any other varieties open yet except for the varieties Ross got and have to say his descriptions on the website are pretty accurate."

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//index.php?showtopic=37472&view=findpost&p=563318
​

And because so many people are going to be using a vacuum sealer very soon, from the same chapter:

"Hop pellets are usually packaged in laminated foil-plastic bags for better storage life. The bags may be fully evacuated and sealed (hard pack); or back filled with an inert gas (soft pack), which results in much improved stability of brewing constituents. One advantage of hard packs is their low volume; another is the integrity of the packaging is immediately noticeable. The disadvantage is that the vacuum packing may lead to agglomeration of pellets into solid blocks, particularly if the resin content is too high. Back flushing may be necessary in order for the pellets to remain in pourable form. European hops are usually soft packed with nitrogen."

So I guess the message there is if the hops are sticky it's best to vacuum seal them in the size you plan to use them in.

:icon_cheers:

 

[Steve]

saflager 34/70 will ferment at 18

i know this is not ideal for the yeast but am hoping that it may throw some esters to match the coopers kit.

Now thats a first! I wouldnt dare do that in a hope to get something you might not?
Cheers
Steve

 

[Bribie G]

back in my kits n bits days I used 34/70 a couple of times in July and August, at a bit below 20 (no fridge in those days) and it turned out ok.

 

[bradsbrew]

Now thats a first! I wouldnt dare do that in a hope to get something you might not?
Cheers
Steve

Yeah I know what your saying Steve but i can be an optimist at times. Its only a keg filler really and a good brew to serve the relies that think this AG beer is a waste of time and that any homebrew should be aged for at least 6 months before it gets any good. <_<

Cheers

Edit= Would the yeastcake from this brew be ok used in a proper lager brewed at 10 degree? anyone?

 

[bradsbrew]

Put down an APA this arv.

3kg Vienna
3kb BB ale
2kg Aromatic
400g carared
250 wheat

30g Chinese cascade FWH
40g Chinese cascade 60min
15g chinese cascade 30min
15g chinese cascade 25min
15g chinese cascade 20min
15g chinese cascade 15min
15g chinese cascade 10min
32g Fuggles 5min
50g chinese cascade 0min

38 litres @ 1050

Doesnt have that big cascade smell but time will tell.

Cheers Brad

 

[Bribie G]

I only have one UK bitter in the system at the moment so I'm doing one today, just a simple quaffing one along the lines of a Midlands type working man's bitter, and taking the plunge with the Chinese Cluster. Why not.

Ale malt plus some dark crystal. I've been faffing around with Choc chit, Carafa, Carared, Carawank lately so back to basics.

40g Chinese Cluster 90 mins
20g Northdown 10 mins

Some sugar
Wyeast Whitbread.

Should be tapping the keg on Christmas day.

 

[daemon]

My CCAPA is down to 1010 so I took a sample to force carbonate with a carbonation cap (great device for sampling beers early!). It certainly needed the dry hopping to add some aroma back into it, hydrometer samples were fairly plain up until then. The resulting beer is a nice summer ale but certainly not a direct replacement for US Cascade. I'm not an expert in taste but it reminds me of a slightly subdued Riwaka (NZ) hop style. There's some subtle grapefruit flavour and slightly lemony taste to me, which matches my very pale ale nicely.

Overall I'm happy with the hops for the price and the experience, just don't expect "true" Cascade flavours and you won't be disappointed. Going to brew a more subtle summer ale for Xmas for the non-craftbrew drinkers and this would go nicely in smaller quantities. For an IPA it'd need at least one other hop to add some flavour, if the Marco Polo is ok then it might be a nice combo.