What Next

[Fodder]

AA% has nothing to do with alcohol percentage. Its the percentage of acids within the hops that give them there bittering qualities.

Different hops will have different levels. Even the same hop species of a different year of harvest will differ slightly from one another. Thats my very basic understanding, others here are sure to expand.

The John Palmer book that is available online will give some help. Sorry I dont have the link handy...but im sure some here will pop it up

EDIT: beaten to it...

 

[Fodder]

Check this out for some homework on hops...good start for the newbies (me included)

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter5.html

 

[timryan]

Cheers ill add it to my list of homework subjects hahaha... its getting longer and longer... at least one i cant really fail at like uni ... haha

 

[manticle]

righto will i need to know it right now or is it something i can learn in time? if i just hop for now will everything be ok?

The packets of hops you buy should state their AA rating as a percentage. How high the AA is will affect how much bitterness they add so it's good to develop an understanding. What you are proposing with the kit shouldn't come out too bitter (although it will have a healthy bitterness as the RA kit is already a bitter one).

The malt you have will balance it up.

Essentially:

1. Hops boiled for longer give more bitterness.
Hops with higher aa percentage give more bitterness. Between 60 and 90 minutes will extract most of the bitterness from your hops, whatever they are. Bittering additions give reasonably small levels of flavour, mostly bitterness.

2. Hops boiled for a less amount of time will give some bitterness and some flavour but anything boiled for less than 30 minutes will provide mainly flavour. There's not a fixed point - just a range and crossover.

3. Hops added to hot wort or boiled for only short amounts of time will provide mainly aroma and flavour.

4. Dry hops are said to provide aroma only - to my palate hey also provide flavour.

5. The gravity of the liquid affects the level and type of bittering. Pure water gives high bittering levels but can give harsh flavours. High gravity will reduce the bittering amount a boil gives (drastically depending on how high). A boil between 1030 and 1050 should give a good level of smooth bittering. You can get 1040 with about 100g of malt extract (dry) in 1 litre of water (so 200g in 2L etc etc.)

Hopfully that makes sense. Feel free to ask if it doesn't.

 

[timryan]

Yer its clearing it up.. just gotta throw myself in i guess... nar its making much more sense..

 

[manticle]

Yer its clearing it up.. just gotta throw myself in i guess... nar its making much more sense..

To add to that - the kits are malt extract (liquid) plus hops so they have a certain amount of bittering already. Malt extract (dried and liquid) doesn't have hops so if you were to move to extract brewing, you would need to add your own hops and boil for longer than 10 minutes to get the right bittering level.

Likewise if adding hops to a kit brew, you need to be careful with the amount and possibly not boil for too long (exactly how you've approached this brew).

 

[timryan]

Thanks Andrew you have be my Yoda haha... Nar seriously thanks for all the help and the bottles means i can keep on brewing and experimenting....