First time trying hop additions

I've done half a dozen kits now, one of them came with some hops for dry hopping - bulldog IPA, it's ok not particularly hoppy though in its 'as brewed' state, I added some hop essence to half of the bottles and it made a big difference but it's a bit disappointing nonetheless.
Anyway I bought some hops the other day 500grammes in total, there's Amarillo, cascade, citra, Columbus and centennial in leaf form, I wanted a variety to try, and picked a selection that can be used for dry hopping with no particular recipe in mind.
Now then I've got a can of Coopers brew A IPA and a kilo of DME, the kit has mixed reviews certainly not a show stopper kit, so what I was thinking to try a few of the hops was splitting it into two 10-11 litre batches and adding some single hops varieties to each. I've got a pot that holds about 7 litres so can boil some wort and then dry hop as well later and I'm looking for suggestions on a method, quantity and timing please:) thanks guys

if the kit gave you the level of bitterness you required, go straight to a hop tea 50g of citra & 50g amarillo with 1.5litres of water at about 60 deg C for 30-40 mins.
Then strain into the fv and top up the kit to 20+ish litres and 5 days after main fermentation or 5 days before bottling a dry hop 50g citra & 50g amarillo.

if it's not bitter then do a 15-20 minute boil of 100g of hops instead of a hop tea then strain into fv and dry hop as per above.

That will get your attention :grin:

Coopers helpfully list the IBUs as 830 which is the undiluted bitterness. Hard to tell what it dilutes down to.

I would probably not mess with the bitterness and a suggested do a hop tea using a portion of your water.

I'm got this one on the go now...recipe off coopers Web site. Virtually the same as yours but asks for an extra 500g of malt and uses 25g each of cascade and centennial. There's loads of recipe suggestions on their website ,many using hops both as a dry addition and during a boil. There's a few "clone" type recipes too which sound interesting.

Cheers

Clint

I used 25g each of Cascade and Centennial as a dry hop to a Coopers Brew A and it turned out OK but not outstanding. I think the original kit hop comes through quite a lot, so may mask the dry hop impact and does not come over with 'tropical, citrusy, grapefruit notes' as the Coopers tells you it should.
To try to sell the Brew A kit as an American IPA type is pushing the limits imo.

Would it be worth upping the dry hop...?

Cheers

Clint

Clint said:

Would it be worth upping the dry hop...?

Cheers

Clint

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dry hop wtf you want. Im drinking a razorback with 180g of hops. go beyond the rule book.
the only regret I have was I didn't weigh the two muslins down enough. do 200g to be on the safe side.
i was worried the sainsbury extra special IPA would ridicule my festival kit. it came nowhere close.
we as HBs are the beholders of IPAs. weigh them ******* muslins down with a string tied at the end and mid way down the outside of the FV with some electric tape. so its halfway in the FV.
don't mess it up like me.
use six tea spoons at least for each muslin.100g in each.
don't be afraid.
if you really want a hoppy long lasting IPA that is

terrym said:

I used 25g each of Cascade and Centennial as a dry hop to a Coopers Brew A and it turned out OK but not outstanding. I think the original kit hop comes through quite a lot, so may mask the dry hop impact and does not come over with 'tropical, citrusy, grapefruit notes' as the Coopers tells you it should.
To try to sell the Brew A kit as an American IPA type is pushing the limits imo.

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The basic laws of science are not on the side of a "hoppy" kit brew.

Bittering comes across the concentration of the wort, but little flavour and no aroma. The Coopers kits have given me decent beer, but they don't change those irritating scientific laws.

Dry hopping the beer from a 2 can kit brew is what the expensive kits do. I've never done one per se myself, but I know enough to know that these kits will make very passable beer.

Clint said:

I'm got this one on the go now...recipe off coopers Web site. Virtually the same as yours but asks for an extra 500g of malt and uses 25g each of cascade and centennial. There's loads of recipe suggestions on their website ,many using hops both as a dry addition and during a boil. There's a few "clone" type recipes too which sound interesting.

Cheers

Clint

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Thanks Clint and everyone else for your input, I didn't realise Coopers had recipes to tweak their own kits I'll have a good read at what the various possibilities are. My thought was to boil some hoppiness in for say 5 minutes, then some more steeped after flame out and some dry hop for aroma, but maybe a hop tea and a dry hop would be easier and equally effective I dunno. Totally new to me this so I'll have a read on Coopers and decide what to do.
Cheers all

after countless dry hopping of kits I find the best ones to pimp are the pale ales,even wilkos hoppy copper is a good one to dry hop and have had my best results with this kit.the paler the colour of the ale the better as they serve as a good base to experiment with.I have recently dry hopped a coopers English bitter which came out disapointing

Godsdog said:

the paler the colour of the ale the better as they serve as a good base to experiment with. I have recently dry hopped a coopers English bitter which came out disapointing

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Agree. If you are going to dry hop or use a hop tea to introduce your own 'hop identity' to a Coopers one can kit the best ones to do it to from the Coopers kits I have tried (seven or more) are the Australian Pale Ale followed by the Real Ale.

The wilko hoppy copper takes well to additional hops. Would think without them it would be pretty bland.

chub1 said:

The wilko hoppy copper takes well to additional hops. Would think without them it would be pretty bland.

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Its a nothing beer brewed straight but awesome if pimped with a favourite hop.mine being citra

..it's bubbling like a good'n. ..ordering more hops later gonna go for it with 50 each of citra cascade and centennial .

Cheers

Clint

terrym said:

Agree. If you are going to dry hop or use a hop tea to introduce your own 'hop identity' to a Coopers one can kit the best ones to do it to from the Coopers kits I have tried (seven or more) are the Australian Pale Ale followed by the Real Ale.

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A good call here. I would also add the draught and traditional lager kits, which make a very basic pale ale, which is a great place to start a hoppy beer.

Thing is I bought this Coopers kit before I read up on it, I can't be arsed brewing it if it's just going to be an underwhelming brew, I've already got 40 bottles of that with the bulldog kit. I was thinking to boost it up to a hoppy sessionable strength, and drink it young while deciding where to go next on my journey which will probably involve grains to some degree plus some of the hops I bought.
I think what I'm gonna do is use some of the Columbus, centennial and cascade in two 10 litre batches and save the Amarillo and citra to do an extract IPA recipe with speciality grains,

So now I've whittled it down a bit, I would appreciate suggestions for a hop schedule using some/all of these three in two 10l batches, Cheers guys.

Just to resurrect this thread and tell you what I ended up with! I boiled about 7 litres water with 1.5kg of LME in a pan for 15 minutes with 25g each of Centennial and Columbus, after turning off the heat I added another 25g of each and steeped for about half an hour before I strained the wort into the FV, added the kit, 1/2 kilo of sugar and topped up with cold water to 23l. I think the OG was 1062 :whistle:
It brewed nicely with the kit yeast and a packet of Gervin down to about 1012 and I added a hop tea of about 1.5 litres boiled water with the remaining 50g each of both hops and put the lot in the FV for a week then bottled. It's had just over two weeks in the warm so I popped one in the fridge earlier and cracked it open an hour ago.
Now then, bear in mind I'm still very much learning, why else would anyone stick a tenners worth of hops onto a twelve quid kit after all? Altogether I'm in for over thirty quid for this brew and I really had no idea what the outcome would be. Thankfully it's bloody gorgeous I'm really really pleased with it, it's got a good bitterness not too tart, nicely tempered by the strength, and a big big bold hop flavour, proper in my face! The head is thick and dense like blimmin memory foam and lasted to the bottom of the glass, I think I primed it to about 2.7 with table sugar but I can't remember the quantity.
I wouldn't suggest for a minute anyone went and tried this necessarily, there's got to be cheaper ways of getting a punchy IPA! Just to say that reading all your suggestions and finalising my own plan from them it came out really well. I'm looking forward to demolishing this over the next few months before the hops start to subside.
Cheers :smile:

Clint said:

I'm got this one on the go now...recipe off coopers Web site. Virtually the same as yours but asks for an extra 500g of malt and uses 25g each of cascade and centennial. There's loads of recipe suggestions on their website ,many using hops both as a dry addition and during a boil. There's a few "clone" type recipes too which sound interesting.

Cheers

Clint

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I did look on there web site but could not see any recipes on there
do you have a link please

dps51 said:

I did look on there web site but could not see any recipes on there
do you have a link please

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Only just saw your reply mate

http://store.coopers.com.au/brewing-info/recipes.html

Fill yer boots!

Poochops said:

Only just saw your reply mate

http://store.coopers.com.au/brewing-info/recipes.html

Fill yer boots!

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thanks mate will have a look when I get tme