Adding hops to a kit

[NickSinatra]

A few months ago I tried adding hop extract in liquid form to my kit to get a hoppier taste; the result was jusr bitter ale. I complained to the shop that they had given me duff gen (which, in a roundabout way, they admitted). The manager then told me that what I needed was a pack of vacuum-packed hop leaves that he, believe it or not, sold at 6 quid a packet. I bought them and am now about to start a brew....problem is, have had conflicting comments about the dried hops. Somebody told me that they are not for adding to beer kits as they are just used for all-grain brewing. Is this true? If not, can anyone recommend how I should add them to my kit? Should I boil them then throw them in with the yeast or should I just throw them in cold and let nature takes its course? Is there another way of adding them?

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

 

[markp]

You can make a hop tea by letting them infuse in some hot water. The hop tea is then added to the wort before fermentation.
You can also 'dry hop' the beer by adding an amount of hops to the secondary fermenter prior to bottling/kegging or adding the hops to a serving cask.

 

[matth]

I Have a kit brewing in the moment, i am about to split the batch in to 2 separate fvs for secondary fermentation and dry hop each one with a different hop variety to see how they turn out. I have never done it so i have no experience but from reading around the forums and other internet sources it seems fairly common place to dry hop a kit for extra aroma, and no real extra bitterness.

 

[Longhorn]

I got talking to the guy in the (popular homebrew) shop last time I bought a kit about exactly this. He said that kits already contain hops, but "putting 25g or so into the fermenter can't hurt". So I bought a hop bag, 50g of Cascade and did just that.

Either he was wrong or I left the hops in waaaaaaaay too long (about 3 days). :sick:

 

[RobWalker]

Your kits are nothing more than Malt Extract that has been boiled to a full schedule with the hops for that style (Bitter, Lager, etc.)

Anything other than just add water kits requires you boil the malt for at least 60 minutes - extract brewing, partial mash brewing and all grain brewing all need it. hops that are added at 60 minutes will bitter your beer, hops added at 30 will flavour it, and hops added at 10 and below will add aroma. Hops added at the very end, or directly into the fermenter (Dry hopping) will also add aroma. It's fine to do so - just get the quantity and hop type right. I love East Kent Gouldings for aroma, but wouldn't imagine it in much other than an ale.

To add to a kit, boil them in a few litres of water for an hour, then just add this water to as you would the normal water. Again - 60 for bitterness, 30 for flavour, 10 for aroma. If you only want aroma then just boil for 10, if you only want flavour then just boil for 30. Here's a run down of types; http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter5-3.html

My LHBS stocks Challenger, Fuggles, East Kent Gouldings and Hallertau, any of those four are very standard brewing hops, but check them against the style first. I wouldn't suggest using much more than 10g-20g as your kits are already well bittered!

 

[NickSinatra]

Thanks for the replies, gents. Taken all in, I understand that I should boil 10-20g for the amount of time indicated then throw the water (not the hops themselves) into the fermenting vat and leave the usual week or so. Also, I take it I can just throw the dry hops in at the primary fermenting stage and leave, again, for the usual week?