Advice

[Mac]

A general enquiry really. Just about to start a brew using the Bulldog Premium IPA pouch kit. Only second attempt at jiggling with kits, so advice is sought.
Changed the yeast to Safale US-05 11.5g, using 1kg Ritchies beer enhancer and 500g of Muntons medium spraymalt at the start (don't know if this will make any difference but giving a go anyway) and I have 100g's each of Nelson Sauvin and Simcoe hop pellets with which to dry hop. I normally use the 2 weeks for everything method.
The question is how much of the hops do I use and when (i would normally add them 4 days before bottling), at the moment i'm leaning away from the more bitter tasting beers and back towards hoppy ones but with a lot more body. I use Tesco bottled water at the moment because it seems better than my tap water and I use a brew fridge to keep temperature reasonably under control.
As usual any and all advice would be appreciated.

 

[uDicko]

Did you get the hops with the kit?

Is this a 23litre fermentation batch or different?

You could steep some of the hops (mimic whirlpool temperature) to extract a different flavour profile to that of dry hop.

Also a decent dry hop charge won't go a miss. Depends really on your brew length as to how much to use in each stage (steep and dry hop)

I would advise using an online calculator like brewersfriend to work out the dry hop g/L (grams per litre) based on the weight and volume of liquid. If you aim for 6-8 g/L you shouldn't be disappointed.

 

[terrym]

My advice is don't be totally ruled by the 2+2+2 method, its a good basis, but be prepared to extend the times if necessary. Anyway in your case what you are proposing for timing may well work although I usually leave dry hops in for 6 days with the last two in the coldest place I have which is the garage (no brewfridge here) to help clear the beer of hops and yeast, fine in winter but not much use in summer. I have also started to carry out a 'wet hop' which is making up a hop tea and then chucking both hops and liquid into the beer to get the best out of the hops for flavour and aroma contribution.
As far as quantity of hops I always say that's entirely down to personal choice, often governed by the hop you are using. Some may be quite happy with 200g others not so and shudder at the thought. So if you have not used large qunatities of hops before I would limit it to 100g. And if you have not used Nelson Sauvin or Simcoe before I would suggest you use only one hop to see what the effect is on your beer and then repeat with the other hop on a later beer . That way you find out about individual hops not a muddle.

 

[Mac]

The hops were bought seperately it is a 23l batch, haven't yet got as far as steeping i'm still at the stage where i just tip them in, although someone did suggest making a tea, hoping the brew length is two weeks before cold crashing for three days