Average amount

[Clint]

Buy the Bible...

 

[Zephyr259]

Buy the Bible...

Home Brew Beer by Greg Hughes, just to clarify. I'd second that, great book.

 

[An Ankoù]

Forget Beersmith and all that twaddle. It depends on how bitter you want your beer to be. The trouble is that different hops have different bittering powers. For example, if you want to make a Czech lager of about 40 units of bitterness, you'll be using Saaz hops, which are about 3 on the bittering scale (3 percent alpha acid) so you'll need twice as much hops as you would if you were making a best bitter using Challenger hops at 6 on the bittering scale (6 percent alpha acid).
Here's the formula I use, and I don't use any software. It's also the formula Graham Wheeler used and the formula Brupaks recommend. It's a "rule of thumb" formula. If your beer turns out too bitter then reduce it.
Volume of beer in litres times the bitterness units you want (which is indicated in the recipe) divided by 2 and by the bittering scale (alpha acid content of the hops). This will tell you how much of your chosen hops to use, in grams.
These are the hops you chuck in at the beginning of the boil. Don't worry about late additions.
It's not accurate, but it'll give you a feel for bittering.
So, for example, I want o brew 20 litres of bitter with 35 units of bitterness and I'm using Goldings at 4% alpha acid in the boil and I might add a few more hops late, which I'm going to ignore.
(20X35) divided by (2X4) = 87.5 grams of hops.

 

[An Ankoù]

Buy the Bible...

Fliunk the Bible. It is the one book that has really messed up the world and quite a lot of humanity. Thank you G!

 

[Hanglow]

Why is it that a lot of people add hops by weight rather than checking the AA% and oil content as each differs from year to year and supplier to supplier depending on region grown?

Because you buy hops by weight and a lot of additions are either dry hops or end of boil in which case actual AA is less relevant.

Although I agree with you, I'll definitely take those into account when making a recipe, but 100g of hops in a golden ale is pretty good whether it is EKG or Citra - very different beers of course but both would make a good golden ale. 100g of either in a DIPA would not work.

 

[Gerryjo]

Vic secret AAU19. 2%
Amarillo AAU6. 1%
Magnum AAU12. 5%
Amarillo AAU8. 4%
ELLA AAU12%
Above is just a selection of hops I have at present available to me and you will notice Amarillo twice as can be seen but both are from different suppliers.
Which hop would I use and at what time/stage is totally down to the hop profile and as you can see all I have given is the name and AAU% but what I haven't given is the most critical.
For instance can I use each hop on its own and yes certainly you can as this is a fantastic way to get to know more about each hop and this is why people will brew SMASH beers but more to the point unless I was doing a SMASH would I and my answer is certainly not as hops are not cheap especially NZ hops.
On the other hand can I utilise these hops to my advantage to get the best for less and yes I can but why and how.
WHY
1 Cost
2 Over bittering
3 Under bittering
4 Flavour
5 Aroma
6 Balancing
If you look at the list above you will learn that knowing a little bit goes a long way and I'm far from an expert on brewing as there is a lot more to be added to that list but one thing that may not stand out is the one hop that can be utilised with the others including itself for reasons stated above.
I'm only trying to point out that it's worthwhile taking time to ask yourself
Why.
This is by no means a post to mean offence or patronise as I've been there myself.

 

[labrewski]

Have you been brewing kits up until now or is this your first beer?

Kits then just started buying yeast hops malt to experiment

 

[Zephyr259]

Kits then just started buying yeast hops malt to experiment

Cool, something that's not come up is how do you intend on chilling the wort after boiling? When I did my first few stove top batches I put it in a sink/bath of cold water (ice would have helped), but that's really slow even with a 5 - 8 L batch, and will impact what you get from late hops. I wouldn't brew a beer with 100g of Galaxy (for example) at the end of the boil if I couldn't chill quickly or it'll be really bitter.

If you were trying to brew something like a commercial beer, what would you be aiming for?

 

[Hanglow]

...

All well and good but the OP asked for an average amount

It's not rocket science. Most commercial breweries will alter their additions to get a consistent AA amount for each addition, the better ones will actually measure their wort and alter it.

It is by and large true that a NEIPA will use more hops than a west coast IPA, which will use more hops than an APA, which will use more hops than a bitter.

 

[Gerryjo]

All well and good but the OP asked for an average amount

It's not rocket science. Most commercial breweries will alter their additions to get a consistent AA amount for each addition, the better ones will actually measure their wort and alter it.

It is by and large true that a NEIPA will use more hops than a west coast IPA, which will use more hops than an APA, which will use more hops than a bitter.

Your quite right it's not rocket science but the majority of those that QUOTE numbers only are not actually accounting for the AAUs which in some cases you may well have a beer you thought had been brewed as near specific to the recipe given but could either be under or over whelming and you may actually have had enough hops on hand for three rather than two brews given the correct amounts all in.
Highly hopped beers are expensive and so is wasting hops but using hops to your advantage and wisely can also save you money as well as brewing a more consistent brew.
We are homebrewers after all..

 

[labrewski]

Cool, something that's not come up is how do you intend on chilling the wort after boiling? When I did my first few stove top batches I put it in a sink/bath of cold water (ice would have helped), but that's really slow even with a 5 - 8 L batch, and will impact what you get from late hops. I wouldn't brew a beer with 100g of Galaxy (for example) at the end of the boil if I couldn't chill quickly or it'll be really bitter.

If you were trying to brew something like a commercial beer, what would you be aiming for?

I don't need to worry about cooling I think I had 2 litres of chilled water in fv threw my wort in and topped up to 23 litres with my tap water which is fairly cold at the moment it was at 25 degrees when topped up threw on the yeast and let's see what happens