Better Brew, IPA

[calumscott]

Hi Calum,

Just wanting to clarify as much for my own understanding as for future forum warriors reading this thread...

For enhancing this kit, are you suggesting :-

- using 1.5Kg liquid malt extract (or is that powdered Light Malt Extract - LME is a little ambiguous when I try and google it)

I'm of the school of LME = Liquid Malt Extract and DME = Dried Malt Extract. Where a kit says sugar you can use a little more than 1:1 if using DME and around 1.5:1 if using LME.

- dry hopping by putting something like 40g cascade hops - is that putting the hops in when you start the kit ?

That's what I did first time round but I wouldn't recommend it now. Better to wait a week until some alcohol has been produced which will help guard against any nasties you may introduce during the dry hopping process.

Finally, do I understand correctly that if you're making a hop tea, as you quoted for instance, you take 9l of water, throw in 30 to 40g of hops, boil in a pan for half an hour, and then toss the whole lot into the fermentation vessel, instead of using plain boiling water at the start of the kit process ? Should you strain the hops out if you're making a hop tea ?

Strain them. Once boiled they themselves are next to useless.

I also assume that when you say we're going off-piste, you mean that we're adding to something where we don't know the bitter-ness to start off with, so adding to that then becomes guesswork.

Exactly! You can take a guess at the bitterness and flavours of a kit but that's about as good as it gets. Adding flavour or bitterness to a standard kit is pretty controllable, but when you start monkeying with the strength you need to consider what the extra alcohol will do to the flavour profile of the beer. And that is pretty much pure guesswork. Get it right and it'll be pretty spectacular (see my "Ivana Gerrimov" thread). Get it wrong and you'll have strong, mediocre beer.

Apologies if this is all Noddy stuff - please feel free to direct my googling!

Thanks Calum...

No worries, that's what we're here for. BB IPA is a great kit in it's own right, and a brilliant base for tinkering - particularly with hops.

:

 

[rpt]

Has anyone done this kit with 1kg brewing sugar and then done it again with spraymalt or brew enhancer? I'm wondering how much difference it actually makes with this particular kit.

 

[peelman]

I realise this is quite an old thread, but am going to post this anyway...
My first ever home brew a couple of weeks ago was a Coopers IPA. I followed the instructions to the letter. It turned out very well. It has now long gone and I have decided to get another IPA on the go. But since then I have been on the web browsing the forums and that and picked up a few hints and tips about adding hops and that to it.
So off to my LHBS and the guy there recommended the Better Brew IPA. So who was I to argue.
Knocked it up this afternoon, with Coopers brew enhancer #2 and I made a hop tea with 20g of Cascade hops. Smells great. Cant wait to try it!
:drink:

 

[BrotherMalice]

Sounds like you are well on your way to another great brew :) - even though I am now brewing with grain, I think if I was in a hurry to get a brew on I would consider this kit again :)

 

[peelman]

Yes I hope so..
Its still going strong (day 5), 10 days in the fermenter apparently with this one! ... The foam on the top is not far off twice the depth of the Coopers IPA (Not sure if that makes any difference?)
I can see me getting into AG before long, this hobby sure gets hold of you don't it? Especially when the result is great, cheap beer!!
:

 

[BrotherMalice]

I think i did 3 or 4 kits before i went ag :) - its well worth the extra effort :)

 

[peelman]

Well I have kegged the IPA in one of the cornys. Will be leaving it until the spring now before I need to get stuck into it.. But will try one of the bottled ones in a week or 2, as you do....

 

[Do_you_realise]

I set a BetterBrew IPA going last night, same recipe as the first post in this thread (1.5kg coopers light malt extract instead of 1kg sugar) pitched at 22:30 when the wort was at 21 Celsius, and sat it in a water bath (same one I posted photos of previously) measured at 20C.

Got up this morning and no visible activity at 7:30, should I be concerned?

Just using a bucket type fv from wilko's and just have the lid sat on top, no airlock so i am only going from what i can see through the side with a torch. I was hoping to see some froth or movement in the wort but it looks dead as a dodo.

Our garage is about 3C this morning but the bath temp is still 20C so the heater is still holding up fine.

Cheers :)

 

[BrotherMalice]

I believe mine used to take 24+ hours to get going, I would leave it for another day before worrying too much about it :)

:

 

[Do_you_realise]

Cheers. Think I'm just being impatient... :)

 

[BrotherMalice]

I was on my 1st brew :)

 

[Do_you_realise]

This has been in for about a week now, seems fine so far :)

Just a question before I decide whether or not to try adding my own hops: Not sure how kits work in terms of dry hopping, should I expect dry hopped aromas to this kit and if so, what kind?

Thanks :)

 

[Slate Miner]

This has been in for about a week now, seems fine so far :)

Just a question before I decide whether or not to try adding my own hops: Not sure how kits work in terms of dry hopping, should I expect dry hopped aromas to this kit and if so, what kind?

Thanks :)

I've dry hopped this kit in the past & it's turned out really well. It's fairly straight forward, I added 30gms of loose Cascade hops to the FV after the initial fermentation had died down (about 7 days) then left for another week, I just scooped out the loose hops with a sterilized sieve before bottling, adding half a teaspoon of sugar to each bottle.

One or two tiny bits from the hops did make their their way into a few of the bottles, but I'm not really worried about that! Apart from the amazing hop aroma it was as clear as a bell after a few weeks in the bottle.

:drink:

 

[vanderkidd]

Made up one of these yesterday. Looking forward to the end result going by everyone's comments!

 

[Plumber79]

Had one of these kits in my fv for a week.just had a sneaky peek/sniff and it smells beautiful! Looking forward to this one! :drink:

 

[uncleinan]

I've done a about a dozen kits now and used this one 3 times. Used LME first time, dry-hopped with Cascades second time, and just primed with Molasses with the one in the keg at the moment! Best kit I have done without a doubt. Next time I'm going to do the lot in one brew!

 

[vanderkidd]

Had one of these kits in my fv for a week.just had a sneaky peek/sniff and it smells beautiful! Looking forward to this one! :drink:

Mine is one week today. Later I'm transferring to secondary and dry hopping it. Not sure how much to stuck in though, got 100g.

Any benefits to using then whole lot rather than the 35-40g others have tried here?

 

[calumscott]

Had one of these kits in my fv for a week.just had a sneaky peek/sniff and it smells beautiful! Looking forward to this one! :drink:

Mine is one week today. Later I'm transferring to secondary and dry hopping it. Not sure how much to stuck in though, got 100g.

Any benefits to using then whole lot rather than the 35-40g others have tried here?

What hops are you using? 30-40 is a good start point but you can play around depending on how hoppy you like it and how strong a flavour your hops have...

 

[vanderkidd]

Had one of these kits in my fv for a week.just had a sneaky peek/sniff and it smells beautiful! Looking forward to this one! :drink:

Mine is one week today. Later I'm transferring to secondary and dry hopping it. Not sure how much to stuck in though, got 100g.

Any benefits to using then whole lot rather than the 35-40g others have tried here?

What hops are you using? 30-40 is a good start point but you can play around depending on how hoppy you like it and how strong a flavour your hops have...

Using cascade. The hoppier the better. Stick it all in?

 

[DamageCase]

Does anyone have any idea what the aroma hops are in the kit to start with?