Brewing beer with hops (beginner)

[samnorfolk]

I was wondering if there is a simple method that i could use to brew some beer using hops brought from a shop?

 

[stuey]

There's a couple of ways to do it simply....

You could brew a kit beer from tins of gloop and have a go at dry hopping or using a hop tea to adapt it.

Or you could have a go at extract brewing....

Extract kits are available from a few homebrew suppliers and usually include bags of dried malt extract and hop pellets or whole hops pre-weighed.

You boil up the extract in a pan on your hob and add the hops as per the instructions....

Alternatively you can buy all the ingredients separately and make up a recipe or follow a recipe in a book such as Graham Wheeler or the like.

 

[samnorfolk]

ok many thanks :

 

[TRXnMe]

I use additional hops when I make up the cooper's stout ber kit.

I boil up 5 litres of water, add 50 grammes of bittering hops and leave to boil for an hour, topiing p to maintain the 5L.

I then use this as part of the 25 litres of water to dilute the 1 can kit and add dry malt extract for the extra fermentables.

It makes a stonking stout :)

I also use hops in my AG brewing, but that's another kettle of rice crispies and Graham Wheeler's book, or any number of brew day threads (with pics) on here will show you how to do that :)

 

[samnorfolk]

Sounds a great idea to enhance the kits, although drinkable i always find they need just that something else…..so could i use the same method when doing an ale rather than stout?

 

[pittsy]

Sounds a great idea to enhance the kits, although drinkable i always find they need just that something else…..so could i use the same method when doing an ale rather than stout?

Yes , just have a look at some all grain recipes and if it asks for say 30g of cascade hop then use the same ( add 5% i think because it gets lost etc etc ) and so on .
Great way to get used to different hops early on in brewing .

 

[Strongarm]

I used a Cooper lager kit to make a blonde ale, I just dumped the whole tin in maybe 10L of water along with a pack of spraymalt then added the hops and boiled for half hour, adding some more hops as late additions before cooling and pitching my yeast. I then dry hopped too.

I found a website that had a list of the bitterness (IBUs) for the various Coopers kits, so just used a recipe calculator to find IBUs of additional hops, then added on the 20 that the list said the Coopers Lager had.

Worked very well.

 

[beermaker]

I used the extract kits from the Hop and Grape as a stepping stone from can kits to all grain and found them to be excellent. As mentioned before, the dried malt extract and hops are pre-measured so you can't go too far wrong, and once you have a few under your belt and a bit more confidence you can start to play about with the hopping rates and times to learn how they affect the finished brew.

 

[PaulCa]

For many, many brews I steeped 500g of crystal malt for an hour, then boiled that wort with hops, then added it to the kit with water and some sugar or malt extract.

You can get some good variations of the theme and make the kit taste quite different.

 

[pittsy]

For many, many brews I steeped 500g of crystal malt for an hour, then boiled that wort with hops, then added it to the kit with water and some sugar or malt extract.

You can get some good variations of the theme and make the kit taste quite different.

I would recommend adding the sugar and spray malt ( infact no sugar for me ) at 5 mins before the end of boil , you also only need to steep the crystal malt for 30 mins . Due to the way speciality grain is malted it isn't needed to mash the grain to convert the starch to sugar ( it's already been done ) you just need to extract the sugar from the grain (steeping) :thumb:

 

[PaulCa]

For many, many brews I steeped 500g of crystal malt for an hour, then boiled that wort with hops, then added it to the kit with water and some sugar or malt extract.

You can get some good variations of the theme and make the kit taste quite different.

I would recommend adding the sugar and spray malt ( infact no sugar for me ) at 5 mins before the end of boil , you also only need to steep the crystal malt for 30 mins . Due to the way speciality grain is malted it isn't needed to mash the grain to convert the starch to sugar ( it's already been done ) you just need to extract the sugar from the grain (steeping) :thumb:

Ah thanks. I varied the process over the last year. I had ended up using 1.5Kg of Base malt + 0.5Kg of crystal, hence why I was mashing for an hour, not steeping. Think I started just steeping for 30 mins.

Adding all the fermentables makes the condensed wort very thick and sticky and I didn't feel safe boiling it in such a small pan :) I usually added the DME and can at the end of the boil before cooling.

Now I have a 30 litre boiler none of that is an issue, and I'm doing my first all grain this weekend, suppliers permitting.

 

[dickiedavis]

boil up 5 litres of water, add 50 grammes of bittering hops and leave to boil for an hour, topiing p to maintain the 5L.
I then use this as part of the 25 litres of water to dilute the 1 can kit and add dry malt extract for the extra fermentables.

Can I use hop pellets to do this?

D.

 

[TRXnMe]

I tend to boil the hops in just water, I read that water has a limit on how much alpha acid it will take from the hops, so if you want a hop tea that will make a difference to your brew kit you have to use lots of hops, unless you are going to boil up more water so thealpha acid will make the transfer.

Working on the same theory I only use the water to dilute the beer kit after I've done hopping it, to allow the water to get the most bang for my hop buck :)

I've got a Cooper's English Bitter kit on the go that has 10 litres of hop tea, made from 65 grammes of 'spare' fuggles I had kicking about, I'm expecting a pretty serious fuggle kick in this brew :)

 

[samnorfolk]

Ok so it all sounds intriguing yet i still don't know exactly what i should be attempting…if say I've already got a coopers bitter kit, how can i enhance it by adding hops etc?

Cheers

 

[Rivvo]

Yes you can, if you add hops to some hot water for 20 minutes or so then add that to the brew 5 days or so before you're ready to bottle it should give a nice hop flavour and aroma, you may want to brew the kit a little short to compensate for the water you'll add, but that won't be much.
My lhbs sells hop pellets in a tea bag like bag for making this hop tea and they're only about £1.50, ideal for experimenting with different hops.
Whereabouts in Norfolk are you Sam?

 

[samnorfolk]

Yes you can, if you add hops to some hot water for 20 minutes or so then add that to the brew 5 days or so before you're ready to bottle it should give a nice hop flavour and aroma, you may want to brew the kit a little short to compensate for the water you'll add, but that won't be much.
My lhbs sells hop pellets in a tea bag like bag for making this hop tea and they're only about £1.50, ideal for experimenting with different hops.
Whereabouts in Norfolk are you Sam?

Ok great, any idea how many grams of hops i would need to a add to a kit? I live in East Anglia not far from Norwich

 

[Rivvo]

Not sure on weight, it may be easier to use one of those tea bag ones to try initially as most hops are sold in 100g packs and if you want to try different ones it would be unnecessarily expensive.
Sylken home brew in gorleston sell them, but I'm not sure about good life homebrew in norwich?

 

[samnorfolk]

ok many thanks will check it out!

 

[stuart180]

Not sure on weight, it may be easier to use one of those tea bag ones to try initially as most hops are sold in 100g packs and if you want to try different ones it would be unnecessarily expensive.
Sylken home brew in gorleston sell them, but I'm not sure about good life homebrew in norwich?

This is exactly what I did at the weekend.
Worked well.