Dry hopping a kit - worth it?

[fbsf]

I've got a Coopers Original Real Ale on the go - it's pretty much finished fermenting, but I'm going to leave it in the FV for another week (so 14 days in total) for the yeast to do its tidying up thing. It worked on the APA, so I see no reason to change the method!

My question is, I've got a nice pack of Goldings hops burning a hole in my brewing kit. Would there be any benefit to dry hopping the FV for the 7 days it has left before bottling? If so, how many grams do you think would be worthwhile for a 20L brew - I like quite a hoppy beer.

I'll be transferring it to a pressure barrel after the 7days, and therefore batch priming it, if that makes any difference.

 

[Dieseljockey]

Hi..
Dry hop a kit by all means, if you don't try you'll never know if it was worth doing. I dry hop at around 1oz/28gr in 23liters, up to 1.1/2oz it's all down to how much of a hop head you are. :lol: it's all a bit of suck & see. :whistle:

 

[RobWalker]

if you want more hop flavour, then absolutely!

 

[50quidsoundboy]

i dry hopped a St Peters IPA kit and was really pleased with it. no way could it have tasted or smelled as good as it did with just the sachet of "hop enhancer" or whatever that came with it.

 

[calumscott]

Yes, yes, yes and yes...

One of the two easiest mods to a kit which give serious improvements:

#1: Use LME or at least DME for the extra fermentibles
#2: Dry hop.

The aroma hops which may or may not be added to the kit wort seem to take the most punishment during the condensing and canning process. Dry hopping will put another layer of aroma and flavour into your beer.

I go with 40g in 5 gallons based on the first one I did (Chinook in IPA) which turned out brilliant. I'm just waiting for a EKG in a Midas Touch to get ready for slurping... and I've got another IPA dryhopping currently!

Do it! You will not look back...

 

[50quidsoundboy]

+1 for Chinook!

 

[fbsf]

How about Goldings (he says as he has an opened packet and really needs to dry hop this evening if he is going to...)

 

[pittsy]

go for gold :thumb:

 

[calumscott]

Sounds good to me!! I lobbed 40g of EKG into a Muntons Midas Touch and although I haven't opened a bottle yet the sample at bottling time was PDG!

I think it'll work with your Coopers...

 

[fbsf]

Excelllllent... I've just popped out to get some muslin bags, so we're now on for tonight!

 

[RobWalker]

goldings are the classic british finishing hops, so by all means go for it :)

 

[fbsf]

I did, and it was worth it.

The beer now has a far more present hoppy aroma, and a fresh end to the taste. Obviously this is only two weeks old, so is going to spend about 5 weeks in a pressure barrel before it gets consumed to condition, but I think the addition of the hops has made a worthwhile difference.

To anyone who is doing a one-kit beer/ale, I would recommend buying some suitable hops and a muslin bag, and dry hopping. It does lift the beer considerably.

 

[RobWalker]

i will add to this, as i was thinking about it tonight...

you will find that heavily concentrated kits may taste good, but have absolutely **** all aroma. the reason behind this is that to keep costs down, they often just use basic bittering hops and not much else, much like lagers and pub bitters. as a result, the beer is decent - but it's got no aroma.

steeping/dry hopping will add aroma hops that simply arn't there, and I would nearly never write up a hop schedule with no aroma hops if i was going from scratch. tuck into a Punk IPA or Sierra Nevada after a John Bull IPA, and you will see what i mean.

for that reason, steeping and dry hopping are brilliant steps to improving a kit, and quite frankly, the more the better!

 

[PD]

can the experts give a short list of what aroma hops we novices can dry hop with, and what type of aroma they will give ?

 

[calumscott]

I was musing with graysalchemy on this very point.

Like in cooking you can take some preprepared stuff and turn it, through a bit of skill and the addition of some other decent ingredients, into a really impressive plate of food.

Brewing's no different. Start with a decent kit and add the best additional ingredients and you should turn it from something mass market to something a bit special.

 

[calumscott]

Dry hopping kits:

Pales: Any of the american citrus hops. Chinook is a personal fave.
Bitters: You can do a lot worse than East Kent Goldings. (said he having opened the first of the Midas Touch with EKG dry hop...)

I'm sure there will be more along with more suggestions soon...

 

[PD]

Botal Tints Pottled: 650

Love it.......

I understand that but when your learning its not a good idea to start throwing everything into the cooking pot hoping for improvement. A little knowledge of what your throwing and its effect is advisable.
Thanks for above

 

[calumscott]

...and while we're at it...

don't use sugar, bulk buy BREWING liquid malt extract and use it 1.5:1 to what the instructions say for sugar. Massive difference to the final quality.

 

[artyb]

ive made a hop tea by steeping hops b4 and it really adds a taste to a beer kit. :party: