Fuggles hops

[colliefish]

I've just bought 100g of the above to add to future brews.
My question which is a bit vague is; how much do you put into a 40 pint brew on average. And how best to store it once the vacuum pack is open.
Currently doing my first Muntons highland heavy. Would it really benefit from some hop addition or leave it as it is.
Cheers
Mark.

 

[pms67]

All kits benefit from additions,depending how hoppy you like your beer,i started with around 25g or so but now im now throwing in anything from 50-100g.
Good luck

 

[MyQul]

To add them to a kit you can either make a hop tea or dry hop with them. Both with give flavour and aroma but no bitterness. Afaik tea will give more flavour and dry hopping more aroma. As for how much. That depends on your tastes

As the name vaccuum pack suggests your trying to keep oxygen away from the hops which will oxidise them and make them smell cheesy. I fold the pack down as tight as I can and put a peg on it. I then put pegged vacuum bag in a zip lock bag and force as much air out as possible. Then put them in the freezer

If cant use hops up quickly pellets last longer than leaf (two years iirc). You can also get zip lock (mylar) versions of the vacuum bags they came in from ebay. I used some small ones to send out the hops in my taster packs to members. I really like em.

 

[timcunnell]

I have got the "Brewer's Friend" app (which is advertised a lot on this site - and that is very interesting to use in conjunction with figuring out how much hops to use, as well as how long to boil them for if you are doing an extract or indeed AG brew.

It depends whether you are the sort of chap who is looking to brew a specific type of beer (or maybe even a clone of a commercial beer you like) or whether you are more artistic and just bung in a bit of this and a bit of that because you know what you like. (a friend of mine brews his beer this way - and it leads to some awesome creations. But he never seems to be able to recreate them!).

Anyway - if you are setting out with a reasonably clear idea in your head of what you want to brew, you should be able to find not only the type of hops used for that beer, but also the beer's IBU value (which is its bitterness, in numerical form). You'll only get bitterness from boiling hops in your wort - adding later only adds aroma. BUT if you are doing a boil, and you know what IBU you're aiming for, you can use the app to work out how many grams of hops to use, as well as how long to boil them for.

Hope this helps!

 

[colliefish]

Thanks guys. I'll do more research. I'm only doing canned kits at moment.
I'm also a stickler for doing as per instructions first and then tweak the next time.
I may try some in a batch of wherry as although it was ok I didn't think it was that special. Quite similar to the ruby red.
My favourite brew to date is Muntons gold IPA.
Cheers
Mark.

 

[fourbob]

My first ever kit was a Wherry, it was only OK but I was blown away by the festival kits, which also gave me an appetite for experimenting with dry hopping. And Wherry is a good kit to mess about with if you can pick one up cheap from a Wilko or Tesco sale.....

I've found that adding a bit of extra DME, and then dry hopping with a handful of, well, whatever (I've used fuggles, bramling cross, amarillo) hops I've got has produced a very taasty brew - but it does benefit from being left alone for a couple of months. I normally get down to the last dozen bottles or so and start thinking blimey, this is alright....

 

[terrym]

If you intend to dry hop I suggest you consider using a weighted muslin bag. I use a large bag about 250mm square even for 25g hop additions, and weight it down with four heavy stainless soup spoons. That way you don't get hop carry over into your barrel/bottles, especially when using pellets.
I only dry hop when the primary fermentation has more or less stopped and leave the hops in contact with the brew for five or six days only.

 

[LarryF]

colliefish, instructions are ok but might I suggest having a crack using 1kg of Beer enhancer, 100g of honey dissolved into hot water (admittedly on one can kits) and as terrym says get a weighted bag boil up 30g of hops (with the weight in the bag to sterilize it)for twenty minutes and add the tea and bag to the FV for two weeks. Prime 500ml bottles (or the equivalent if kegging) with with a heaped 1/2 teaspoon of sugar and you'll get a very nice beer.

 

[colliefish]

Cheers guys. Some very cool ideas.