Improving flavour of beer kits...

[Trotters80]

Hello, I normally use beer kits using many different brands of lagers, bitters etc. However, to me they all taste similar. Is there any other ways I can improve flavour?.

I heard someone else told me he peeled an orange & left it in or honey. Not sure if that's in the primary or secondary fermentation stage though???.

Any other suggestions?.

Cheers

 

[ManseMasher]

https://daveshomebrew.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=92&Itemid=49

Try some hops?

Hello, I normally use beer kits using many different brands of lagers, bitters etc. However, to me they all taste similar. Is there any other ways I can improve flavour?.

I heard someone else told me he peeled an orange & left it in or honey. Not sure if that's in the primary or secondary fermentation stage though???.

Any other suggestions?.

Cheers

 

[YeastFace]

Steep some speciality malt (Crystal, any of the Cara-malts, Black, Roasted Barley etc) and/or add a hop tea and/or dry-hop.

Will make it taste 'fresher'.

If you like stout kits, try adding some coffee or lactose to get a coffee or milk stout. Adding both works especially well, too. Maybe a vanilla pod or two, too

 

[clibit]

Add hops, and or grains. Hops is the easiest way to make a big improvement. But steeping some flavour grains is also very effective.

 

[Trotters80]

Thanks. I'll try hops first. Ive been looking online but how can I tell which are bitter & which are the aroma/flavoured hops?.

The websites ive looked at don't say, they just give you the name of the hops with no description.

Thanks again

 

[dad_of_jon]

Thanks. I'll try hops first. Ive been looking online but how can I tell which are bitter & which are the aroma/flavoured hops?.

The websites ive looked at don't say, they just give you the name of the hops with no description.

Thanks again

try this....

https://www.hopunion.com/aroma-wheel/

 

[clibit]

There's no simple answer. Generally speaking, high alpha hops are used for bittering, and low alpha are aroma. But a lot of high alpha hops have great aroma, and you may prefer them to a lot opf lower alpha hops! the alpha figure of hops is always quoted as a %, usually between 3 and 20%.

This might give you some ideas, for ales at least...

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=52909

And you can ask people on here for hop recommendations for different kits.

 

[Trotters80]

Thanks for both links, very useful. Just what I needed.

 

[Hoddy]

If your doing a larger type kit Hersbrucker are a good solid hop to dry hop with.

 

[Trotters80]

Is dry hopping better/more popular than boiling hops?. Im hearing a lot about "dry hopping". Im not new to home brewing, but new to fine tuning & improving my beer ie taking it a step further now.

 

[dad_of_jon]

Is dry hopping better/more popular than boiling hops?. Im hearing a lot about "dry hopping". Im not new to home brewing, but new to fine tuning & improving my beer ie taking it a step further now.

dry hopping won't give you bitterness. You'll get mostly aroma and a bit of taste.

 

[Hoddy]

[emoji106]

 

[Trotters80]

Sorry to sound thick but why would one use a bittering and an aroma hop together? Is it not one flavour or the other, meaning you either want a bitter flavour or a flavoured beer?. I was thinking of trying Green bullet & Saaz, but again do I use em together or one or the other on their own?.

Cheers

 

[clibit]

All beers have bittering hops, some more than others. A lot of beers have both bittering hops and flavour hops. You can use the same hop for both, or different hops. Or several hops.

Green Bullet is used a lot to provide the bitterness in lagers. Saaz is used to flavour a lot of lagers. You could thus use them successfully in a lager, or a blonde ale.

 

[MyQul]

Sorry to sound thick but why would one use a bittering and an aroma hop together? Is it not one flavour or the other, meaning you either want a bitter flavour or a flavoured beer?. I was thinking of trying Green bullet & Saaz, but again do I use em together or one or the other on their own?.

Cheers

The bittering addition is to balance out the sweetness of the malt. Then the flavour/aroma addition does exactly what it says on the tin. You can not have a flavouring/arome addtion such as in a stout or porter where the flavour comes from the grains, known as a malt forward beer but you have to have a bittering addition else your beer would be cloyingly sweet