Lazy brewing. Adding hops to kits.

[Joust]

Anyone got any thoughts on fiddling with kits to make fancier beers?

Due to a baby, time is at a premium at the moment. And the need for beer is at a high.

I've been using different basic kits and then dry hopping the Christ out of them. It's surprisingly pretty good.

What do people think about adding extras to kits? Maybe chucking some LME in or boiling a load of hops up the n water to try to bitter it up...

 

[hop-a-long]

There's one kit that works a treat.
It's Bulldog's Evil Dog Double IPA.
The kit comes with 2 packets of hop pellets. What I did was adding an equal quantity of Mosaic to 5 L of the made wort (separate boil as per instrutions) and used the other 2 plus the same quantity again of Mosaic as a dry hop.
The end result is wonderful.

 

[Brew_DD2]

Lots of people do it. Your original tact of dry hopping the hell out of kits is a good way to go.

The other option is starting with unhopped malt extract (dry was always my preference) and do a boil. Only issue with going down this path is the extra time for boiling and cooling etc.

 

[Joust]

There's one kit that works a treat.
It's Bulldog's Evil Dog Double IPA.
The kit comes with 2 packets of hop pellets. What I did was adding an equal quantity of Mosaic to 5 L of the made wort (separate boil as per instrutions) and used the other 2 plus the same quantity again of Mosaic as a dry hop.
The end result is wonderful.

I've used that one recently. I just dry hopped with a mix of very aromatic hops. But will try again with some extra boil.(when it's back in-stock and not bring price gouged on eBay).

Thanks

 

[Joust]

Lots of people do it. Your original tact of dry hopping the hell out of kits is a good way to go.

The other option is starting with unhopped malt extract (dry was always my preference) and do a boil. Only issue with going down this path is the extra time for boiling and cooling etc.

Sounds great. But I'll probably end up spending just as much time as doing a proper brew...

 

[BrewMeHappy]

That's the beauty of this game, you can do whatever you like to your beer. Some will be great, others a little naff and something in between. Still, it's always drinkable though so nothing ventured nothing gained.

I play with kits too as I too don't have the time for all grain. Adding hops, treacle etc...and just see how it comes out.

Just remember to write your recipes down so if you get a great result you can remember how to do it again!

 

[Banbeer]

Anyone got any thoughts on fiddling with kits

Phweeeeeeew, only a 'd' away from a very different thread.

 

[terrym]

In addition to hop teas or dry hops, or steeping speciality grains like crystal or chocolate malts, there is also this.
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/simple-kit-plus-mini-mash-method-to-improve-a-kit.52938/

 

[Joust]

In addition to hop teas or dry hops, or steeping speciality grains like crystal or chocolate malts, there is also this.
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/simple-kit-plus-mini-mash-method-to-improve-a-kit.52938/

Great tips. Thank you

 

[Joust]

Ok. I've been thinking more about super low effort brewing...

I'm going to ferment a few KG of spray malt and some sugar. At the end I'm adding some isomered hop extract for bitterness and a lot of hops for aroma.

I think it might lack a bit of body... But we'll see.

Anyone got any predictions?

 

[BrewMeHappy]

No predictions from me but it sounds like an interesting experiment. Keep us posted.

 

[Patrick_Newing]

This is what I'm doing now, just to see how it comes out, as an experiment:

2kg light DME
1kg sugar
To 21 litres water
Took some Amarillo and simmered with 2 litres of the water and think it was 250g of malt powder for 20 min.
US-05 yeast.
After fermentation died down have dry hopped with 75g citra and 50g amarillo.

I'm waiting to bottle in a few days then I'll try one after a couple of weeks.

Hoping for something quite light, thin and to have big hit of hops. And something that can drink young.
Not sure you want to wait that long but anyway I'll let you know how it comes out!

(I'm messing about because have time, also got a banana wine bubbling away, that's a first for me!)

 

[Joust]

This is what I'm doing now, just to see how it comes out, as an experiment:

2kg light DME
1kg sugar
To 21 litres water
Took some Amarillo and simmered with 2 litres of the water and think it was 250g of malt powder for 20 min.
US-05 yeast.
After fermentation died down have dry hopped with 75g citra and 50g amarillo.

I'm waiting to bottle in a few days then I'll try one after a couple of weeks.

Hoping for something quite light, thin and to have big hit of hops. And something that can drink young.
Not sure you want to wait that long but anyway I'll let you know how it comes out!

(I'm messing about because have time, also got a banana wine bubbling away, that's a first for me!)

Do you know what alcohol content you've got?

 

[Patrick_Newing]

SG was about 1.049, not accurate because measured in the bucket, it came down to ~1.010 by 27th when I added the hops.
So looking like 5%.
It had a weird looking 'krausen' on it I've never seen before after the finished gravity is met, been reading up on that, seems to be from the US-05.

 

[Joust]

My lazy attempt is done. And I'm putting it in a corny to carb.

I did a couple of kg of medium dme and a kg or two of sugar to power it up. No boiling or heating. And no bittering hops.

A few days ago I added 100g centennial hops for dry hopping. And I've just tasted it now. Very bland but a nice hoppy smell.

I added a few glugs of the isomered hop extract and tried it again. That stuff made an amazing difference. It instantly tasted like a quality beer. And the hop aroma from the dry hopping popped out.

It's come out at 6.8% too.

Going to gas it up via the dip tube and give it shake and try it tomorrow afternoon.

Total effort was about 20 minutes work for the batch. And i think i used about a quids worth of isomered hop extract.

 

[Patrick_Newing]

I didn't have, and couldn't seem to find, any hop extract for bittering and I really wanted to include it. Got the same thing when bottling mine; bit bland.
☹
Probably some medium DME would have helped mine too.
Just hope its drinkable light summer beer anyway, will taste one in another week when checking for carbonation.

 

[Patrick_Newing]

It's a bit murky! I didn't do anything to clear it though.

 

[QED]

What do people think about adding extras to kits? Maybe chucking some LME in or boiling a load of hops up the n water to try to bitter it up...

Totally do this.

Boil 1.5kgs Light DME in 12ltrs water for an hour and add bittering, taste and nose hops at your discretion. Add another 1 to 1.5kg DME in the last 15, cool and add to your fermenter to make 23 ltrs of IPA style beer of your making. (Pitching yeast obviously which is another factor you can experiment with. Use Safale US-05 as the starting point)
Use a chart like this to play about with hops.

http://www.cliffsnotesbeerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/hop-chart.jpg

 

[Joust]

Totally do this.

Boil 1.5kgs Light DME in 12ltrs water for an hour and add bittering, taste and nose hops at your discretion. Add another 1 to 1.5kg DME in the last 15, cool and add to your fermenter to make 23 ltrs of IPA style beer of your making. (Pitching yeast obviously which is another factor you can experiment with. Use Safale US-05 as the starting point)
Use a chart like this to play about with hops.

http://www.cliffsnotesbeerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/hop-chart.jpg

Very cool. Thanks

 

[Joust]

It's a bit murky! I didn't do anything to clear it though.
View attachment 27067

Looks like it's solid!
I always get that after dry hopping though.

Looking forward to hearing how it tastes with some fiz and fresh from the fridge