learning me hops....

[PD]

Start of the New Year I'm thinking of learning the flavours of Hops

I have a recipe for a straight bitter..no hops at all.
Maris Otter
Crystal
Wheat
and a bit o Black

I was thinking of doing a 20 litre brew of this and splitting it into smaller fv's and dry hopping each with different single additions of hops
How many grams of hops would be needed in say 10 litres of beer to give a generalised overview of each hop. i.e. EKG in one, Fuggles in another

 

[Dave1970]

if you only dry hop it won't be a bitter as there'll be no bittering hops. Wouldn't you be better splitting the boil and adding bittering and aroma hops to each half if you want to get to know the hops? That way your beer will reflect both the bittering and aroma characteristics of your hop.

 

[wilsoa1111]

well imho i reckon u want some bittering in the kettle(just a neutral high alpha- prob only need miniscule amounts) as prob useful to give some bitter balance to beer which dry hops wont-so any flavours wont be overpowered by malt- also to get a true flavour i reckon 10g in a hop tea at bottling etc and 10g to dry hop minimum per 10l more would probably be better than dry hop alone as this is argued to only give aroma... but thats just my opinion
i would also be be doing it in 5l water containers so i could include some more hop varietys and using the same amounts of hops ie 10 and 10

 

[PD]

Both good points, thank you.
5 lt. Water containers are a good ploy to use and I will probably use them

What and how much of a " neutral " hop should I add to the boil then. The recognised recipe I have for and I quote a " Straight Bitter " shows no hop additions at all.

I would like the 4 x 5 litre brews to be pleasantly drinkable....

 

[oz11]

As a suggestion try the following

Pale Ale malt to an OG1040ish

Whatever hop you want to 8 or 9 ibu.

Then follow up with the same hop at 10min and 0min, around 2-3g/L

 

[Jeltz]

I have been wondering about that myself, my instinct is to so a SMASH (single malt and hop) collect about 25L and split it into 5 batches.

Set what IBU I want from the boil and in the last 10 mins and adjust the volumes used according to AA levels (using brewing software for ease)

I have brown demijohns and I could use some yeast harvested from another brew to save wasting a full packet of yeast on a small batch.

 

[Andyhull]

How about splitting the hops into 2 and making a hop tea for bittering and then add the rest as a dryhop?
Still a single hop but you'll get bittering from the boil and aroma from the dry!

O make the basic bitter up with no hops as stated and do independant smaller batches from the main volume of wort maybe in 5lt batches on the hob!

Just a thought

 

[calumscott]

How about getting a 25l plastic jerry can, the sort of thing they use for camping and caravaning for water storage and what the aussies call a no-chill cube.

Mash, collect to boiler, bring just to boil and drop into jerry can. Then boil up 5 one gallon batches at whatever pace you fancy. Your wort having gone into the jerry can at boiling temp will be as good as sterile, if you then keep it cold - not too hard at this time of year it should keep until you get all your boiling done.

:thumb:

 

[PD]

:thumb:

 

[Loetz]

I wonder how the beer would preserve without any hops having been put in the boil. I imagine it might not have a low enough pH. But I'm not sure.