Spice up a beer kit

[Pablo56]

Hi. As stated in my introduction, I got some free vacuum packed hops in aluminium foil.

WAI-ITI
Sorachi ace
Sovereign
Souther cross

Has anyone heard of these. They are 100g but when I tried to boil them in a saucepan I ended up having to get lots of saucepans. too much hops. I wanted to introduce them in to my bitters. Some of the beers I like are St peters red ruby ail and scalmmonden dark Bru packs.

Best way to do this? boil some of it up? How long to boil? Poor the liquid only in or some or all of the hops to carry on flavouring the beer.

 

[The Baron]

Yes they are all good hops I think southern cross is South African and can be used in IPA's as can Sorachi and Wa-iti which is NZ and not too sure about sovereign without checking but from memory its a british style hop ? I am sure somebody who as used it will pipe up.
Some of the kit brewers will pop up and advise you on hop steeps/teas

 

[obscure]

One way to do it, is to dry hop, basically once the fermentation is about done you add the dry hops to the fermentor, and leave for a few days I typically leave for about 4 or 5 days.

Second way is a hop tea which I have yet to try, but sounds like what you are looking to do, hopefully someone else can advise.

 

[Pablo56]

One way to do it, is to dry hop, basically once the fermentation is about done you add the dry hops to the fermentor, and leave for a few days I typically leave for about 4 or 5 days.

Second way is a hop tea which I have yet to try, but sounds like what you are looking to do, hopefully someone else can advise.

Well when i used a mashing bin i would have a muslin bag filled with hops and turn it up to boil so that is where i was comming from. Can't remeber how long O boiled the hops for. i do have a dave Lyons book somwhere.

 

[terrym]

All except Sovereign are described in this list.
https://www.crossmyloofbrew.co.uk/hop-guide.
Sovereign are in here
https://www.morebeer.com/articles/homebrew_beer_hopsIf you boil hops you extract bitterness which may not be a good thing as you could upset the original bitterness intended by the kit manufacturer. The longer you boil and the more hops you use the more bitterness you will extract.
However you can use your hops for flavour or aroma especially since they seem to fit best in the last category so a dry hop may be best although a dry hop will add a little flavour too.
My suggestion is to pick one hop which you think best complements your kit and stick with that. Then do the same on subsequent brews. That way you find out what each individual hop contributes.
And 50g for a 23 litre brew is probably about right, at least as start point, not too much or too little.
You might then find this useful
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/a-newbies-guide-to-dry-hopping-your-beer.61045/

 

[Pablo56]

IPA is a mystery to me. I remember as a child in the 6os been told that IPA was a bit like steralised beer similar to sterilised milk. The beer was created for the indian market and as it took up to 6 weeks to get their through bad weather condidtions it had to be able to manage the journey. And it tasted bad.

So Obscure tell me about IPA. Sell it to me please.

 

[The Baron]

I'll leave that to the extract brewers as I do not do hop teas/steeps etc but you have got some good hops there

 

[The Baron]

IPA is a mystery to me. I remember as a child in the 6os been told that IPA was a bit like steralised beer similar to sterilised milk. The beer was created for the indian market and as it took up to 6 weeks to get their through bad weather condidtions it had to be able to manage the journey. And it tasted bad.

So Obscure tell me about IPA. Sell it to me please.

The best thing to do is buy a couple of bottles or cans of different IPA' from the supermarket and try them they are completely different from old style english IPA's

 

[obscure]

IPA is a mystery to me. I remember as a child in the 6os been told that IPA was a bit like steralised beer similar to sterilised milk. The beer was created for the indian market and as it took up to 6 weeks to get their through bad weather condidtions it had to be able to manage the journey. And it tasted bad.

So Obscure tell me about IPA. Sell it to me please.

I’ll give it a go, I think most of us these days when we say IPA mean the American version, typically fairly heavily hopped with American hops, Citra, Mosaic, Cascade, etc. Tend to have a fairly large addition at the sixty minute mark, giving a fairly high level of bitterness, can also have large late additions, as well as dry hopping. Tend to be best drunk fairly young as hop aroma and taste does fade with time.

Sierra Nevada is probably one of the ‘classic’ beers in the style, but as @the baron says best option is to go to the supermarket and pick up a few examples to try.

 

[terrym]

IPA is a mystery to me. I remember as a child in the 6os been told that IPA was a bit like steralised beer similar to sterilised milk. The beer was created for the indian market and as it took up to 6 weeks to get their through bad weather condidtions it had to be able to manage the journey. And it tasted bad.

So Obscure tell me about IPA. Sell it to me please.

There's two sorts of IPA. English and American. American IPAs have only become popular in the UK in the last 20 years or so. Before that there were only mostly English IPAs here. English IPAs tend to use English hops. Good examples are Shepherd Neame IPA and Fullers Bengal Lancer. Anything with the word citrus in the description or using many of the New World hops like Cascade will be likely be an American style IPA and every brewer seems to be climbing on the bandwagon to supply them. So although they are fundamentally stronger beers than most with lots of hops they taste different.
More on the distinctions in here, section 12C and 21A
https://bjcp.org/docs/2015_Guidelines_Beer.pdfFinally Greene King IPA is NOT a good example of the style