Too hopy and maybe cloudy

[Desmnd]

Hi. I had difficulty over the last decade getting an old favourite Brupacks pride of yorkshire scammonden dark. In the end I managed yo contact bruPacks directly and they sold two kits to me. When it arrived it had 5 aluminum sealed bags of hops. As I used to do home brew using the ingredients, I decided to boil the hops in a large saucepan. There were lots of this hop {Wakayu}. I emptied the entire contents into the fermenter with some sugar. I have had beer kits where they supply some hops for you to put in so I thought it a good idea to put the lot in.

What is the outcome going to be and should I get some clearing agent. I recon it will be very hoppy after 5 days fermenting. Will it go cloudy although it is a dark beer? Or have I just created a new and unusual dark beer.

TIA Desmond.

 

[Duxuk]

I would imagine the hops were intended to be boiled at different stages for different amounts of time like 60 minutes, 20 minutes, flameout and possibly dry hopping. If you boiled up the lot I'd expect the beer to be more bitter and less aromatic than intended. Did you get any instructions? Did you read them or use the classic flat pack furniture ruse of "I don't need any instructions"?

 

[Sandimas]

I've done some of the Brupaks kits before and they've never contained hops. Did you buy the hops separate? Sounds odd that there were 5 bags of hops, seems a lot.

Hops contained within such kits are usually for steeping or dry hopping, how long did you boil them for? These kits are already bittered so you'll be adding a load more bitterness by boiling.

Scammonden is meant to be a Porter, so I wouldn't have expected any late hops. I rekon you have just created a new and unusual dark beer.

 

[terrym]

+1 on what @Duxuk has said.
As far as bitterness in your beer is concerned there is nothing you can do now, except that it might mellow a little over time.
As for clarity I personally wouldn't bother adding anything just let time and gravity do the job at the conditioning stage. In any case your beer is a Porter style so clarity is less of an issue.

 

[Duxuk]

On a brighter note the OP didn't say how long he boiled the hops for. If it was only about 20 minutes it won't have added too much to bitterness.

 

[Desmnd]

No I did not get a recipe for the hops. BruPacks had old stock and were giving them away free to get rid. In addition to 2 scammonden dark, I received the following hops (free) vacuum packed in foil.

Wakatu 100g
Southern cross 100g
Sorachi Ace 100g
Sovereign 100g
Wai-iti 100g.

It's whether it would cause the beer to be cloudy having them in the fermenter for 5 days. I will handle it better next time. But these are all weird hops that I never heard of.

I used to brew with ingredients in a mashing bucket and the only hops I heard of were goldings, east kent and fuggles. will have to cross fingers this time and hope for the best.

"If it was only about 20 minutes it won't have added too much to bitterness. "

Yes but they were fermenting for 5 days! And don't forget this is a bruPacks kit and hops are not relay intended to be added.

 

[terrym]

Its not the fermentation time that determines how bitter your beer will be, its the %AA in the hops, the quantity of hops used, and the length of time they have been boiled to make up the wort. But boiling 100g of hops for 20 mins may still contribute the same amount of bitterness as boiling a much smaller quantity hops for 60 mins.
However if you add hops direct to the FV you are unlikely to change the bitterness by very much, if at all.
Anyway as far as this particular brew is concerned whats done is done and there is not a lot you can do about it.
I do suggest for your next kit you only add hops as a dry hop towards the end of the fermentation period if you still want to use your additional hops, and avoid boiling hops since this changes the balance of hoppiness in your beer, as you may have found out

 

[The Baron]

Generally if you use a large amount of hops in any brew it will tend to be cloudy especially if you are dry hopping
by the way how much of the hops did you use?

 

[Desmnd]

"I do suggest for your next kit you only add hops as a dry hop towards the end of the fermentation period "

But others are saying here if you only boil for 20 minutes then it would not have much effect [terrym}. If you don't boil it then you wont get the benefit of the hop.

I thought next time boil the 100g of hop for between 20 and 60 minutes (help here needed) and add the liquid to the fermenter at the start. I would like to experiment with some of these free hop packs. So how long to boil before adding to this dark beer kit?

All I need is a best guss from some experts how I could experiment on the next batch. Does anyone know or use any of the above hops. Southern cross did not smell much or maybe my sense of smell is not good. Wakatu did smell strong.

 

[terrym]

"I do suggest for your next kit you only add hops as a dry hop towards the end of the fermentation period "

But others are saying here if you only boil for 20 minutes then it would not have much effect [terrym}. If you don't boil it then you wont get the benefit of the hop.

I thought next time boil the 100g of hop for between 20 and 60 minutes (help here needed) and add the liquid to the fermenter at the start. I would like to experiment with some of these free hop packs. So how long to boil before adding to this dark beer kit?

All I need is a best guss from some experts how I could experiment on the next batch. Does anyone know or use any of the above hops. Southern cross did not smell much or maybe my sense of smell is not good. Wakatu did smell strong.

If you boil any quantity of hops for longer than 10-15 minutes you will introduce increasingly noticeable quantities of bitterness to your beer, The higher the %AA, the larger the hop quantity, the longer the boil the more bitterness introduced. If that is what you want you are on the right track. But my view is that by doing that you could spoil your beer by making it too bitter.
However you can still introduce hop flavour and aroma from the hops by making up a hop tea or adding the hops as a dry hop late into the primary when the fermentation is all but finished.
And with that I'm done