The Ultimate Beer Kit Tweak.

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Bigd2657

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Hi All ,

Im fairly new to brewing and have put up a couple of posts looking for advice.:whistle:

My question is has anyone found the ultimate beer teak using hops or malts or anything to make that no 1 beer.:)

If you have found that ultimate tweak can you post it online in this forum and I am going to see if I can make it on my next batch, and will upload all of the stages all the way through to keep everyone updated on how it is.:thumb:

Thanks all in advance :whistle:

Big D 2657

:):):):):):):):)
 
the easiest tweak with the greatest impact imho would be to use LME or DME instead of any simple sugar additions, you may loose a bit of the final abv but the brew should have significantly more body mouthfeel and malty undertones.

I dont think you will find a consensus on what the 'ultimate' tweak would be but i think many would agree that this should be where you start your own discovery..
 
I tend to agree, especially in a single can kit using spraymalt instead of sugar greatly improves the flavour and body over sugar (couldn't say if that applies to lagers styles though)

Also a dry hop, small or larger depending on the style definitely lifts the end product, careful not to overdo it though, if you're brewing a bitter or brown ale for example, you probably don't want it too hop forward.

I like to use muscovado in my brews too, I think it adds depth to the malt flavour in the kits I've done, but then I just love chewy beer!
 
The simplest tweak is a dry hop or a hop tea, which lifts the hop aroma and flavour profile without affecting the kit bitterness. A dry hop is apparently more aroma based than flavour and a hop tea t'other way round.
Dry hopping basics here
A Newbies Guide to Dry Hopping Your Beer - The HomeBrew Forum
Hop tea is to steep the hops in water at 70-80*C (but no more) then either add the liquor to the brew or add the lot at the time you would have added hops for dry hop.
Guide to hops here
Suitable hops for English and American ales - The HomeBrew Forum
Make sure you choose a dual purpose hop or an aroma hop.
This site is also useful
Hops Varieties for Brewing Beer Guide | Where legends are made
If you go this way I suggest to you start with about 50g of hops in total. By experience you will eventually know how much to add.
If you like stout there are plenty of different tweaks by members in the Coopers Original and Irish kit reviews on this forum.
 
I think the best tweak you can do is not to replace the kilo of sugar with DME or LME, but with wort from a partial mash. Mash about 2.5kg of a quality pale malt, like Maris Otter, drain and boil it for 30 mins with a quarter of a protofloc/whirfloc tablet for the last 5 minutes. You can chuck some hops in at the beginning to increase the bitterness, or add some at the end for the equivalent of a hop tea. This will add about the same abv as a kilo of sugar or 1.5kg LME, but give the taste of fresh grain that really makes a difference in malt-forward beers. You can also do a dry hop. EKG is great for British styles, but my preference if for lots and lots of potent New World hops like Centennial, Chinook, Citra, Amarillo, Mosaic or Galaxy.
 
I usually steep some speciality malts.
Take a pale lme for instance. steep 300gr choc malt, 70gr special b, and 100gr caramunich. You can do that in 5L pot.
Steep at 68.8C for 1 hour.
Strain this and boil for 50 minutes. Add kit lme, and 1 kg dme. Boil additional 10 minutes, and add to fv. Top up to 23L mark. I usually chill my top up water for a day to get to 3 degrees. This brings the whole lot close to pitch temp. If it is to cold or to warm, just wait it out. Rather pitch a degree or two too cold. Try hop after a week. For an aditional 7 days. On recipe above I will add 10-15gr fuggles or east kent.
 
I did a coopers pale ale about 14 months ago, came out really good,

Ingredients as follows:

1.7kg Coopers pale ale kit
1kg Beer Enhancer 2
500g hopped light dry malt extract
Dry hopped with 25g falconers flight hops [emoji1305][emoji481]


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If you like hoppy beers,it's a big if as I dont know but most eventually do,read Brew by James Morton,it's a great introduction into brewing at all levels.
He gets a bit carried away with his hop additions (600g!) but it's a good read and he reckons most brewery's underhop by a 3-1 ratio then us home brewers copy and further dilute the recipe.
I added 100g of Falconers Flight to a Coopers Lager and it was harsh to begin with but ended up great,IMO you are wasting time adding 20-30g of hops,go for it and see what you like (I've only just started taking my own advice)
 
If you like hoppy beers,it's a big if as I dont know but most eventually do,read Brew by James Morton,it's a great introduction into brewing at all levels.

He gets a bit carried away with his hop additions (600g!) but it's a good read and he reckons most brewery's underhop by a 3-1 ratio then us home brewers copy and further dilute the recipe.

I added 100g of Falconers Flight to a Coopers Lager and it was harsh to begin with but ended up great,IMO you are wasting time adding 20-30g of hops,go for it and see what you like (I've only just started taking my own advice)



I have been thinking about doing a bigger amount of hops so I might do a hop tea when doing my next kit and dry hopping more


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Just to offer an alternative view...

I recently dry hopped an pale ale with 30g East Kent Goldings and it's a very tasty beer. It's obviously down to personal taste but to me, it's spot on. Adding 3 times the amount of hops might have masked the nice biscuit flavours of the Maris Otter malt. I certainly don't think I wasted my time.
 
just bought me 8 black rock pale ale kits from an online homebrew shop at £8.95 a throw free delivery and im gonna have fun pimping them up with lots of big new world/American hops,amarillo cascade,azzaca falconers flight,chinook to name a few in my stores and maybe order some different ones too
 
just bought me 8 black rock pale ale kits from an online homebrew shop at £8.95 a throw free delivery and im gonna have fun pimping them up with lots of big new world/American hops,amarillo cascade,azzaca falconers flight,chinook to name a few in my stores and maybe order some different ones too



Just kegged and bottled black rock pale ale today, added cascade hop oil to keg [emoji481]


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