Simple ale from lme/kit

[BrewerRS]

Hi all.

I want to get another ale on the go at the moment. I've got some citra hop pellets (about 75g) sat in the freezer and they've been there for 6 months +. Is there a basic kit or unhopped lme I can use to do make a light/medium tasting ale with a slight bitterness?

I've never done a boil and I think I'd like to. Can I do a mini boil and use my hops that way? I've only ever used the pellets to dry hop.

 

[MyQul]

Hi all.

I want to get another ale on the go at the moment. I've got some citra hop pellets (about 75g) sat in the freezer and they've been there for 6 months +. Is there a basic kit or unhopped lme I can use to do make a light/medium tasting ale with a slight bitterness?

I've never done a boil and I think I'd like to. Can I do a mini boil and use my hops that way? I've only ever used the pellets to dry hop.

You could use either the cooper Australian pale ale kit or the blonde ale kit as they're quite neutral even bland. Then make up the kit but take 3L out before pitching the yeast. Bring this to the boil and you can then do a hop schedule perhaps 15min/5min/0min or 10min/0min. Cool in the sink then add back to the rest of your wort and pitch the yeast

The APA is 25 IBU and the blonde ale is 31 (if you make either up to 23L. It's differenct if you brew them short)

If your ok with brewing software just work out the extra IBU's from the micro boil if not I can do it for you

 

[BrewerRS]

That sounds good. Have I got enough pellets with 75g? What quantities should I use for each addition? I'm guessing each phase is slightly different, first for bittering, last for aroma?

I do tend to brew to 20L.

 

[MyQul]

In that case the APA IBU's is 28 and the blonde is 35 Which kit do you want to do? Aslo what is the AA% of the citra?

Edit. As a kit and kilo usually come out at about 1.040 the IBU/OG ratio for the APA is 0.7 and the blond is 0.8. An English bitter is usually about 0.7. If you want something a bit more mellow go for the APA a bit more hoppy, blonde.

Having done the figure for the ratio's and you saying, you want a slight bitterness, I woulnd now recommend a hop tea and a dry hop.
Hop tea - steep a minimum of 20g in 1L of <80C water for 20 mins. Seive the hops out then add at bottling time. Make sure you make the kit up to 19L as your adding 1L of hop tea.
Dry hop - add a minimum of 20g 5-7 days to the FV before bottling

 

[IainM]

I'm definitely with MyQul on this one. I did a Coopers Blonde hopped with Falconers Flight 7Cs, which is similar to Citra in aroma and bitterness from what I can gather. I brewed to 21 litres with 1kg extra-light DME and 400g brewing sugar, and boiled 16g of hops for 5 mins in a muslin with the dextrose before leaving it for 15 mins and using it to make up the kit. I also put a 20g hop tea and 30g dry hop two days before cold crashing for a further five days. Drinking it now and I would say its the best kit I've brewed. A lovely citrus floral flavour which makes me smile and think 'I can't believe I brewed this'.

 

[BrewerRS]

I haven't got the original packaging that had the AA info on it.

This isn't ideal but is there just a hard and fast method for my 75g of pellets and the APA? I will most likely make to 20L with 1kg of the most appropriate bk enhancer.

I like the idea of taking 3L out and doing a boil schedule rather than hop tea and dry hopping as I tried the latter before and it was nice but lacking in bitterness.

Also, I read somewhere that there's a chemical reaction that occurs when boiling hops and wort together that you don't get by boiling just hops and water. Is that right?

 

[MyQul]

If you want to add more bitterness to the kit I'll need to know the AA% but I could always use an average from the web. My Brewmate software has citra down at 11.1%AA.

However if your happy with the bitterness of the APA kit (have you brewed it before? It's not very bitter and quite easy drinking if you haven't) you can still use the micro boil method. I agree with you micro boils are better than the hop tea method I've found. I haven't looked into the interaction of hops and wort vs hops and water but I suspect your right. There's something going on in wort that doesnt happen with water. I've switched from doing hop teas to micro boils to get my flavour/aroma additions into the wort, even though it's slightly more work.

As mentioned, take 3L of wort and bring to the boil and simmer/boil gently for 15 mins (the simmer probably isnt necessary but it sanities the wort and I always do this as I'm a belt and braces man). Then cool the wort in the sink to <80C. Then add 20g of hops and let them steep for no more than 20 mins. Cool the wort in the sink again to pitching temp and pour the wort back into the main body of the wort, strain the hops through a seive as you go to strain them out.

This will add flavour and a bit of aroma but no bitterness

 

[BrewerRS]

Thanks that sounds good. I could probably add a bit more bitterness if you say that the APA isnt particularly bitter.