Beer lover but brewing newbie!

[Frana1971]

Hi all,

I am a complete homebrew beginner so I hope I'm not to amateur or basic for this forum - please tell me if I am! I do love the odd beer or two - especially a hoppy/citrus IPA.

I am certainly no connoisseur but just like what I like (not too keen on really dark ales though).

I have just started brewing at home with fermentation buckets and have been reasonably successful at my first attempt using a kit from a tin.

Here is my first ever question:

Can I add hops to this kit in the brewing process if so, when? As I have to mix the extract with 6 pints of boiling water, I was thinking to include hops while it is boiling. Would this work and if so.....any tips?

Thanks folks.

 

[Edison]

Hi Frana and welcome! This forum is a healthy mix of all levels of experience and there are plenty of newcomers here, I’m sure you’ll fit right in!

I haven’t brewed kits in a long time (I brew all grain) but one of my more rewarding experiences back then was brewing a two-can pale ale kit and boiling up a few good handfuls of saaz hops for 10 minutes before straining and adding to the bucket to dissolve the malt extract in (no need to boil up the malt, just dissolve it in the boiled liquid). You might get a slightly hazy brew from the hops, but the flavours are worth it.

You can also try dry hopping, adding hops into the fermenter when it has finished fermenting and leaving for 2-3 days before bottling/kegging.

If like me you enjoy hoppy, citrus, piney US style pales and IPA’s you could try Citra, Chinook, Cascade or something off this list that appeals:

Hop Substitution Chart

If you’re after small amounts of specific hops you could try here (free shipping and the 25g hop bags are useful for dry hopping):

https://www.crossmyloofbrew.co.uk/online-store
I hear good things about the Festival Razorback IPA kit too, you might want to try that one.

Will all things brewing though, arguably the two most important things to get right is keeping everything as clean and sanitary as possible and try to keep the temperature of the fermenter in the correct range as instructed on the yeast packet and as stable as possible.

Enjoy your new hobby, and ask away, there are no stupid questions!