dry hopping question

[Davybarman]

Hi folks.
Question for the more experienced brewers.

At the minute I am sticking with the kits as I have as I have neither the time, space or money to go full swing into AG.

However I want to make the most out of the kits I buy, so am always on the look out of tips on how to enhance my brew.

Thanks to someone earlier who gave the tip in regards getting my beers clarity improved.
:thumb:

However something that has me intrigued is both dry hopping, and hop tea.

Now looking through the forum I dont see a how to guide for either.


So what I want to know is usually what quantities are used for dry hopping?
Also have eclectic taste in beer.( like them all!!) So what would you recomend a bigginer try with a
lager
ale
stout

I want something to try first before I experiment to my own taste.

 

[RobWalker]

It really depends what you're after...I would say anywhere from 20g to 40g is usual, but it can also depend on the hop and style.

Lager - not generally dry hopped as they are brewed clean, but any noble hops. tettnang, saaz, hallertauer etc. I love saaz, it's spicy and perfumey.

Ale - that's a broad catagory. American IPA's, Cascade (or any american hops beginning with the letter C) are great.

English ales and EPAs, you basically want Goldings or Fuggles. Goldings are the classic finish, and with good reason!

Wheat Beers often use noble hops too (lager hops.) You can experiment here though, no harm in it!

Stout I'm not sure!

A few of my favourites are Cascade, Goldings, Bobek, Nelson Sauvin and Saaz. Galaxy is popular, i'm not fond personally. Have a look on some stores, see what takes your fancy! If you're into a particular commercial beer, see what hops it uses on the internet and use 'em.

The good thing about kits is all of the cheap ones use Isometrized Hop Extract, which is pretty plain and flavourless. In that respect, a lot of kits are a blank canvas for you to do what you want with them. Add hops, malts, boost or reduce abv, use different yeast...

Further to this, also look into steeping some malts into your kits - crystal, chocolate, black and cara type malts can all be used with just a 20 min steep in a pan of warm water and only need a few hundred gram. you can't use adjuncts (rolled/torrified corn, wheat, rice etc) and only cara types will give you fermentable sugars, but it will make a great difference and increase your knowledge of home brewing :)

Check out your yeasts too, a good quality yeast will increase the quality of the beer, and you can experiment with styles.

 

[pittsy]

great response Rob

 

[Davybarman]

Cheers Rob. :thumb:
It gives me something to think about. Prob stick to the lower quantities till I find a balance I like.

I like the sound of saz. May check it out in my next lager.

In regards steeping malts. Thats a new term for me so may research a bit more down the line.

 

[Davybarman]

Found this article about Dry Hopping. Seems to answer a lot of questions and would be good for anyone else considering it like myself

http://byo.com/stories/article/indices/37-hops/573-dry-hopping-techniques
:thumb:

 

[joe1002]

There is no link, can you post it again?

 

[Davybarman]

Updated

 

[joe1002]

:thumb: