Extra Hop additions to a Kit brew

[Fuzzy Growler]

Hi all just wondering if anyone has done/tried this before....

So I'm going to do a mangrove jack's juicy session IPA and play around with it. (Because I like really hoppy beers but don't have room for a AG kit yet).

I was thinking - to get extra Hop additions in the boil I may be able to steep some hops in boiling water in a flask to keep the heat in or possibly do it on the hob, strain and add to the FV with the kit syrup and complete the rest as normal.

Can you see for any reason why this wouldn't work?
Anyone done anything similar?

Cheers in advance

 

[Leon103]

Don't see an issue. Keep an eye on the ibu's. Does the kit list the ibu?

 

[Fuzzy Growler]

Don't see an issue. Keep an eye on the ibu's. Does the kit list the ibu?

It does, I'll reply back with it tomorrow, just hit the sack

 

[Fuzzy Growler]

Don't see an issue. Keep an eye on the ibu's. Does the kit list the ibu?

Hi Leon, Just found a pic on my phone, the IBU is 22-28

 

[Gerryjo]

Try dry hopping in the fermenter as this will not affect your IBUs but will increase your flavour and aroma.

 

[Fuzzy Growler]

Try dry hopping in the fermenter as this will not affect your IBUs but will increase your flavour and aroma.

Cheers Gerry, I'll be dry hopping for sure

 

[Leon103]

Hi Leon, Just found a pic on my phone, the IBU is 22-28

Seeing it's a ipa you have room to add some more ibu, to your taste

 

[Fuzzy Growler]

Seeing it's a ipa you have room to add some more ibu, to your taste

Is there a way of calculating this mate?

 

[terrym]

Have you done this kit before?
If you haven't I would leave it as it is this time round.
That way you can better judge what mods, if any, are needed, should you decide to do it again, and then if you do mod the same kit in future brews, you can better judge what is needed.
But if you have done this kit before I suggest you limit your changes to one thing, one hop, so you can better judge how you have changed things, and that will be part of your brewing learning curve.
Certainly without any of that prior knowledge, boiling up hops and dumping lots of different hops either as a dry hop or hop tea into a beer you know nothing about, will mean you really gain very little specific knowledge about each change you have made.

 

[Banbeer]

Hi Fuzzy, depends if you want bitterness or aroma, if you add at the beggining it will increase the bitterness, and as you know dry hopping will give you aroma.

 

[Fuzzy Growler]

Have you done this kit before?
If you haven't I would leave it as it is this time round.
That way you can better judge what mods, if any, are needed, should you decide to do it again, and then if you do mod the same kit in future brews, you can better judge what is needed.
But if you have done this kit before I suggest you limit your changes to one thing, one hop, so you can better judge how you have changed things, and that will be part of your brewing learning curve.
Certainly without any of that prior knowledge, boiling up hops and dumping lots of different hops either as a dry hop or hop tea into a beer you know nothing about, will mean you really gain very little specific knowledge about each change you have made.

Yeah a few of times, I've just done one by changing the yeast to the Verdant yeast at that's improved it now I want to get more hoppy flavours in there

 

[Fuzzy Growler]

Hi Fuzzy, depends if you want bitterness or aroma, if you add at the beggining it will increase the bitterness, and as you know dry hopping will give you aroma.

Yeah maybe just try it with 25g Citra as it comes with Citra hops for dry hopping

 

[terrym]

Yeah a few of times, I've just done one by changing the yeast to the Verdant yeast at that's improved it now I want to get more hoppy flavours in there

If it's hop flavours you want try a hop tea of your chosen hop. And perhaps chuck the tea and steeped hops in when the tea has cooled.
In my view hop teas are more about flavour compared to dry hopping which is more about aroma, and are a kit brewers way of part replicating what AG and extract brewrs achieve with their late hop additions at the end of the boil and post boil.

 

[Drunkula]

Agree with a dry hop or hop tea.

Don't put the tea in early when it's really fermenting because you'll lose loads of it down the plughole (some will volatise off with the fermentation gases). I did a three way split with a dry hop, early and late hop tea and the early tea was absolute **** compared to the other two. I preferred the dry hop over the late tea but they got much closer to each other after about a month in the bottle.

Caffetieres are a great brewers' tool when it comes to hop teas. You can add less water to the kit knowing you'll be adding a tea. First few times I just did about 250ml and there was tons of flavour left in the hops so you're better off doing the first stew, pouring it off then adding more and letting it sit again. There's an optimal temperature of something like 64c - sure you'll find it if you search hop tea.

 

[Fuzzy Growler]

Thanks guys

 

[Fuzzy Growler]

I have 25g Hop tea bags on order, Citra, mosaic, galaxy and Nelson sauvin

 

[Leon103]

Is there a way of calculating this mate?

Do you use on brewing software? You can do so with any recipe builder, I use beersmith.

 

[Fuzzy Growler]

Do you use on brewing software? You can do so with any recipe builder, I use beersmith.

I'll check this out cheers dude