Improving a kit - hop schedule.

[Brewski]

I'll be starting a brew this weekend - a Cooper's Australian Pale Ale kit. I'll be making it with "Cooper's Brew Enhancer 2" and about 250g dextrose to boost the ABV to around 5%. I also have some hops (Cascade and Willamette) and I'd like to add one of these.

The kit I'm using has a IBU of 18 which I'd like to raise a little, and I'd also like to give it a nice, noticable hoppy flavour without being an all-out hop bomb.

So, I was thinking:

15g Cascade (7.1% AA) boiled in 2L water for 15mins, strained and added to the wort. (To add about 5 IBU's and some flavour).

Boil another 2L water, let it cool to 80C, add 15g Cascade and steep for 60mins, strain and add to wort. (For flavour).

Does that sound sensible?

 

[Mark1964]

They will only need to steep for 20 mins. Also if you use pellets make the hop tea by using a cafetiere if you have one. Failing that a teapot and use a strainer when cool.

 

[Brewski]

Thanks Mark. The hops are whole but compressed into 100g "sheets". They're like thick, rough sheets of papermache, if you see what I mean. Do you think it'll work with a cafetiere if I cut the hop-sheet up quite small?

What do you think of hopping in 2 stages - worth doing?

 

[clibit]

You only need one boil, add the steeping hops at the end of the 15 minute boil.

 

[Brewski]

You only need one boil, add the steeping hops at the end of the 15 minute boil.

Great, that's handy. I was originally going to do just one boil but then had utilisation worries so went with "better safe than sorry" and doubled-up. Cheers.

 

[winelight]

I just break up the "sheet" by hand.

 

[clibit]

Use 3 litres instead of 2.

 

[Brewski]

Anyone done this kit with hop additions before? If so, what did you do? How did the beer turn out?

 

[clibit]

Yes my last brew, check out brew days. I split it 3 ways, 1. Bobek 2. Motueka 3. First Gold & Summit.

It worked it well. I did a mini mash with Munich malt and Caramunich. So they are quite malty sweet, and the hops are great.

 

[Brewski]

I notice you used roughly 3x more hops than I'm planning to. I don't want an overly-hoppy beer but I wonder if 30g is a bit on the low side. How hoppy did yours turn out?

 

[clibit]

30g of Cascade will probably do what you want it to, it's a pretty powerful hop.

Mine turned out fine, I like hoppiness and there is a lot of sweetness from my mini mash grains to balance the hops.

 

[Brewski]

That makes sense so I'll stick to my original plan and see how it goes. Cheers.

 

[Slid]

I notice you used roughly 3x more hops than I'm planning to. I don't want an overly-hoppy beer but I wonder if 30g is a bit on the low side. How hoppy did yours turn out?

I did this kit with 1kg DME and 33g of Cascade, boiled for 5 mins and brewed to 25L and it was really good. The hoppiness was best appreciated at a bit above fridge temperatures - some thing like 10C and the hops faded quite quickly, so drink early :

 

[Brewski]

I did this kit with 1kg DME and 33g of Cascade, boiled for 5 mins and brewed to 25L and it was really good. The hoppiness was best appreciated at a bit above fridge temperatures - some thing like 10C and the hops faded quite quickly, so drink early :

Cheers Slid. Where do you get your DME from? I'd like to use some but it seems quite expensive (especially the Coopers branded stuff). Buying some grain and mini-mashing looks to be considerably cheaper or am I missing something?