Hop suggestions

[Aussiekraut]

I’ve made an experimental batch, virtually of a blank canvas I’d like to turn into something good if possible. It’s based on a “Munich Lager” kit and had a can of Black Rock creamy brown added and was fermented with S04 yeast. The result is a very sweet beer with potential but in dire need for improvement. Firstly, it needs some buttering hops. A fair bit I’d say. The problem is the boil time. Can/should/is it safe to boil the extract for an hour? Is a 30 minute boil sufficient to add a decent amount of bitterness? Any suggestions on the hops to use? Also for flavour and aroma. 

[Aussiekraut]

Of course it is bittering hops it needs, not buttering hops LOL

 

[Otto Von Blotto]

What style are you going for? There is no real harm in boiling extract, just not the kit itself. You can get a decent bitterness from a 30 minute boil so it's not really imperative to do a full hour. 

[BlackSands]

If it's the Mangrove Jacks can you're referring to then yeah, the IBU's are pretty low -  under 20 if I remember rightly.  

Paired with the brown extract you could aim to brew a number of different styles but given the English ale yeast used perhaps a English Brown ale is perhaps what you want to aim for?  And, if so I'd just go for some classic English hops like Goldings, Fuggles etc.    Something like 25g of Fuggles boiled for around 30 mins would get your bitterness up where it needs to be.  Then you could finish off with another 25g if you wanted it a bit hoppier.    I did a brew recently which would have been along similar lines using 50g late-addition Styrian Goldings.  Was a very popular beer in my household   

 

 

Edited October 16, 2019 by BlackSands

[Aussiekraut]

31 minutes ago, BlackSands said:

If it's the Mangrove Jacks can you're referring to then yeah, the IBU's are pretty low -  under 20 if I remember rightly.  

Paired with the brown extract you could aim to brew a number of different styles but given the English ale yeast used perhaps a English Brown ale is perhaps what you want to aim for?  And, if so I'd just go for some classic English hops like Goldings, Fuggles etc.    Something like 25g of Fuggles boiled for around 30 mins would get your bitterness up where it needs to be.  Then you could finish off with another 25g if you wanted it a bit hoppier.    I did a brew recently which would have been along similar lines using 50g late-addition Styrian Goldings.  Was a very popular beer in my household   

 

 

Thanks BS. Yes, it is a MJ can. English Brown sounds like a good start. I'll give the English hops a go on next try.

It isn't a bad beer but way too sweet. It needs something to balance the sweetness.

 

[BlackSands]

Just now, Aussiekraut said:

Thanks BS. Yes, it is a MJ can. English Brown sounds like a good start. I'll give the English hops a go on next try.

It isn't a bad beer but way too sweet. It needs something to balance the sweetness.

 

The fact that it's a 100% extract brew will also add to the sweetness.  Extracts are around 65% fermentable so can often result in a high-ish FG around 1.014. I often add say 10% of sugar to a recipe just to help dry and thin the beer a tad.   Other ways to dry it out is to 'mash' your extract with some base malt - 30 - 60 minutes with some crushed pale malt @64ºC. The enzymes in the grain will help further breakdown some of the residual carbs in the extract.  I've also used alpha-amylase enzyme directly though it actually worked TOO well and dried the beer out a little too much (FG=1.007).    Of course sometimes you want that full-bodied mouth-feel and that may be quite appropriate for a brown ale.  

 

[Lab Cat]

1 hour ago, Aussiekraut said:

Thanks BS. Yes, it is a MJ can. English Brown sounds like a good start. I'll give the English hops a go on next try.

It isn't a bad beer but way too sweet. It needs something to balance the sweetness.

 

I found this with most of my winter experiments. None too sweet, but a kit and amber malt does throw the balance that way. I'd be trying the usual suspect English hops as well - EKG, Goldings. Challenger or Target could work well too, but I have trouble finding them locally.

[Aussiekraut]

3 hours ago, Otto Von Blotto said:

What style are you going for? There is no real harm in boiling extract, just not the kit itself. You can get a decent bitterness from a 30 minute boil so it's not really imperative to do a full hour. 

Thanks for clearing this up.

I'm looking at some English ale style. Malt driven, sweet but with a balanced bitterness. I think that's all it really needs. But I'm open to other suggestions.

 

[Otto Von Blotto]

For that I'd go with the hops suggested by the above posters. I recently had one on tap although it was done with Centennial because I'd run out of UK hops. Still worked well though as it was mostly only bitterness I was hopping it for.

[Lab Cat]

1 hour ago, Aussiekraut said:

Thanks for clearing this up.

I'm looking at some English ale style. Malt driven, sweet but with a balanced bitterness. I think that's all it really needs. But I'm open to other suggestions.

 

I wouldn't overthink it. A brown kit and the creamy brown unhopped extract will give you all the malt and sweet you need. All you need is some bittering to balance it out. I haven't tried the BR creamy brown extract, let us know how it goes.

I've done light, amber and Crystal malt tins as fermentablest his winter and the Amber is my favourite, it works with the Real ale and a bitter kit very well. The crystal was interesting, but overtook the Real ale a bit, so probably wouldn't use a whole tin of this liquid again.

[Aussiekraut]

1 minute ago, Lab Rat said:

I wouldn't overthink it. A brown kit and the creamy brown unhopped extract will give you all the malt and sweet you need. All you need is some bittering to balance it out. I haven't tried the BR creamy brown extract, let us know how it goes.

I've done light, amber and Crystal malt tins as fermentablest his winter and the Amber is my favourite, it works with the Real ale and a bitter kit very well. The crystal was interesting, but overtook the Real ale a bit, so probably wouldn't use a whole tin of this liquid again.

I normally use the Creamy Brown in connection with a dark ale kit. This makes one of my favourite winter beers. I had a chat with the fella at a LHBS and he reckoned using it with a light kit would work. It does but only if I add hops next time.

The Crystal worked well with a OS Lager kit and a 15 minute boil with Amarillo and Cascade hops. I wasn't that happy with it when it was fresh but after maturing a few weeks, it was quite nice...in fact, I only have two bottles left of it  I also used it with an RA kit but that's only been bottled last w/e, so I can't say anything about it yet.