Help with hopping a new brew — Amberish Ale

[GregW8705]

Hey everyone,

 

I need a little help with this brew as I'm still a novice. I have the Coopers Lager kit that comes with the Microbrew and an additional can of the unmalted Amber extract. In addition, I have 2 oz. of Simcoe hops pellets, 1 oz of Amarillo hops leaf, 1 oz of Fuggles hops leaf, 1 oz of Willamette hops leaf, and 1 kg of Brewing Sugar at my disposal. I've never made a brew with two cans of extract so I appreciate any guidance you can offer.

 

My current plans:

 

23L total brew

1 can of Coopers Lager

1 can of Coopers Amber LME

1 kg of brewing sugar

 

I also want to add some bitterness and aroma from the hops. I'm currently planning to get a moderate bitterness through a short boil of the Amarillo hops (30-40 min), and shorter boils (15 min or less) for 1 oz of Simcoe and 1 oz of Fuggles. I then planned to dry hop the rest of the Simcoe and Willamette.

 

Does this sound like it will produce a reasonable brew? Some calculators I used suggest a 1.050ish OG and 20-30 IBU from the hops depending on the exact nature of the boil.

 

How will the ~20 IBU of the Lager extract affect the overall hop balance given the inclusion of the other extract? Will it still come out to the same 20ish IBU?

 

What would be the best method of using my hops to bring out enough bitterness to balance the additional can of malt?

 

I'd also like to bring out the piney aroma of the Simcoe, but will this overpower the Fuggles or Willamette?

 

At this point I'm really taking a shot in the dark so any advice on how to reach a hop balance (maybe even slightly skewing toward the hoppy side) will be greatly appreciated.

[Greg]

I would do this with your ingredients:

1 can of OS Lager

1 can of Amber LME

200g sugar (dextrose or brewing sugar)

1 oz Amarillo boiled for 10 mins

0.5 oz Amarillo dry hop

US-05 yeast

22.5 litres batch.

 

Should be around 25-30 IBU and around 5% alcohol. And a nice drop.

 

Cheers and happy brewing.