Adding hops

[Nick]

Most of you experienced brewers add hops to your brews. To a newby like me, can someone explain the varieties available, what they will do and the ways that they are added. Ie. what is dry hopping, late hopping and hop tea etc etc. maybe there is good web resource that you can send me a link too? In my second brew, the LHBS sold me some fuggles in a tea bag, but 10 minutes in a cup of hot water that i added to the brew didnt seem to do much, or so i thought. i like all beers from lager to stout, so any info will be gold.

Cheers, Nick

[Guest]

Hiya Nick.

 

The link below will showcase many of the hop varieties out there, & what bitterness/flavour & aroma properties each can impart. Simply hover over their "Products" Tab & select from there.

 

Hop Products Australia

 

Essentially from all the literature I've seen & read, there seems to be 3 main ways of adding hops to your brew.

 

1). Cooking Hops - Entails cooking them in boiling water or in with other cook-able fermentables in varying amounts & for varying time periods. The longer you cook hops for, the more bitterness is released from the hops. Cooking hops for shorter periods will add less bitterness & more flavour & aroma.

 

2). Steeping Hops - This basically entails having hops in a steeping bag or "tea bag" where the hops is placed into a small amount of boiled water (often 500mls to 1 litre) for a set period of time to allow the hops flavours to seep into the hot water in the same way you would make a cup of tea.

 

3). Dry hopping (or late hopping) - This is done after your brew has been mixed & placed in your FV. Again a "steeping bag" or "tea bag" of raw "dry" hops is simply dropped into your Fermenting vessel & allowed to seep it's flavour & aroma through your brew at a slower rate over a longer period of time due to the much lower temperature you have added the hops at into the brew cycle.

 

I hope that helps.

 

Beer.

[Guest]

The following chart will give you a good indication on what happens at various stages of a hop boil. However, as far as explaining all the varieties of hops is like explaining all the varieties of animals. There simply is too many to contemplate at once.

 

 

Hop varieties are generally catagarised into 6 major groups (even though there are a couple more like Japanese for eg.) These being:

Noble

European

American

English/UK

Australian/New Zealand

German

 

Here is a List Of Hop Varieties that will provide further information.