Preparing and adding Hops?

[Danny's Juice]

Hi, can someone please bring up to speed withbrewing with hops. I'm about to put my 3rd brew down and want to try some interesting recipes.

I've been trying to decipher this forum but still unsure, whats the process for preparing the hops e.g. steeping times, do pellets go into bags/cloths or just chuck them into the pot?, do I only add the tea thats made or does everything get thrown in? And what is dry hopping?

 

Any help is much appreciated

[King Ruddager]

Okie dokie, where to begin. Let's see ...

 

Firstly, if you've boiled or steeped some hops in a pot then the best thing to do is to strain this liquid (the "hop tea") into the fermenter. There's no need to keep them in a cloth or bag because the strainer will catch it all at this point.

 

"Dry hopping" usually refers to adding hops to the fermenter a couple of days after brewing. It's ok to just throw the pellets straight into the fermenter ("commando" style) but you can then end up with hop matter in your bottles. This is where a lot of people use chux cloths, pantyhose or, my personal preference, tea infusers to contain the hops. Make sure whatever you use is clean! Using Chux cloths straight out the packet is a good method here.

 

SO

 

A lot of time you'll see something that looks like this:

15g hops @15 mins

15g hops @5 mins

 

The times here refer to the number of minutes each addition needs to be boiled for. To follow the example above you would get some water boiling, set a timer for 15 minutes and add the first 15g of hops. The second addition needs 5 minutes, so when the timer is down to the 5 minute mark (ie. 10 minutes in) you would add that lot.

 

Those are probably the most basic things to know and will serve you just fine. There are other considerations when you get more advanced - such as adding some malt to your boil to get the most out of it - but you'll pick that up in time.

 

Hope this helps [sideways]

[Danny's Juice]

That clears up most of the mess in my head, with dry hopping, when youve added the hops do you stir it in or just cover it back up and let nature do its thing?

[JohnE9]

It is just lovely to read His Majesty's advice; so regal and wise.[kissing]

 

Oh, by the way King, what happens now that your ancestor from BrisVegaS, kRUDD, is now amongst the hoi polloi, just like the rest of us.[lol] [lol] [lol]

[King Ruddager]

... when youve added the hops do you stir it in or just cover it back up and let nature do its thing?

Just get the cover back on as fast (but gently) as you can!! There's a risk of introducing infection at this point you see.

 

In fact, some of us (myself included) dry hop on day 1. For me it's the step before pitching the yeast. Some people think it makes a difference, some do not. There are other clear advantages if you happen to be lazy and/or forgetful as well [wink]

[Scottie]

+1 to all that the King has said.

Hops give three things

Bitterness

Flavour

Aroma

The longer the boil the less the aroma then flavour and the higher the level of bitterness. So Dry Hop big on aroma. Short boil 5 mins good for aroma and falvour, 15 minutes flavour. I wouldn't boil for more than 20 minutes with a Coopers Can, can't see the point. I wouldn't worry about adding malt if you are going to stay around 5 minute boils, the malt is there to reduce the harshness of the hop bitterness in the boil. Steeping for 30 minutes is also good for aroma and flavour, but I always boil the hops a bit, 1 minute, before letting them sit for 30 minutes. I always strain into the FV. I always use a hop bag, that I got from Craft Brewer, for Dry Hops. Boil the bag for 5 minutes, drain off the water, leave the bag in the pot, carefully put the hops in teh bag, then take the pot to the FV and carefully place the hop bag into the FV, this is when I remove the Krausen Collar.

[King Ruddager]

Yep. This picture is worth a thousand words:

 

[Hairy]

K-Rudd touched on it earlier but I think it is worthwhile expanding on it. I think you should always add malt to a hop boil.

 

Aim for a gravity around 1040; 100g dry/liquid malt per 1 litre of water should get you close enough.

 

I have boiled hops with water and dextrose before and the result was some harsh bitterness. I presume just boiling in water would be similar.

 

A hop steep or hop tea is fine to do in water though.

[Scottie]

K-Rudd touched on it earlier but I think it is worthwhile expanding on it. I think you should always add malt to a hop boil.

 

Aim for a gravity around 1040; 100g dry/liquid malt per 1 litre of water should get you close enough.

 

I have boiled hops with water and dextrose before and the result was some harsh bitterness. I presume just boiling in water would be similar.

 

A hop steep or hop tea is fine to do in water though.

I do agree Hairy

I'm just saying, and using the chart as a guide, there's very little difference in the bitterness level between steeping and boiling for 5 minutes. Therefore if your just starting out and then I reckon an SG of 1 wouldn't cause any dramas under 5 minutes of boiling. Then again adding 100g/litre of malt isn't the hardest thing your going to be doing in your brewing career [whistling