Sixth brew: IPA/Bitter

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

Good morning gents,

So time has come for my next brew. I'm planning an IPA or Bitter style beer, but I don't know exactly what the difference is between them. I'll be using a Munton's IPA Bitter extract can which seems to be getting great reviews as the base, and I'm planning on adding a bag of "brew enhancer" as always. However, this is where I'm getting a bit stuck. I don't know if I should add the #44 Australian Spec Bitter DME or the #70 English Bitter DME. I also see that reviews places it at "medium" bitterness, but I want to boost that a little bit.

As such I want to see if I can add some bittering hops to the boil, and maybe even some aggressive dry hopping sometime during the fermentation. How would you recommend I do this? I'm thinking the Southern Star hops, but I see it's marked as a Bittering hop. Does that mean I should get something else for the aroma hops (which is added during the fermentation as a dry hop, I believe)?

I'll be buying the standard 100g hops packets and I'm not using it a lot, so I'll have a lot to play with. What would you recommend I add and how much to the boil/dry hop?

I'm aiming for an aroma-rich, quite hoppy beer as the result. I want to see where I can push the bitterness to with this one!

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

Not sure how dme works, does it have a ibu rating on the can? High alpha acid hops or bittering hops are usually used start to mid boil. Aroma at a later stage. I personally use aroma on dry hop post fermentation, I rack from the fermenter to another vessel and add my hops to a hop tube.

Cold dry hop for 7-10 days, warm 5-7. I've never used a SAB hop before, had way too much SAB in my life to resist the familiar taste.

My assumption is that the dme should have a ibu rating somewhere and you could calculate the additional ibus you add in the boil or hopstand. Dry hopping adds little bitterness to the brew and is mainly used for flavor or aroma.

Wait for the other hop heads to chime in though.

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[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

That's just the thing - the can is quite useless. Target OG is relatively OK at "1.040 to 1.044", but the IBU's is a lekker "10 to 20". Now I'm not beer expert, but 10 IBUs is VERY little, with 20 being slap bang in the middle of "eh", and nowhere near the usual 40~50 of the IPAs I'm used to. I wouldn't mind an IBU count in that range, maybe even higher, coupled with a good dry hop for aroma and flavour. I just want a sort of guide to tell me "boil 30 minutes with 15g and dry hop 5 days in the fermenter" with the hops of whatever choice would be best for me. I don't mind going to non-SAB hops, but their prices go into the "sho" range quickly.

EDIT: I'll be using a proper yeast though. Planning on using M42 New World Strong Ale from Mangrove Jack's.

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

You can use this https://www.brewersfriend.com/ibu-calculator/ to calculate your ibus on the hop boil. I personally bitter at 30 min and late at 5min, then hopstand after boil for up to 45min. 10 ibus is pretty low and 20 in the blonde range. Perhaps add some in the calcs adding 10 from the tin. Not precise, but you should be okay on the larger ibu calculations. Knowing that that you might be in-between 10 and 20 from tin recommendations


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[Langchop Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Langchop]

I suspect you are looking more for the hop flavour and aroma of a IPA than just the hop bitterness typical of a bitter?

If so, I would just add a small amount of IBUs (say half of the extra IBUs you want to add) with a bittering hop at 60 Min and then get the balance of IBUs with dual purpose hops added 20 minutes or less. And then generous dry hopping.

Good luck. I think you're becoming a hophead

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

I suspect you are looking more for the hop flavour and aroma of a IPA than just the hop bitterness typical of a bitter?

If so, I would just add a small amount of IBUs (say half of the extra IBUs you want to add) with a bittering hop at 60 Min and then get the balance of IBUs with dual purpose hops added 20 minutes or less. And then generous dry hopping.

Good luck. I think you're becoming a hophead

Yeah and it's your fault, to be honest... I wouldn't mind a lekker hop bitterness either, but the aroma and flavour is what I'm mostly hunting, yes. It's a flavourful beer and apparently quite dark, so a hop overdose will be great with it, I think.

[Harhm Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Harhm]

My 2 cents. I think you understand the brewing process well enough to change over to all grain brewing. With very little additional equipment and a some help from brewing software you can create the beer you want and not guess what you are going to get from a can ito malt, hop favour and IBU levels. You are just 1 mash away from a new way of brewing

[Langchop Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Langchop]

My 2 cents. I think you understand the brewing process well enough to change over to all grain brewing. With very little additional equipment and a some help from brewing software you can create the beer you want and not guess what you are going to get from a can ito malt, hop favour and IBU levels. You are just 1 mash away from a new way of brewing

+1, well said.

I dont think you would have any regrets

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

My 2 cents. I think you understand the brewing process well enough to change over to all grain brewing. With very little additional equipment and a some help from brewing software you can create the beer you want and not guess what you are going to get from a can ito malt, hop favour and IBU levels. You are just 1 mash away from a new way of brewing

I'm not saying you're wrong at all, because I know you're not. Since I started (exactly a year ago, actually) I may have only done around 5/6 brews in total, but I've learned A LOT. However, it's the investment cost into more equipment that's holding me back. I got a baby on the way, so I need to start turning over my cents to get the things in place I need to. I simply do not have the funds to purchase a 30l boil kettle (if not more), build a mash tun, get a temp controller, etc. It's a bummer, but it's how life goes. Maybe next year with a bonus?

On the topic of the brew, I actually took a look at my can at home and the contents have changed. The OG remains the same but they updated the IBUs to "13 - 27". That's a bit more hoppy, but still a bit of a hit and miss. The inconsistency of these kits are actually what's getting to me.

[nOzwald Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close nOzwald]

Another option, try some partial mash instead of the tins. I did about a year of tins (7 brews), until I started partial mashing in a +-12L pot. In the past 15 months done about 30 partial mash brews, and much more satisfied than the tins.
If you have a large stock pot lying around you could try. Happy to share my process if you interested.



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[Langchop Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Langchop]

Not that you wanted your thread to be turned into a "convince toxxyc to start all grain", but hey, if theres an empty spot on the bandwagon...

IMG_20181204_194643.jpg

Seriously keep an eye out for this deal... Very good price for this size urn and also double wall insulated so it retained mash temps well. Just this and a brew bag and you are flying with all grain.

I know you would love the flexibility of all grain.

[nOzwald Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close nOzwald]

Not that you wanted your thread to be turned into a "convince toxxyc to start all grain", but hey, if theres an empty spot on the bandwagon...

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Seriously keep an eye out for this deal... Very good price for this size urn and also double wall insulated so it retained mash temps well. Just this and a brew bag and you are flying with all grain.

I know you would love the flexibility of all grain.

That looks like one good deal


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[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

Damn good deal my 20l sparge urn was the same price and single walled to boot, add a temperature controller and recirculating pump and you're in grainfather territory...

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[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

+1

That urn & a laundry bag from Dischem at ħR45 and you will never touch a "kit-&-kilo" tin again

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

You guys have a point. I see there are even cheaper options than that specific one, at 30L for even less. Not making this easy for me, because now I have to convince my wife I need to buy an urn. Think I'm going to do it anyway, and find a neat place to store it so there won't be issues. Thanks for nothing, guys!

Kidding.

But seriously, until then I'm stuck with tins. So I need to fix this tin