Irish creamy red ale kit

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

What an interesting kit.
Uses the Belgian ale as a base, adds two teabags of hops and some brew enhancer. The first pic shows the kit - 1 hop bag but the second pic has the kit content. Came to a nice 1040 OG.
First time steeping hops for me.
Looking forward to how this will turn out.
Tasted the hydrometer sample. VERY hoppy.
Pic 3 shows the Belgian ale IBUs.
The hops were just steeped in pre boiled water for 10 mins then added.
Is that considered boiling the hops?
Or did I just add flavor no IBUs?

The recipe says to throw the teabags full of hops into the fermenter with the tea. I did but based on the sample it might be overkill for my first hoppy brew.

Found it bubbling away this morning. I pitched at 30C but brought it down to 22-24. Will try keeping it there using my very sophisticated water bucket and fan setup.

I have to say the styrene box with a cooler box chiller setup someone posted is really tempting considering our 38C days last week.

Cheers
Jannieverjaarkoeldrank


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

Dry-hopping (adding hops dry to the beer without boiling it) doesn't add bitterness, just flavour and aroma. If they say add it all, I'd add it all. Remember you also lose some flavour and aroma as the beer stands and ages, so if it's "too much" when you open the first one, wait a week or two and try it again.

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

She'll be right. If it added IBU's it will be miniscule, no need for concern, a bit odd to "dry hop" during the fermentation phase

I like looking at the bitterness/gravity and relative bitterness ratios for hop/malt balance, in conjunction with ibu it gives you a neat style indication and if you're brew is balanced or just high/low in bitterness. It's not a hard rule, but helps IBU / (OG - [drop the 1.] (from 1.040 to 40)
So based on your OG and using 30 ibus, your BU:GU would sit at 0.75, but could also be 0.25 as your ibu is in a range. 0.5 is considered balanced, but's really only an indicator as IPA pushed this over 1.x and would be considered bitter as. The style guide is a google away, but don't compare it yet. I didn't add in the attenuation factor, you would need your FG for this and the fermentation needs to be finished of course.

You should try a hop pellet in a cup of water and having a go at that - bitter....Hence the grams on litres ratio when hopping :-)

Having said all of this - beauty is in the eye of the beerholder, so bottoms up and enjoy !

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

^ Hops steeped in boiled water and added to fermenter pre-fermentation is not dry-hopping people.

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

'dry hopping' with hop tea, but yeah know what you mean, hence the quotations

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

Dry-hopping (adding hops dry to the beer without boiling it) doesn't add bitterness, just flavour and aroma. If they say add it all, I'd add it all. Remember you also lose some flavour and aroma as the beer stands and ages, so if it's "too much" when you open the first one, wait a week or two and try it again.

Actually dryer hoping does add a little bit of bitterness (1-5 IBU). This is done through oxidation of alpha and beta acids as opposed to the normal isomerized alpha acids.

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

So much to learn. It's the first time I've heard of the BU/GU balance. Googled it. I'm writing that down for when I start messing with recipes. Cool so I'll be somewhere just on the hoppy side of average with this beer when it's done. I read a bit about 'dry hopping' and dry hopping so correct me if I'm wrong here but, while it's best to let a beer sit in the fermenter for a few days longer to get rid of fermentation byproducts it will also allow your hop flavor to reduce so for this beer I shouldn't let it sit to long.

Also read up on the m42 yeast. Apparently its 'a beast' will finish in 4 days and drops clear without finnings (that would also reduce hop flavor if I was going to add)

So I'm planning on bottling on Friday. I'll throw in a mini keg just for fun. (With half the sugar used for the bottles)

Man I love this forum.
Jannieverjaarkoeldrank

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

^ Hops steeped in boiled water and added to fermenter pre-fermentation is not dry-hopping people.

But adding the tea bags with hops to the fermenter is dry hopping, isn't it?

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

Also read up on the m42 yeast. Apparently its 'a beast' will finish in 4 days and drops clear without finnings (that would also reduce hop flavor if I was going to add)

So I'm planning on bottling on Friday. I'll throw in a mini keg just for fun. (With half the sugar used for the bottles)

Stop, wait, take a breather. There's no guarantee that yeast will finish in any amount of time. The ales I've made with M42, even with a proper rehydration protocol ended up fermenting for almost 2 weeks, and it wasn't a strong ale either. Also, don't bottle too early. Yes, waiting is a PITA, but trust me, give your beer AT LEAST 2 weeks in the fermenter, and calculate the hop additions to happen in the last 4~5 days. Yeast takes as long as yeast takes, and if you rush it you risk off flavours and even bottle bombs. Also leaving it for a week or so longer in the fermenter (even after fermentation is 100% complete) will result in a much clearer beer without using finings, so keep that in mind.

But yeah, this is one hella epic forum.

[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

Rule of thumb, rack off two days after bubbler activity stops. Rule of science, take a gravity reading
I wouldn't mind a tilt hydrometer, but Santa lives in economic recession. This piece of kit lives in your fermentation phase and sends out the SG readings via bluetooth.
Dry hops added after cold crash and racked off beer to another vessel is dry hopping in my book, this can be done hot or cold, check out brulosophy.com for some experiments on temperature and duration.
Also, the bu:gu and RBR ratios are open for interpretation and a helper for style guiding, but a helpful tool for balance, bar imperial ipas, those beers usually pops over 1.n. Bitterness is a personal preference, or that's how I view it, it's my beer after all. Keep in mind perceived bitterness and the isomerization of hops, most believe over 100 ibu can't be perceived by human taste and your solution reaches saturation at around 80, but I stand to be corrected.

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[groenspookasem Banned Find all posts View Profile Close groenspookasem]

nice quick read on dry hopping : https://www.hopsteiner.com/blog/brea...ts-bitterness/

I was unaware of the fact that dry hopping could remove bitterness, as the insoluble isomerized alpha acids (thermal isomerization from alpha to iso-alpha during boil) are absorbed by the added pellets and soluble alphas are released. Learnt something new today, that would impact the high ibu count or perceived bitterness on ipas when dryhopped with large quantities of hop pellets, making a gigantic ginormous ipa (total hopbill of 400g and dry hopped with 250g) ipa less bitter during the dry hop. Science for the win !

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

Look at Toxic telling someone to slow down. [emoji1787]. Btw I'm watching that 6th brew thread with bated breath. Need to see this whole urn biab thing. Wasn't ready for all grain but groenspookasem makes it sound lekker.

Its bubbling away atm. I'll wait it out to 3 days of no activity or 2 days of no gravity change or the end of my patience, whichever comes first. The latter should be Sunday.
Thanks for the link man. Hopping is clearly a science all on it's own. I even saw a company selling in line hop tubes for the freshest hop taste.

Jannieverjaarkoeldrank

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

Man can you imagine getting home and your fermentation chamber let's you know with a message on your phone, beeeeep beer's done. X.x % alc. X% attenuation. The controller already increased temps 2 days ago for a diacetyl rest you can just go keg.

Man sounds good

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

Just saw now I've been misspelling your name all this time Toxxyc. Sorry!
The problem with your advice is I don't have any home brew to sit back and relax with. So here's hoping I can bottle asap so I have something for Christmas

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

You're not going to have something good for Christmas, mate. 2 weeks isn't enough time. Proper bottle carbonation on it's own takes at least 2 weeks.

PS yes I always rush things. Advice is easier given than received