Adding hops to kit brews

[Cadbury]

G'day men,
I've noticed on the forum people talking about using a can of coopers lager and then adding hops for 10 minutes. Does this mean they are boiling the ingredients like using normal malt extract? How do they add, lets say, 10g of willemette hops without adding them to the boil if they are not boiling the can extract?
Thanks
Cadbury

[timmy]

They would normally mean boiling some extra malt (e.g. a kilo of light dry malt extract) in a pot of water with the hops for 10mins, then adding the kit at the end.

Opinion is divided on the issue, but boiling the kit isn't a good idea IMO because you could lose whatever hop flavour/aroma that was in the kit originally.

HTH,

Tim

[Chris]

boiling the kit isn't a good idea IMO because you could lose whatever hop flavour/aroma that was in the kit originally

...which isn't always a bad thing...

[Kevnlis]

I sometimes boil kits to remove the hop flavour/aroma additions (if there are any). This is usually a good idea when you are adding your own late hop additions and do not want to compete with whatever is in the kit. It can be a cheap and easy way to give yourself a bittered malt base to work with.

Mostly if you are trying to match your additions to the kit style it is a good idea to add the kit at flame out. Make sure you use a decent sized boil and have some amount of malt in the boil, this is important to the hop utilisation in your beer and will give a much better final product.

[Cadbury]

Thanks men, that has explained it quite clearly.
Cadbury

[Chris]

Thanks men, that has explained it quite clearly.

That's a first for this forum

[Trough Lolly]

Back when I used kits, I bought them on special and the Coopers kits were heaps cheaper than a 2kg tub of malt extract from the local HBS. But for me, an English Special Bitter with strong PoR presence wasn't right! So, in that case, I'd boil the kit with heaps of Goldings and Target.

But choosing kits to suit the beerstyle you make will help you out if you do a separate boil with the right hops and add the kit at flameout. Eventually, you'll discover the limitations in trying to brew certain styles that can only be truly replicated with unhopped extract and specialty grains and base malts, eg, Dortmunders, German ale, super pale lagers, Eisbocks etc etc...and that leads many of us down the slippery slope to partial mash and AG brewing!

Cheers,
TL