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I have never used hops, in any of my 9 brews.......still a rookie.
I find that my brews have been great ( some of them anyway ) without any hops, and when I drink a highly commercial beer these days, they dont taste too good at all. And I think the Hops is the difference.

Do you need hops with some kits and not others? I have mainly been brewing Thomas Coopers Premium range ie pilsener, wheat, Sparkling ale and they have been great. Do they contain hops already in the kit?

Im guessing its just personal preference, but im about to put down a bitter kit, which I havent tried before, and I want to know if i need to add hops or not.

Cheers

I think it all comes down to tatse. I tend to either dry hop or use a hop tea bag with my brews. This is more for aroma than tatse, although I do believe that it adds that extra something to my brews.

I tend to use either hallertau or Cascade hops with my lagers and use Willamette with my dark ales. I am going to make a Coopers IPA in the not so distant future and will use Fuggles with this.

Also, I must admit that I am a bit of a hop head and love the hoppy flavours.

I can't comment on your Coopers bitter because I am not a great lover of bitters, I prefer my dark and light ales, lagers, pilseners and blondes.

when I drink a highly commercial beer these days, they dont' taste too good at all. And I think the Hops is the difference.

To be precise, in the case of Australian Beer, Pride of Ringwood is the difference. And no, it doesn't taste too good at all.

In general, adding hops to the boil for 30min+ is for bittering, for small amounts of time (~5min) is for flavour, and flame-off is more aroma. Dry-hopping (adding directly to the fermenter) is mostly aroma.

For kits, it's really only bittering that survives the condensation/concentration process to get it in the can, which is why a lot of kit brewers add additional hops to add flavour and aroma.

Tony

when I drink a highly commercial beer these days, they dont taste too good at all

That's the home brewer's curse in action, Like'em.

Ilike'emfizzy wrote:Do you need hops with some kits and not others? I have mainly been brewing Thomas Coopers Premium range ie pilsener, wheat, Sparkling ale and they have been great. Do they contain hops already in the kit?

As has been said, it comes down to personal preference.

All kits already have hops (well, the essential oils from the hops) in them (hops add bitterness to balance out the sweetness of the malt and to add aroma and taste). Without hops, beer would just be an alcoholic, sweet drink.

If you get into malt-extract brewing or all-grain brewing, you must add hops.

But some people like to add extra hops to kit beers, either to boost the bitterness or to give more aroma and flavor. This is because it's generally felt that aroma and flavor are lost in the production of beer can kits (the bitterness is not affected though).

Cheers,

Oliver

undercover1 wrote:

when I drink a highly commercial beer these days, they dont taste too good at all

That's the home brewer's curse in action, Like'em.

undercover your right - I had not realised it. There are a few exceptions of course.
Like draught beer after footy.

Oliver wrote:But some people like to add extra hops to kit beers, either to boost the bitterness or to give more aroma and flavor. This is because it's generally felt that aroma and flavor are lost in the production of beer can kits (the bitterness is not affected though).

And let's face it, many homebrewers are serious hop heads

So far in my limited hops experience I've found that matching the type of hops to the style of beer is pretty important as is the amount.
If unsure try it without then if you like the base kit add 10-15 g of a suitable hops and then taste the difference.
You'll probably never go back.
Also I've found kits like ESB Pilsner are quite hoppy compared with maybe Gold Rush.
I added 20g saaz steeped 10 mins to ESB Pilsner and it is a cracker.
Oliver and geoff's hops list is the best around as a guide to what to use when.
http://www.homebrewandbeer.com/hops.html
My 2 cents
Hops it goes well Ilike'emfizzy

Try 40g of Hallertau in a Coopers Pale ale.

For an hour

Dogger

jeez, it sounds like there is a whole new world out there just waiting for me to discover it!
Thanks every one for your help.
So much to learn.......so many combinations....

I think ill take your advise undercover1 (because it sounds easy and uncomplicated) to begin with, and go from there.

Thanks everyone for you help.

ps. that homebrewer's curse is tenacious

How do you guys clean/sanitise your hop bags?

Lebowski wrote:How do you guys clean/sanitise your hop bags?

I don't use one. I just boil up the hops and strain it in. I strain it through a stocking placed in a colander or sieve.

Stockings are good, as you just chuck them away afterwards, with all the hop remnants.

Plus they're cheap.

No reason you couldn't use a stocking with hops in it to dry hop.

I also use a stocking when making cider. I put the peeled, cored apples in a stocking, then pull the lot out and chuck away after bottling.

Oliver

GF doesnt wear stockings and my mum wouldnt give me any of hers, how much do they usualy sell for? I dont know if I have the guts to go through a checkout with a bunch of stockings

Lebowski wrote:GF doesnt wear stockings and my mum wouldnt give me any of hers, how much do they usualy sell for? I dont know if I have the guts to go through a checkout with a bunch of stockings

I got a set of 2 pair of knee high stockings from woolworths for my cider for about $1.45 so its not overly expensive. Nothing wrong with buying them either, had them the apples and the sugar at the same tie.

Now grabbing the stockings, a box of rubbers and a tube of KY and going through the checkout...

Do you need to sanitise your hop bags?
I buy the ones that come in a foil sealed bag so I figured that they would be fairly sanitary and would not contaminate the wort. I've had no problems so far.
Am I wrong in this????

I just washed mine under the hot tap for a while but I'm guessing they should be ok?
I was thinking about using it again and was just wondering how I would sanitise it after being wet with hops in it.

I rinsed a bag out and boilt it for about 20 mins. No problem there. I also used a 3 pack of stockings. My wife (the smartarse) made a loud mention in the supermarket they were for me.

Anyways, the stockings were just as good, but I tossed after using.

So anyway, I steeped the Hallertau for 5-10minutes, then I threw it in the fermenter with Pale Ale and liquid malt, and then I realised that the hops mush was mixed all through, then i thought to myself "SH!T".

I remember reading of you guys cleaning your stockings.
I just through the crap straight in!!!!

Am i gonna be drinking chucks of hops with this batch?

Im hoping that someone is going to tell me that it settles with the sediment..................

or maybe i will have to put a stocking over the little bottler, or something

God damn it

Brainface wrote:So anyway, I steeped the Hallertau for 5-10minutes, then I threw it in the fermenter with Pale Ale and liquid malt, and then I realised that the hops mush was mixed all through, then i thought to myself "SH!T".

I remember reading of you guys cleaning your stockings.
I just through the crap straight in!!!!

Am i gonna be drinking chucks of hops with this batch?

Im hoping that someone is going to tell me that it settles with the sediment..................

or maybe i will have to put a stocking over the little bottler, or something

God damn it

dont stress BF all will be well
i know alot of the guys on here use hop bags/stockings but i don't bother.. & i've never really had a problem - except for one occasion using hop plugs.. the leaves tend to float alot better than pellets but even on that occasion i only ended up with foliage in the last 2 bottles
just leave it abit longer for it to settle out or rack the brew if you have a spare fermentor