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G'day gentlemen,

Bought two bags of Saaz hops from my HBS a month or two ago. The bloke there told me to use one for aroma and the other for taste. While he did give me instructions I have since forgotten them.

These are going into a Brewcraft Czech Pilsener (hopefully this morning!!) and I really want to get it right.

I have used hop bags many times - usually by just boiling them in water for 10 minutes then throwing the bag and the water in to the fermenter - but never used two hop bags in one brew.

This is just a K&K job with some light liquid malt. Can anyone please let me know what I need to??

I guess I'll be boiling each of them (separately) for different times...?

Thanks a million,

Throsby

Boil one lot for 10 minutes, as you've done previously.
The second lot, add to the water about ½ to 1 minute before you turn off the heat.
Then immediately pour the hop tea, bags and all, into the fermenter.

It sounds like you are using the hop teabags?
If so, you can buy top quality and much fresher hops more economically from Ross at CraftBrewer, link here: http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/default.asp?CID=17

Buy on line, and you should have it delivered within about 2 days.

By the way, please fill in your location on your profile. There may be othere brewers in your area who can guide you to the best quality HB shop near you.

Thanks mate.

Yeah, the hops are in a teabag sort of thing but not the Goldings pre-packaged ones.

The guy at this HBS gets the pellets or clusters out of the fridge and bags them in front of you.

I've found them to be much higher quality than Goldings ones (which I have no real problem with).

Thanks again - I'll get right to it.

Ryan

The mid-north coast of NSW is not exactly flush with great HB shops.
I get my supplies from either Mark at Mark's Home Brew in Islington in Newcastle, or from Ross at CarftBrewer in the Logan area south of Brisbane.

Whereabouts on the mid-north coast are you?

G'day Ryan,
Further to all the good advice - don't expect too much from dried hop matter in a teabag. I know you're trying to improve the flavour and aroma profile of your beer, but you'll get a much superior result if you use fresh hops, in pellet, plug or whole flower form, purchased from a reputable supplier such as Ross.

The teabags can be used at different intervals to simulate a flavour and aroma addition, but to be honest, it won't have as great an impact as fresh pellets/plugs/flowers will give the beer. That said, it might be worth holding back on the "aroma" addition until a couple of days into the ferment when the initial fermentation has died down a bit - you wont hurt the beer if you carefully remove the lid on day 3, toss in the teabag and reseal the fermenter. The reason why I suggest this method is that any aroma addition done before fermentation will lose some aroma through the vigorous fermentation as the beer pushes CO2 and hop aroma out of the airlock.

Cheers,
TL

Thanks TL. I think these hops I used were "plugs". Sorry if I didn't explain it well, but the bloke at my HBS grabbed a couple of what I think were plugs (kinda similar in shape/size to an ice hockey puck) and put them in muslin bags right in front of me. He said the bags would make them easier to use and so forth as I could essentially continue using the same method I'd been using with the Goldings dried hop sachets.

I have looked around the Craftbrewer site and it seems fairly comprehensive. I'll probably give them a try later this year when work picks up again and I can't get to Newcastle so easily.

Cheers again,

Throsby

No probs - hop plugs are simply hops flowers compressed into a plug shape - some suggest that plugs were first used when beer was stored in oak barrels for trips to the colonies and it was easier to add hops when the plug of hops fitted through the barrel hole. They're fine and are much better than tea bags. You'll easily know when a hop plug has gone off when it turns yellow and actually smells cheesy...

Cheers,
TL