True Brew Pale Ale hop question

[mcmeador]

I'm about to undertake my third time brewing tomorrow. It's been a while since I've done it, and I'm wanting to start up again and get serious about it. I figured I'd start out with something simple (True Brew Pale Ale kit) and then start tweaking things on subsequent batches to see what would happen.

Anyway, the kit just comes with 1 oz. of UK First Gold hops. The recipe calls for adding all of the malt and the hops at the same time and then boiling for 25-30 minutes. That's a little different from the first two beers I brewed (an Oktoberfest and a Hefeweizen) where I added some hops at one point and then the rest of the hops later. I was scanning through a homebrew book I have and found a recipe that called for 1 oz. of hops and it recommended adding the first 3/4 oz. initially and then the remaining 1/4 oz. five minutes prior to the completion of the boil.

My question is how would you recommend using the hops that I have been provided? What difference will I get in my final product by holding 1/4 oz. of hops until the last five minutes rather than adding them all at the beginning?

Thanks in advance!

 

[dgr]

I looked at a site that lists some info on that kit. What exactly does the can of extract say? Does it say it is hopped?

You will get slightly less hop bitterness and some hop flavor/aroma if you reserve the 1/4 oz hops until 5 minutes.

Assuming it is a 7.5% hop, you can boil the 3/4 oz for 60 minutes instead of 1 oz for 30 minutes and get close to the same IBUs. I do not know what that would do to any hop flavor or bitterness already in the can of extract.

You can also add just the DME at the beginning of your boil with 1/2 oz of the first gold, then at 15 add 1/4 oz of hops and then at 5 add the last 1/4 oz and the LME. That would give you about the same bitterness and add hop flavor and aroma. You need some extract in the water to isomerize the hop bitterness but if you put less extract in, you get better utilization.

If it were mine, I'd go find some kent goldings or fuggles and throw them in the last 5 minutes. But remember a couple of things. You are basically brewing an English Pale Ale ordinary bitter. This style has a wide range of parameters but it shouldn't be a hop bomb. http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style08.php Second, It's your beer, brew it how you want it to be.

Have fun!

 

[mcmeador]

The LME is indeed hopped. The instructions call for steeping grain for 20-30 minutes, brining the water back to a near boil, and then adding all of the LME, DME, and hops at once, and then boiling for 20-30 minutes until completion. I don't really have enough experience yet and haven't done enough reading to know how tweaks in the order and timing of things affect the final product.

Does your suggestion of adding the LME and final 1/4 oz. of hops near the end of the boil still apply considering the LME is hopped?

 

[dgr]

The purpose of adding most of the extract at the end of the boil is two-fold. It prevents the beer from getting too dark from caramelization of the sugars. It increases the utilization of the hop acids which contribute bitterness.

You could go either way. If you are looking for more hop flavor and aroma, splitting them and doing a 60 minute boil should get you to a similar bitterness level. You might get more bitterness if you add the LME at the end. I'm not sure if boiling hopped extract drives off some of the bitterness. I also have no way of knowing the bitterness that is in the extract. That being said, the math is good on extracting more bitterness from the hops by reducing the amount of extract you have in the boil and/or increasing the boiling time.

You can play with this calculator to see what I mean
http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator/
Set it to extract, 5 gallon batch size and whatever boil size you boil at. Change boil time to 30 minutes. Then put in 2 lbs of DME and 3.3 lbs of LME. Put 6 oz of crystal 30 in the steeping grains and your hops on the right. Write down the IBUs. Change the boil time to 60 minutes and see how the IBUs go up. Change your hops to 3/4 ounce then add 1/4 ounce of 5 minute addition. Add the IBUs and compare to your first number. Then delete the 3.3 lbs of LME and see how the IBUs change.

 

[mcmeador]

Well since I have the unknown factor of the hopped LME, I decided to just go with the schedule outlined in the recipe and see how it turns out. Next time I will start tweaking things and see what I can do. Maybe buy all the ingredients separately and buy non-hopped extract and more hops instead and then start experimenting with the schedule. Thanks for all the info. Very interesting stuff!