first brew question

[Jon112]

Hello all!

I have bee a lurker on this forum for a while and thought I would finally join the group.

I am new to brewing beer but have done cider for some time now.

I figured I would start out nice and easy and picked up a coopers original beer kit, I also wanted to ad some hops to it so I added .5 oz of cascade hops to it as well.

I did this by boiling a little water and steeping them for about 5 minutes in some cheese cloth. I also added a 1 kg bag of dextrose I think it was.

Im just curious if I should have added more hops to it or not. the guy at the brew store said I shouldn't mess with the recipe but I have done enough research to know that if you ad hops you will get a better beer.

Also how long should I keep it in the secondary? I was thinking another week for a total of 2 weeks.

thanks

Jon

 

[TipsyDragon]

well you probably wont get much added bitter out of the cascade. 5 minuets will get you lots of aroma and flavor but not much bitter. next time add the extra hops directly to the boiling wort. the extra dextrose will raise your ABV. If that's what you where looking for then great.

home brewing is all about experimenting to find out what you like. so if your curious about something why not try it and see.

as far as the secondary goes its all a matter of preference. its not strictly needed. I would do 2 weeks in the primary and 2 in the secondary.

 

[Jon112]

I more wanted to aroma hop, and not get much bitter from it. I was thinking .5 might not be enough, but didnt want to screw around with it too much.

 

[RandomBeerGuy]

Just do your research on the type of hop you want to use. AA (Alpha Acids) is what you have to watch out for. 5 mins or so at the end of the boil is good for aroma no matter what the hop.

As for secondary, its really your call. I do one week. Secondary really helps to have more settlement fall out. I heard keeping it in primary for an extra does the same as racking it into secondary so it's really your call.

Cheers

 

[C-Rider]

You could start a war here over using a secondary unless adding something like fruit yo your brew. I just primary for three weeks then bottle for another before drinking.