Hops, my preferred sweet/dry HBU%

Gentlemen,

Since the hop shortage,
I have been experimenting with less hops.
I 'brewed me up' some ale so sweet it would gag a maggot.
Now, I not only 'know' why hops is an ingredient in beer and ale
now I 'fully understand', the importance of hops
as a anti-sweetness agent.
I thought Shiner was kinda dry, and it is.
My latest ale, {it has been in the bottle for 2 weeks and is sweet, sweet!}
I can't hardly drink it.
{1 oz, 5% hops for boiling hops in a 5 gallon batch.}
{Tastes like it was bottled last night}
Without hops beer and ale would be so sweet it would be undrinkable!
{If there wern't alcohol in it}
Today, I was 'down' at the 'Homebrew Headquarters' in Dallas
{or up}
and told Chris and Brett about my problem.
Chris said to brew a hop tea,
3/4 oz of 12% in a quart of water and mixing half with each of the 5 gallon batches I have yet to bottle.
I thought about that and it seemed perfect.
Thanks 'Headquarters'!

As proof, I poured out a 22 oz bottle of the sweet stuff and poured a bottle of Shiner in it,
and VaVooom, it was perfect!
Better than the Shiner and not so dxxx sweet!
I'm learning.

My personal tastes is for a 5 gallon batch of ale,
minimum... one oz of 10% hops for boiling hops or it will be way too sweet.


Thank you

J. Winters VonKnife
http://jacksknifeshop.tripod.com/

FYI, the BYO 'brew wizard' column addressed the idea of boiling a hop tea to add bitterness to a finished batch. His advice was that you should NOT boil the hops in just plain water because the higher pH will extract some harsh compounds from the hops that boiling in wort will not - and thus you should add some malt extract to the water you boil them in.

Also bear in mind that wort saturates with bittering compounds. A quart is only 1/40 the volume of a pair of 5 gallon batches, so the bitterness you get in that hop tea is going to be diluted by a factor of 40 which is very significant. If it is linear (don't know if that's true), that would drop a saturated 100IBU wort down to adding only 2.5IBU to the beers, which is hardly any. You might do well to reconsider the boil volume for the hop tea.

And it may also be somewhat apparent why boiling a hop tea to add any significant amount of bitterness to an existing batch is not a very effective practice.

Jack,

I read this great article yesterday about hop usage (especially with the hops shortage) that had a lot of great info about getting the best "bang for the buck" with hops. I learned a lot from it.

http://barleylegal.ca/Articles/HowToSurviveTheHopShortage

Gentlemen,

I made a mistake in my record keeping.
That batch of ale that tasted like it was bottled the night before,
was.
It is fine now, I just messed up with the labels
{which are not on the bottles but on the shelves the ale goes on.}
I failed to mark the reracking dates and bottling dates on 30 gallons of ale thinking that I would remember.
Hmmmm.

Anyway, One ounce of 5% hops for boiling is sweet
but not too undrinkably so
I will use one ounce of 10% boiling hops
however as a minimum.


Thats all, ya'll have a good weekend

J. VonKnife

Gentlemen,

Actually this batch I said was too sweet, is great,
once it has achieved carbination.
A 'hair' sweet for my tastes, at 5.5% alpha acid
but rather than 1oz of 10% boiling hops as a minimum,
1 oz of 7% would be about right, {as a minimum}


Its getting hot now, May.
But I have four batches of 6 3/4% alcohol 'Hammerbier'
bottled and in the former pantry brewery.
This should last me till I get my big poultry coop built.
ie. = $500. but it will hold 2 dozen adult Rhode Island Reds.
Next month I buy 200' of 6' tall heavy wire netting and finish the run.
{24' x 30'}
This month I finish the 3 sided shed, {9' x 8'}

Last year I lost $520. worth of poultry to hawks, owls and coon.
{Kept in a dog pen with no top}
The profit from these new birds will build the adjoining coop,
and next year the profit from both coops will build the third,
get more incubators, and some steel and sandpaper for the knife shop.


Thank goodness for my 20 gallons of Hammerbier.
It will enable me to focus all my money on coop construction.

J. Winters VonKnife

I think I may have missed something. Was it because you are trying to save money that you only used so many hops?? Yes there is a very real shortage on SOME variaties of Hops but there are several variaties that are plentiful. You should experiment with different kinds rather than making 30 gallons of carbonated piss. Just my opinion.

Swinn

Yeah, you missed something.

JacktheKnife said:

Its getting hot now, May.
But I have four batches of 6 3/4% alcohol 'Hammerbier'
bottled and in the former pantry brewery.
This should last me till I get my big poultry coop built.
ie. = $500. but it will hold 2 dozen adult Rhode Island Reds.
Next month I buy 200' of 6' tall heavy wire netting and finish the run.
{24' x 30'}
This month I finish the 3 sided shed, {9' x 8'}

Last year I lost $520. worth of poultry to hawks, owls and coon.
{Kept in a dog pen with no top}
The profit from these new birds will build the adjoining coop,
and next year the profit from both coops will build the third,
get more incubators, and some steel and sandpaper for the knife shop.

Click to expand...

Huh? Is this HomeBrewTalk.com or FarmTalk.com?

Gentlemen,

1 oz of 6% boiling hops - 1 oz 12 % boiling hops
is, for my personal tastes,
the bracket in which I will hop my ale in from now on.
The hop shortage has helped me to define my own tastes
as far as sweet vs bitter goes.
I am drinking a '1oz 5.5%' now and it is fine.
It is not that I like the taste of hops but rather I just don't like the killer sweetness in low hopped ale.

So I am a more educated homebrewer as a result of the hop shortage.
I have heard, for years, old Kelly at the Homebrew Headquarters in N. Dallas, say:
"Knife, it is up to your personal tastes
how much hops to put in your 'Hammerbier'.
Well, I know now and wouldn't have been forced to learn about hops to this extent but for the Hop shortage.
Hmmmm...


J. Winters VonKnife
'and his trusty coon hound Sandymay'
http://jacksknifeshop.tripod.com/

Check out the thread on the Hot French Randall: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=55721&highlight=french+randall