First Non-kit Brew

I'm considering my first non-kit brew in a couple of months. I'd like to try the Red Dog ESB here on HBT. Since I'm not ready for full grain yet, I'll use 5.6 pounds of Alexander's Unhopped Pale Malt Extract in place of the grain. Everything else will remain the same.

I'm having problems finding the Golding, East Kent hops that specify the AA percentage other than as an average of the strain. Since this recipe lists two specific values, I assume it's important. I have no local supplier, so I'm doing this all mail order.

Another question I have: there are two hops additions with a boil time of 0 minutes. I assume I add them after heat removal and boiling stops, but how long do I leave them in the wort? Do they stay during fermentation? If so, both primary and secondary or just primary? And if they stay in during fermentation, should I not use Irish Moss?

The concept is the "HBU" aka Home Brewing Unit for hops measurements.

The first one in the recipe you linked is 1.5ozs of EKG (4.5%).

One ounce of 4.5% hops has 4.5 HBUs in it.

If you had a 2.25% hop, like maybe some Saaz, you would need two ounces (2*2.25) to get 4.5HBUs in the kettle.

So you got 1.5ozs of 4.5%, 1.5ozs*4.5%= 6.75HBUs

What is in your freezer? 4.0% East Kent Goldings, OK. 6.75HBU / 4.0, you need 1.6875 ounces of the 4.0% to make 6.75HBU in the kettle.

In practice, my hop scale rounds to the nearest tenth of an ounce, I would make that 1.7 ounces of the 4% and find something else to worry about.

I kinda wish more people would post their hops additions in HBU, that way half the math is done already.

If the recipe says 7HBU ofChinook at (30) all you have to do is look at your bag of 13.5% Chinook and know you need about (just a little less than) half an ounce.

There is going to be more than one way to handle flameout hops and they are each correct.

What I would do on my system is toss in the Irish Moss at (15). At (0) I would turn off the burner, pour in the 5.6 pounds of ME, whisk that up good, then put in the hops, stir the heck out of the pot. Leave it covered for ten minutes or so and then move on.

I had five minute hops in my PM brew yesterday. At (0) I put in about three pounds of ME, whisked, and steeped about 10 minutes. Then I poured through a grain bag to get the hops out, back in the kettle, and then I dropped in my sanitized wort chiller. After it was cold I stirred it up real good for whirlpool, went to bed and then got up at 0400 to siphon off the wort. I pitched at like 0422 this morning.

Some brewers (with bigger kettles than me) will leave the (0) hops in while the whirlpool settles and siphon off that after the (0) hops have been in the wort for several hours.

The equipment you have is your system and the way you use it is yourprocess.

Part of the experience for me is finding ways to improve my beer, which usually means more equipment, which introduces another new learning curve for the process. It's a never ending cycle, but a plesant one.

Don't sweat the hops too hard. If you are close it is going to be beer.

So this recipe uses two different batches of EKG hops, one at 4.5%, the second at 5.0%. Using your formula, if I had all 4.5% EKG, I'd use 1.5 oz. at 60 minuets, and .56 oz at 20 min. to get the correct HBU's?

You say you'd add the ME after the boil. The three kits I've brewed had me add it after the special grains seep, before the boil. I thought the boil was to condition the starches and enzymes in the wort. Anyway, that's getting off topic for this forum. I'll do some research on it.

Thanks for the reply. The info on HBUs and how to convert is really helpful.