Forgot to add hops

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Tinpanharry

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I searched on the subject above and could not find an answer,, so here goes.

I brewed a hefeweizen yesterday from a kit, and realized that there was no hops in the kit after I was already boiling. I called my LHBS and they said not to worry. The kit called for less than an ounce of saaz hops which was very low in bittering (3.x AA) and that the yeast would eat the sugars and the beer would be fine.

I would have driven there but they are 45 minutes away and the beer was boiling. So now the beer is fermenting without hops.
.
Any suggestions? Will it be fine or is there a way to add hop bitterness etc at this point?

Edit. after posting the message a number of suggested topics came up that are very similar so I will review them. Thanks for your thoughts anyway.

Thanks
TPH
 
Ignore anything your LHBS tells you from here on out, it's clear they don't know what thy are talking about. Beer isn't beer without hops. Without any hops to bitter it, you are going to end up with a sweet, sticky mess of a beverage.
 
A hefe is very low bitterness. You can actually boil a small amount of hops in water and extract some bitterness and add it to the beer. It's obviously not ideal but you can do it. Be careful, if I am not mistaken water will extract more bitterness than wort so it is easy to overdo it. And with a Hefe, you don't really want a ton of bitterness.
 
If you don't add any hop bitterness as Tinpanharry suggested, you'll end up with a sweeter beer for sure, but not sure it will make a huge difference as this type of beer is nothing like an IPA. It won't be a "sticky" mess though as the yeast will still eat up the sugars. The beer might not last as long either age wise as the hops do have a preserving effect, so I'd probably boil the hops in a small amount of water and add.
 
Was the extract pre-hopped and the extra hops just for aroma/flavoring?
Check the can to see if it is hopped malt extract (HME) like a Mr. Beer kit.
Also does the instructions call to boil the hops for 60 minutes or 5?

If it is HME then you don't have anything to worry about, you will just miss out on some flavor/aroma since the bittering addition was included with the extract.
Otherwise, you need to find a new store...
 
A hefe is very low bitterness. You can actually boil a small amount of hops in water and extract some bitterness and add it to the beer. It's obviously not ideal but you can do it. Be careful, if I am not mistaken water will extract more bitterness than wort so it is easy to overdo it. And with a Hefe, you don't really want a ton of bitterness.

This. I just did the math. Try 0.5oz. of centennial in a half gallon boil for 60 minutes, then chill that and add it to your wort. Sure, the water allows for better alpha extraction, but it's also less volume, which limits it too. The boil will net you just over 10 IBU's in the 5g. batch after adding.
 
I didn't use half a gallon, and I think I had more than half an ounce (Tettnanger 5%), but this was too much for a light beer I did this with...based on that experience I would suggest a low-alpha hop and a quarter ounce.

[EDIT] now that I am looking at that, I must have used DME instead of plain water.

IMAG0016.jpg


IMAG0017.jpg
 
I didn't use half a gallon, and I think I had more than half an ounce (Tettnanger 5%).

Centennial obviously higher in alpha. I just used the half gallon for the heck of it. The volume won't drastically alter the IBU's here.
 
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