mini-mash question

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seattlebuoy

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This is my second brew. First was all extract and turned out great.

This round I am doing the AHS fat tire mini-mash clone. When I put in the hops into the wort, do I just put in whole or do I need to crush the hops?

Referenced my brewing book and the recipe sheet, neither say anything about this question.

Thanks!
 
Well, I'm not familiar with that particular recipe. What type of hops are being used? Since it's unlikely that they would use whole hops in a kit, it's probably pellet hops. If so, just drop them in. Seconds after you drop them in, you will see a big green cloud going through the wort.

Is it the kit that you are making?
 
Crush hops? Never.

The grain must be crushed before you can mash it, but that is on the other end of the process entirely.
 
All types of hops are just dropped into the wort. Either in a hop bag or directly into the wort. (Putting them in a hop bag reduces the IBUs slightly because the hops don't freely circulate through the wort):mug:
 
They were whole hops in a vacuum seal type bag. Grain is crushed already, so OK on that front. I'll just put them in whole and let them socialize a while...
 
I just received the exact same kit from AHB and my hops are in pellet form? I think that your's probably are too.
Just throw them in after steeping the mini-mash at the correct times and then strain them out when you dump into the primary.
 
Toss them in. Once the wort is in the pot it doesn't matter how it was made, the boiling process is the same.

Personally, I don't worry about the difference in bittering between whole and pellet hops. Why you ask? Simply, most people cannot detect IBU differences of less than ten units. The maximum IBU's you can get in a brew is about 90 (based on actual testing at OSU), so the 10% delta between whole hops and pellets would be 9 units & will not be detectable.
 
Everything worked out just fine. OG of 1.051 and just one minor boil-over, but who's counting....did the yeast starter yesterday and starting to percolate already in the primary fermentor.

My bad. They were pellets, just could not see easily that they were in the vacuum seal packaging.
 
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