Hops confusion

The two kits I've used say to ;

first hopps - 60 minute boil
second hopps - 15 minute before end
third hopps - 1 minute before end of boil

They are different amounts and even different between the kits, which leads me to my question.


Whats the difference between doing it that way and just say, dumping them all in?

When I goto the fermenter I didn't strain out the hopps I just let it roll on in.

Should I have strained the hopps out or doesn't it matter due to some way the hopps get boilded and their contents removed?

thanks
jake

Well, confusion #1 is that "hops" is spelled with only one "p"

The longer hops are boiled, the more bitterness is extracted and the less flavor and aroma is retained. Dump them all in at the beginning, you'll get a beer with more bitterness than the recipe called for, and with no hop flavor or aroma.

Take a look-see at www.howtobrew.com, it's John Palmer's excellent book (the first edition) available free online. This is a pretty basic concept; taking a look at the book (which most of us still refer to) might be very beneficial to your understanding of the process and why things are the way they are.

Oh, and you don't HAVE to filter the hops out before fermentation, but it's generally considered preferable if you can. No biggie either way.

The hop schedule is very important. Adding them at varying intervals will effect the bitterness, aroma and flavor of your beer. I'd do a lot of reading before I'd mess with the recipe. The more you learn about it, the more fun it gets. Good luck!

I have Palmers book and two others.. I think I'll take time to read them now that I'm unemployeed.

BADS197 said:

I have Palmers book and two others.. I think I'll take time to read them now that I'm unemployeed.

Click to expand...

Hopefully, you'll still be able to brew!

I find that the books are great, and I still refer to them all the time. But, nothing helps as much as just brewing. I brewed alot before I felt confident enough to make my own recipes- and I liked brewing the ones I found here. I learned what certain hops taste like, what they do to a beer, and how I could improve the flavor by different/more/later hops. I never made a bad beer, either! (Well, one was bad, but that was a recipe that was way too sweet for me- I just didn't know enough about ingredients to know how sweet it would be. My best friend drank it all eventually).

So, if you like a certain commercial beer, you could post on here and read up on Beeradvocate and see why you like it, what similarities it has to other commercial beers and what style it is. That helps alot. I found that I liked american ambers with biscuit malt and neutral yeast, for example. I learned that I like American hops for pale ales so I make more APAs than English pale ales. Of course, it took alot of drinking but I claimed it was all research!

Hops contribute two things to beer: bitterness and flavor/aroma oils. The bittering compounds take a long time to dissolve. The oils dissolve quickly & then start to boil off. The light oils that give beer the aroma are gone in 10 minutes. Heavier oils (flavor) will take 20 minutes or more.