Cooper's Prehopped Kit Did not follow directions, too hoppy?

[aeonderdonk]

I just brewed 2 Cooper's kits this morning, a friend from work gave them to me to brew and split the beer with him.

I have about 7 extract batches under my belt so I didn't follow their directions at all, i mean 100% did not follow them asking me to dissolve the extract/brewing sugar in 2L water then add more water.

Instead I did what I have always done, boiled water (~3 gallons), add extract and sugar once boiling, boil for an hour, yada yada yada.

This is the first prehopped extract I have used btw.

So my brew is fermenting, blew out the airlock since only an inch of room in a 5G carboy for it. I tasted the foam and WHOA it was hoppy. Should I not have boiled it for a full hour? Is the beer going to be unbearably hoppy?

Anyone else ever do this?

 

[Shake]

Boiling should have cooked off some of the hop oils. I would expect a less hoppy beer from boiling the kit.

 

[ifishsum]

I would not make a judgment about a beer based on the taste of the krausen - in fact I would not even taste the krausen. I would expect it to be bitter and nasty and not representative at all of the beer itself.

 

[brian_g]

Did you add hops during the boil? If not it should be fine. Pre-hopped kits don't require boiling, but if you boiled anyway, you may loose some hop aroma and the color may be darker. The only way it will be more hoppy is if you added hops and boiled them for an hour.

 

[adfirmus]

I think it was in Papazian's Joy of Homebrewing that mentioned krausen helps remove some of the more astringent and less desirable bitter hop characteristics, from the beer and hold it in the Krausen layer on top. Could that be what you are tasting? My first bast i brewed, the wort was very very bitter. Not in a good IPA way either. It has mellowed a lot since bottling. Although I think it still might be a tad bitter for the style (Witbier), but it was extremely bitter before pitching the yeast.

 

[aeonderdonk]

I would not make a judgment about a beer based on the taste of the krausen - in fact I would not even taste the krausen. I would expect it to be bitter and nasty and not representative at all of the beer itself.

But it was riiiiiight there, how could I not taste it? I forgot about Charlie P saying the Krausen holds some of the astringent flavours. Well, I guess I'll wait a few weeks and see how it turns out.

Thanks!

 

[beerkrump]

Two things:
1) The krausen is not going to taste like your beer.
2) A full boil of a pre-hopped extract is going to give you more bitterness and less flavor and aroma than intended.

 

[jpowers1]

every batch I have made has had such a hoppy smell it's fun to have friends sniff the airlock. I agree with the other posters.

 

[chelero]

2) A full boil of a pre-hopped extract is going to give you more bitterness and less flavor and aroma than intended.

+1. boiling a prehopped extract too long would drive off aroma and flavor. my very 1st brew was a cooper's IPA hopped kit, and because of my paranoid noobness, I boiled that beeeatch for an hour. while the beer turned out nice and very smooth, I didn't notice any bitterness, but there was almost no hoppiness, and I was pretty disappointed. i tried the cooper's wheat beer kit, and only bolied it for 10min, and it is much more full-flavored.

 

[aeonderdonk]

+1. boiling a prehopped extract too long would drive off aroma and flavor. my very 1st brew was a cooper's IPA hopped kit, and because of my paranoid noobness, I boiled that beeeatch for an hour. while the beer turned out nice and very smooth, I didn't notice any bitterness, but there was almost no hoppiness, and I was pretty disappointed. i tried the cooper's wheat beer kit, and only bolied it for 10min, and it is much more full-flavored.

Yeah, I boiled a full hour, hopefully it will still be decent