Hops substitution

[BadMrFrosty]

Hello all,

Very much a newbie here, I have bought basic equipment, several kits and also some raw ingredients. I did my first kit yesterday but it was so insultingly easy I don't feel I have home-brewed anything. I want to try something a bit more involved.

Anyway, the ingredients I have are Mutons and Youngs yeast, half a kilo of saaz hops and 5 1.7 kg tubs of Czech light malt extract. Reading various recipes I see other varieties of hops mentioned which I either cannot get here (Czech Republic) or are 3 times the price of saaz. I cant seem to see any non lager recipes that use saaz or any other the other readily available Czech hops (premiant and sládek). Adding to the issue I cant seem to get hold of any other type of malt extract except light and dark Czech ones and some way more expensive coopers ones (light, amber, dark and wheat).

Is it possible to make a full bodied nicely hoppy strong IPA style beer (Something like Matuška Raptor IPA) from saaz, basic yeast and Czech LME? Please excuse the ignorance of the question

 

[helibrewer]

Well Saaz is a great flavor/aroma hop but not typically used in bittering IPA's. What are the high AA hops available to you? Can you get any of the "C" hops (Cascade, Columbus, Chinook)?

Can you order from the US? The hops are usually sold in vacuum sealed barrier bags and should ship well.

 

[unionrdr]

Maybe check out neighboring countries to see what's available? An on line search for home brew shops might help in this regard.

 

[BadMrFrosty]

Well Saaz is a great flavor/aroma hop but not typically used in bittering IPA's. What are the high AA hops available to you? Can you get any of the "C" hops (Cascade, Columbus, Chinook)?

Can you order from the US? The hops are usually sold in vacuum sealed barrier bags and should ship well.

Thanks for answering. My supplier has these for really great prices:

Sladek 8,3% AA
Premiant 9,7% AA
Saaz 3,3% AA

Of the ones you mention they have Cascade which they say is 7,2% AA but it costs almost 3 times as much so would prefer to use the locally produced varieties if poss. I want to experiment a bit but don't really know the impact of switching out hops. When each brew takes so long I dont want to make too many schoolboy errors that can be avoided by asking advice from more seasoned homebrewers. I dont expect it to turn out perfect straight away but would prefer something at least drinkable from each attempt

 

[BradleyBrew]

You could make a IPA with Czech Saaz it will just take a lot of hops to get you to the IBU's you are looking for. At 6lbs of LME with a 3 gallon boil you would need about 5oz @3.5AAU to get a wort bitterness of 55 IBU's.

 

[helibrewer]

The Premiant looks like a good option because of the high AA level. You could make a "hop tea" with some in plain water and see what you think of the aroma and taste.

Are there any Czech commercial IPA's? You might inquire what they use for bittering.

Let us know how it works, maybe we need some of those Czech hops shipped over here!!

 

[unionrdr]

You can get Czech Saaz all over the US. Ican get them from JW Dover in Westlake,& Midwest is really great for imported hops at good prices. In my first batch of Sunset Gold APA,I used 1oz each of Perle & Saaz hops (German & Czech),& it gave the ale a nice smooth,spicy quality. I used Ahtanum & Sterling in the second batch I've got conditioning in bottles now. Talk about a rich hop aroma...maybe this'll give you some more ideas?

 

[BadMrFrosty]

Thanks for the advice guys, I think I will order a bunch of the local ones and make a hop infusion for a flavour check. I can think of a couple of microbreweries that make amazing IPA's, in fact the Raptor IPA from Matuška brewery I wanted to replicate won 2nd place in the 2011 Czech speciality beer awards. I may pay them a visit and "borrow" a bag of hops.

 

[unionrdr]

Sounds like a pretty good place to start. Maybe they can even get you some sources for hops & malts? Can't hurt to try.