Sundew Kit

[Grumbler]

What do you think of this. I'm doing a Sundew kit tomorrow and plan to put a hop tea in it. Also an extra 500 gms of dextrose. Gervin ale yeast will be put in with the pack yeast. Would Fuggles match this kit as the hop tea? I like big flavours and am torn between Fuggles, Golding and Summit. Any advice would be welcome.

[Fil]

unless already spent i would save the cost of the dextrose and use white sugar for the added alcohol content you require, brewers sugars etc are all a bit of a con imho using appealing names to sell simple sugars for a few more quid than they are worth. Granted if brewing to a commercial schedule using the slightly more accessible sugars can save 1/2 a day in the fermentor, but as a home brewer you will probably be happy letting the beer sit for a couple of weeks or more in the FV..

If its malty flavour and body you want to boost with the extra sugar addition then your only real option is to use DME as an addition.

When Amending a kit with extra hop additions you have to consider that the kit already has a good proportion of bittering hops mixed in with the extract. Im not familiar with the kit in question so cant comment. But when making a hop tea bear in mind that long steeping ay=t a high temperature will bring out more of the bittering qualities from the hops.

If your after the big hop aroma then your additions would be better employed as a dry hop addition after the first week or so in the FV.

When it comes to what hops ?? well i would let your nose guide you, between the 3 you have listed i would think summit may be best suited for a dry hop addition. But go with your nose..

[LarryF]

I've just bottled a Wherry which I wanted to bump up the ABV so I added 50g of honey dissolved in boiling water and ended up with it coming out at 6% which is about what I was after. As for the hop tea, the point made about the bitterness is spot on, I'm drinking a John Bull Lager that I'd added a Falconers Flight hop tea to and the hop tea has added bitterness as its 9.5%AA, I don't mind it but anyone who's tried it finds it very bitter. I'm thinking that if I am going to do a hop tea then I'll use a low AA hop, or if I have a high AAhop then dry hop only.

[Clibit]

You could make a hop tea with water below 80C. This shouldn't add much if any bitterness.

[Grumbler]

All done and waiting for the bubbles. In the end I went for the 500 gms of dextrose cos I already bought it. I'm going to dry hop but I'm going to have a think about the variety. It measured 1.052, tasted sweet but some underlying bitterness. I'll have a taste next week then make my mind up. It's in a fast fermenter,the second brew in one. How do I measure the bitterness? I understand the sugar to ABV stuff but bitterness is new for me.

[Fil]

IBU is the metric employed to measure bitterness https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_measurement

and its the Alpha acid percentage that indicates the hops strength in bitterness terms.

the length of time steeping or boiling will effect the 'hop utilisation' or how much aplha acid you 'convert' to bitterness, excuse my lay terms..

you can download some brewing s/w like brewmate or beersmith which will let you design a recipe on the fly letting you amend hop quantities and length in the boil to check out the projected expected results

[Grumbler]

Just for the record, I've added 20 gms of Fuggles in a hop bag. Measured gravity at 1.014. Used a conical fermenter and it fermented very quickly again. Not much movement after Wednesday. Removed sediment collector and it was full of trub. It's looking pretty clear already, just like the Wherry kit I brewed in the same vessel. I'll give It at least another week before bottling.