dry hopping a kit beer in the keg

[Mulberry]

Has anyone any tips for dry hopping a kit beer in the keg.
How much shall I put in?

[fivetide]

I use between 25g and 40g in a boiled muslin bag for about a week.

I tend to do this for the week in the warm between primary fermentation and conditioning in the cool, but if you like you can leave it in for the duration.

[J_P]

I can't really add anything to what fivetide said - he's the resident pro when it comes to spicing up kits with dry hops.

I once spiced up a Woodefords Great Eastern kit with East Kent Goldings (the lovely floral taste in Summer Lightening) in a jam bag. That was a fine brew. The only tip I could give would be to allow your hops plenty of room to move around in the bag you put them, that way the brew will get plenty of aroma.

Keep us posted on how it turns out

[chopperswookie]

a quick question is there a table or list (etc) of what hops go best with what drink. Or is it just hop(e) for the best (sorry about the pun, mrs chopper's suggestion, she is in hysterics on the floor)

[J_P]

I reckon the lighter the brew the more aromatic and gentle the hop ie if it's a pale malt brew I'd go with either East Kent or Styrian Goldings or perhaps even Bramling Cross. You could probably use some of the lager hops like saaz and hellertau and the other one (I forget its name) thay would be good.

EKGs are a personal favourite

[fivetide]

I'm just experimenting myself to be honest and so far I have had good results with Bramling Cross, First Gold and Cascade, the latter of which is superb if you want to add a bit of floral citrus to a summer gold type beer. I only just received my Saaz and Styrrian so haven't played with them yet.

[J_P]

I'm just experimenting myself to be honest and so far I have had good results with Bramling Cross, First Gold and Cascade, the latter of which is superb if you want to add a bit of floral citrus to a summer gold type beer. I only just received my Saaz and Styrrian so haven't played with them yet.

Styrians are stunning! If you ever go AG (it's only a matter of time ) or extract then check out Marc Ollosons "Styrian Stunner" it's erm ...... how can I say this......erm Stunning!

[drsmurto]

First time kegger here but after pouring a few pints from each keg i decided more aroma was needed. Am loving the ability to be able to do this after tasting rather than have 30 odd bottles of beer as is.

I use a hop ball, essentially a tea ball Link

Both are kit beers.

The APA got 10g of cascade and the bitter got 10g of EKG. Finding the EKG has turned a nice bitter into a very lovely beer. And with my inexperience it is very lightly carbed - still got a lot to learn but practice makes perfect! The APA is nice too but the bitter is doing it for me!

[Chris The Fish]

its also worth looking at progress hops as well.

I tend to boil/steep them and then add the 'juice' to the inital wort in fermentation, ive used anything from 25g to 40g and not had any adverse flavours yet.

[J_P]

a quick question is there a table or list (etc) of what hops go best with what drink. Or is it just hop(e) for the best (sorry about the pun, mrs chopper's suggestion, she is in hysterics on the floor)

Hey CW

I found this on Wiki, it tells you a fair bit about hops and brewing and then lists the flavours, usage and parentage of the individual types. Pretty interesting

[pongobilly]

can someone tell me exactly how to dry hop a kit, i normally bottle my beer but when i start up again in the autumn i want to barrel it

[chopperswookie]

cheers J P thats excacty what i'm after. thanks mate

[David Edge]

a quick question is there a table or list (etc) of what hops go best with what drink.

It's a very good question. In my experiment I compared Fuggles, Goldings, Styrians, Challenger, Hersbrucker and Saazer. Fuggles were best; Saaz by far the worst with little to choose between the rest.

Ant Hayes suggested that Saazer store least well and as people don't usually rate Fuggles for dry hopping perhaps they scored because they were the freshest.

The moral of the story is that if you're only using small quantities of hops for dry hopping, whatever varieties you can get in individually sealed plugs or pellets might be the best bet. Fuggles, Goldings, Challenger, Styrians, Cacade might be appropriate - in that order - for a spectrum of beers from dark to pale. Have fun with experimenting - that's what demijohns are for.