Hop Revival

[hirns]

Firstly, a huge thanks to all who've made this a great site. After brewing and experimenting for ten years I'd gone back to the basic Coopers Green with BE2.

I'd tried hops(teabag) in the past and found that they made my beer taste like I'd added a shovel of dirt to the mix. This is despite the fact that I love my LCPA, and other hoppy beers. I can detect the smell, taste of POR and Cascade in many commercial beers.

This site as encourage me to alter my yeast and I'm currently using a lot of Safale US and even experiment with lager yeasts (it's quite warm here in Central Queensland.) I've also been encourage to re experiment with hops. I'm finding that after my innitial re experimentation with some Cascade hop pellets, 12g dry hopped at racking that I'm still getting that same earth flavour rather than the big C taste.

MY question/s... What do hops that are old taste like??? Some of the hop teabags in foil bags have no used by date and were not refrigerated at the brew store. So I need to know if there is a way to tell how fresh the pellets are?

Secondly, I've read about people using hop flowers, do I use these the same as the pellets or do they need to be used at greater, lower weights, boil time etcetera

Many thanks

Hirns

[Bum]

As far as I'm aware dry hopping is pretty much just for aroma. I think flavour mostly comes into play when boiling at the 10/15 minute mark and bitterness comes from about an hour boil.

I'm just beginning to play with pellets myself (never used the tea bags) so I'm sure someone will come along and give us both some more detailed info.

[drsmurto]

When using flowers or plugs you need to adjust but this is more for those who use them for bittering - so those who do AG, partials or full extract.

Not really that relevant here.

Teabags are not only risky on the basis they have no indication of freshness, they likely dont even have the AA rating on them or which country they are from, crop year etc.

Check out the online stores in your locale (add your location so we can point you in the right direction).

Old hops that have gone stale are said to have a cheesy smell to them. I find that any hops that dont have a big aroma are likely to be on the iffy side.

Back to the flowers vs plugs vs pellets discussions. Yes, use them exactly the same way if you are steeping them or even using them for a short boil. keep in mind that if you add pellets to your fermenter they sink to the bottom, plugs and flowers float on top.

Cheers
DrSmurto

[Ross]

2 most important factors to great beer IMHO are Temperature control & FRESH, FRESH, FRESH ingredients.
I'm devasted that i wasted so much time in my early days of brewing using Cr@p hops & not knowing any difference.
The quality of available supplies has lifted dramitcally in the last 2 years & there are now several specialist suppliers of truly fresh ingredients.

cheers Ross

[pixelboy]

The quality of available supplies has lifted dramitcally in the last 2 years & there are now several specialist suppliers of truly fresh ingredients.

Ross should know.. He sells the best fresh brewing supplies in the land!

Its the only place I buy hops and yeast from.

[Trough Lolly]

2 most important factors to great beer IMHO are Temperature control & FRESH, FRESH, FRESH ingredients.

+1 and when you're making lagers, add a third factor....patience.

Cheers,
TL