The Hops

Traditionally hops are used in beer for there preservative qualities and to add the bitterness, flavours and aroma that characterizes good beers. There is a wide selection of hop varieties available from all parts of the world. All these different varieties carry their own special flavour and aroma as well as imparting bitterness. Some varieties have higher alpha percentages which purely imparts bitterness, this is measured as BU’s (bitterness units).

The table below is a guide:

All of these varieties will impart bitterness, flavour and aroma, but the actual separate character will depend on just how the individual hops are cooked into the potential brew.

Generally to impart:

Bittering – Boil hops for 45 minutes

Flavour – Simmer hops for 15 mins

Aroma – Steep hops in very hot liquid for 2 minutes

If you were to boil the aroma, you would boil off all the volatiles that are the aroma.

The above is achievable by – Add the bittering hops in first and boil for the 45 minutes, add the flavour hops and simmer for a further 15 minutes. Switch of the heat and remove from the hot plate(dont worry about if you have a gas stove) and add the aroma variety for 2 minutes.

You can modify you beer pack brew in any of the above three ways – simply bring up the aroma if you like, or do the lot with plain extract from starch.

The Yeast

While the malt and hop content play the major roles in affecting the style of a beer, the yeast culture employed will only have subtle effects.

All beer packs available are supplied with a sachet of dried yeast. Liquid cultures are also available to make special beers, but being active, these must be kept refrigerated until use. You can get liquid yeasts to make all sorts of exotic beers. Most dried forms of yeast are only suitable for above 20C ferments but some liquid ones will ferment as low as one degree Celsius.

This most important thing with brewing is that we introduce sufficient yeast to our brews and get things happening quickly. With this in mind, I suggest you leave experimenting with yeast cultures till last as I said, they will the least effect on the beer. Try experimenting on formulas using the same yeast brand as a constant, until you get the recipe just right.