Kit hack advice

[Padraich]

Morning all,

So, I'm going to hack a Thomas Coopers IPA kit tomorrow night.  Just wondering what advice the group would offer given the ingredients I have to hand

1 x Thomas Coopers IPA
2 x the home brew company 1.5kg light LME (expired November... my bad)
1 x Safale US-05 yeast - will use this instead of the kit yeast.
25g Palisade hop pellets
250g Amarillo hop pellets
100g Delta hops
700g Crystal 230 EBC (not going to use this as I think it's too dark for an IPA - am I right?)

I've never done a boil before but was thinking of boiling the kit can in 3l of water for 30mins with the following hop additions
25g amarillo, 25g delta @ 30 mins
50g delta @ 15 mins
25g amarillo, 25g palisade @ 5 mins

Does this make sense?

And then the big question - 1.5kg or 3kg of LME?  Or should the boil be with the LME and not the kit can?

Thanks all!

[Bubbles]

I've never done a boil before but was thinking of boiling the kit can in 3l of water for 30mins with the following hop additions
25g amarillo, 25g delta @ 30 mins
50g delta @ 15 mins
25g amarillo, 25g palisade @ 5 mins

Does this make sense?

And then the big question - 1.5kg or 3kg of LME?  Or should the boil be with the LME and not the kit can?

There isn't really any point in boiling the kit can contents, unless you're trying to remove the hop aroma in the kit. And there is normally very little in kits. Also, remember that the kits are pre-bittered and probably contain enough bitterness. A 30 minute boil might drag a lot more bitterness out of those high-alpha hops than you want. A 10 min boil is usually sufficient to make a hop tea without adding too much extra bitterness.

Use some (you don't need to use it all) of the LME to boil the hops in. 1.5kg should be fine. If you add 3kg you will definitely need to add more bittering hops, but you might still end up with something too cloying. The only way you'll know is to experiment. Hit hacking is a bit of a black art - you don't really know what has been put into the kit, and that makes it harder to predict the final result.

[Padraich]

Thanks Bubbles - I hadn't thought about the existing flavours in the kit... nor am I great at working out how bitter the LME I add will become.

Maybe dry hopping in primary and again in secondary is the approach with this one?

[Bubbles]

Coopers are unusual in that they actually publish the bitterness rating on their kits, if you wanted to bother with doing the calculations.

Dry hopping is a great way to improve flavour and aroma in kits, as they can be a bit lacking. Just be sure to sanitise the hop bag.

[Padraich]

Yea... I saw the thread about someone's batch being killed by a hop bag that wasn't properly sanitised. 

[LordEoin]

+1 for everything bubbles said.

just use 1.5kg LME, no need to boil it but you can add it in the last 5 minutes to make sure it's all dissolved.
for the hops, I'd remove the 30 min boil completely and use those hops for dryhop.

Re bitterness, the IPA kit has: Weight - 1.7kg, Colour - 230EBC, Bitterness - 710IBU
Kit IBU x volume in Liters / Brew volume = Brewed IBU
So for the IPA kit to 23 liters, we get:
(710X1.7)/23=25 IBU before fermentation
1207/23=52IBU (plenty!)

RE the Crystal: I'd add some, it'll help with head retention and add some freshness.
But then again I'm not too bothered with colour.

There's also this handy tool to help out:
http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/29655-kit-and-extract-beer-spreadsheet/page-20

[Bubbles]

Use some (you don't need to use it all) of the LME to boil the hops in. 1.5kg should be fine.

Just to clarify this statement, it might be a bit confusing...

1.5kg should be enough malt extract to do the batch of beer.

For the hop tea, you only want to use a portion of that LME. I'd use no more than 500g of the LME in 1.5 litres of water. You want to keep the volume of water as small as you can, or else you might run into issues with cooling the "wort" down before you pitch your yeast.

Just a word on that crystal malt... I did a kit hack once that was almost identical to what you're suggesting - the Coopers IPA with ~200 EBC crystal malt. That IPA kit is quite dark already and probably has a fair portion on dark crystal already in it. Dark crystal can be quite an intense flavour if you don't use it sparingly. Personally, I'd use no more than 50-100g or so in the batch (a very small amount, but you will taste it). As Eoin says, it will add some nice freshness back to the kit.

[Padraich]

Hey guys,

I bottled the hacked kit last night.  Thanks for the link to the Aussie spreadsheet LordEoin - I used this to design and record my brew.

I did the crystal steep, a short boil, 10/5/0 min hop additions, primary for 2 weeks and secondary for a week.

At the Midland Home Brewers meet last weekend, we had an interesting chat about the merits (or lack thereof) of secondary so this combined with my inability to control temperature may combine to give me a beer that's ok; but not great.

Anyway, however it comes out, I'm looking forward to it. The tastes I had out of the FV were good so now I have to be patient.

Cheers!

[LordEoin]

sounds good, it should be a nice beer.
Opinions will vary, but secondary isn't hugely important for most beers, especially from kit.
I generally do a secondary to clear out some excess yeast, but there's no harm in leaving it in.
It'll all drop out in the bottle where it'll secondary anyway
At the end of the day, it's just homebrew so get your temperature control right and the rest is mostly  personal preference

[Padraich]

WRT secondary - the beer was very clear going into bottles last night, so it probably helped.

Temp should be good from now on... got a controller (finally) so at least I'll be able to keep the beer warm.  Next challenge is getting "stakeholder buy-in" to have a brewing fridge in the house...

I was going to enter the NBC with the kit, but I think entering a bottle that had 5 days to condition would be a waste of the judges time.  Next year I guess.

[Parky]

I was going to enter the NBC with the kit, but I think entering a bottle that had 5 days to condition would be a waste of the judges time. 

Although the closing date for entry to the comp is 8th Feb., the judging doesn't actually take place (for the Galway leg at least!) until 21st Feb. - so plenty of time to condition imho.

Don't let a perceived lack of conditioning put you off entering - the beer may turn out great, and you will always get some useful feedback that can improve your future brews 

[LordEoin]

Yeah, once it's carbonated the rest should be ok.
If it's not carbonated at the drop-off point, then it's unlikely to carbonate in storage as it'll probably be cold.
It'll be young, but that's not always a bad thing when you have a hoppy beer.
Sure live a little and enter it if its carbed, you'll get some great feedback from pro judges and maybe even a medal or a beersmith key

[Padraich]

Will have to try one in the next couple of days and make a call...