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[frederick]

Hi all... Well I have some very basic questions that I HOPE will be answered so here they are....
1)What does SNPA mean
2) What is Belhaven 90 and Clone
3)What do Fuggles and Goldings do to the beer and when are they added
4) What does Malt do for the beer and also when added.

These questions must seem very stupid to the experts but all I have done so far is place a tin of a kit into a barrel of water... added the yeast and am now waiting for the brew to stop fermenting so the result is that I now want to go a little bit further with my next brew.
Please help as I do wish to carry on with what I think is a smashing hobby.

Frederick

[frederick]

1)What does SNPA mean

a) Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

2) What is Belhaven 90 and Clone

a) Belhaven 90 is a Scottish beer, a clone in homebrewing terms is a recipe that attempts to emulate another beer.

3)What do Fuggles and Goldings do to the beer and when are they added

a)they are varieties of hops depending on when they are added during the boil when the beer is being made they add bitterness, flavour and or aroma. (kit brewers will tend only to boil them for short periods to augment the flavours already found in malt extract).

4) What does Malt do for the beer and also when added.

a) malted barley is the base for most beers, the brewer soaks the malted barley in hot water which converts the starch to sugar and these sugars are rinsed from the barley grains and turned into wort, the stuff you ferment to make beer.

sometimes wort is concentrated to form malt extract, this is what comes in tins do be dilluted back to make wort again by the kit or extract brewer, it saves the homebrewer having to mash (soak) the grains and extract the sugars himself and in the case of beer kits, the extract will also contain the hops bitterness and flavours. Yeast is added and it is fermented to make beer.

Hi Daab... many thanks for you very explatory reply. As you will have gathered I am very new to brewing and do find these very complex.
As I will be using only a canned kit at the moment would it be a good thing to add any of these extras or are they only used when doing a full brew of hops etc.If I had more space I must confess I would be doing the full monty but I am afraid that I must restrict myself to a simple can system but I would like to add anything that would improve the final brew so any advice you can give me will be most gratefully received.

Frederick