Hops and yeast

[Ian]

I would really appreciate your sagely and experienced thoughts on a matter guys - two matters I suppose, but closely related, so I hope I'm in line treating this as one topic.
Briefly, by way of background, I have a mate in WA who is a passionate and veteran Full mash brewer (in fact he and two partners have a small commercial brewery as an additional business to their 'day jobs') and it is he who has nudged me to the brink of the reverent pursuit of AG brewing. Anyhow, he tells me that such great strides have been made in recent years in the area of dry yeasts that he now uses little (or nothing) else - and that goes for hops too, and they use just hop pellets.
I have the ingredients for my first two brews (hence my earlier question regarding liquid yeast) and they include liquid yeast and fresh hops.
Now I am sure there would be specialist brews where you would need (or want) to use specialist yeast and hops and that personal preferences play a huge part in all this, but my two questions would be:

A. Would you agree that for 'general brewing' (at least whilst trying to master AG brewing) one would do well to stick to dry yeast and hop pellets and

B. Since I have the mentioned ingredients, and my first brews will utilise the hop flowers (they have provided aroma, bittering and finishing hops) how should one use these to best avoid a clogged cooler? The brewquip guys talked about blitzing the hops in a food processor or coffee grinder for that purpose, or should I make up little cheescloth or muslin bags to pop into the kettle at the appropriate time?

I hope I have been concise enough and, again, I know personal experience and preference play a big part in these choices, but some practical guidence would be hugely appreciated.
Cheers,
Ian

[Nick]

Most definately keep persisting. It's the only way to achieve your goals.

You will find that small, seemingly tiny changes in the way you brew make a big, big difference.

Two jump to mind that effected my brewing.

The first was liquid yeast attenuation. This improved dramatically when I aerated my cooled wort at pitching time. And I mean aerated! I went out and bought a fish pump and air stone, sterilised the bits and had it going for a good 20 mins. Any water I added to top up the brew I aerated the snot out of too.

The second was adding tubing to my sparge tun tap so that there was as little contact with the air as possible as I recirculated and drained. Made a huge difference to colour and stability which are important with the beers I make which are mostly pale ales and lagers.

Oh, and reading, like Reviled says makes a world of difference. Brewing good beer is really, really technical if you dig under the surface and that's what I like about it. It is so much an art but to be a great artist you have to also be a great technician.

[jt]

So who's hopping on the ferry to spend the weekend brewing with Ian ? A weekend in the sounds would be quite appealing

[Stu McKinlay]

He's been put off by this thread... he was last spotted heading to a winery!

[Ian]

LOL - yes, it can all be a bit intimidating, but often just plodding at a thing eventually yields the results you want. Wine's good, but I'm too much of a dyed in the wool beer lover - so I'll try and hang in there. I shall of course buy some of my favourite beers to keep things sane.

[Ian]

Well this is great and just what I'd hoped for - heaps of information and opinions, some of course conflicting. Just what you'd expect from folk indulging in something that is a mixture between science and an art form with the hopeful result of a favourite beverage, and I appreciate the ideas and opinions which are hugely stimulating.
I certainly have to admit that I never have come close to mastering kit and extract brewing and, as I have mentioned previously, I have dabbled more than truly applied myself on and off from first (1969) brew to the most recent with long vaccuous spaces in between efforts. But, started by said passionate WA mate, something has hit the go button for AG brewing and, for better or worse, I almost have all the goodies to plunge in. I have done a fair bit of reading and lots of question asking and WAY too much talking, so my next step is to go through the process as soon as I can winkle my kettle out of the engineer. If it should turn into total mayhem I can at least address the problem areas and when I get my first drinkable beer I'll be proud as punch. When it becomes more drinkable than Steinlager, Tui, Tasman Bitter and a few others unmentionable vaguely beer-like beverages on the market, I'll consider myself to be winning hands down and things can only improve!
But again, a sincere thanks for being taken seriously in my quest for a starting point, this forum has done me the power of good.
Cheers,
Ian