BEER KITS WITH A BIT MORE KICK

Discuss making up beer kits - the simplest way to brew.
ambler

BEER KITS WITH A BIT MORE KICK

Post by ambler » Sun Sep 23, 2007 10:06 pm

HI FOLKS, I HAVE JUST GOT BACK INTO HOME BREWING AFTER ALONG TIME. REMEMBERING WHAT I DID AS A LAD AND PEPPED IT UP A BIT WITH A BIT MORE SUGAR I DECIDED TO FOLLOW THE RECIPE ON A BITTER KIT BUT THROW IN A BAG OF SPRAY MALT AS WELL AS THE KG OF SUGAR. THE RESULTS WERE :) . TRIED IT WITH STOUT :D AND HAVE JUST FERMENTED 3 KG OF ORDINARY SUGAR WITH A 1.8 KG YOUNGS LAGER KIT. IT HAS FERMENTED THE SUGAR RIGHT OUT WITH THE YEAST THAT CAME WITH THE KIT EARLY SIGNS ARE IT TASTES LIKE SPECIAL BREW. I THINK THATS A GOOD THING DUNNO IF YOU AGREE :=P

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TC2642
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Post by TC2642 » Sun Sep 23, 2007 10:15 pm

Why are you shouting :wink: . I always remember back in the day when I had a Woodforde Nog Ale, I didn't realise that you didn't need to add sugar to the wort, I used 1kg of a dark sugar (can't remember what it was now) and the beer turned out to be excellent, tasted a lot like a imperial stout that I had tried at a pub previously. Not sure about adding 3kg of sugar to the brew though, I would age your beer for quite a while before sampling.
Fermenting -!
Maturing - Lenin's Revenge RIS
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Next brew - PA
Brew after next brew - IPA

ambler

QUALITY (STRENGTH) RATHER THAN QUANTITY

Post by ambler » Sun Sep 23, 2007 10:17 pm

been nebbing at site for a while but just signed up, dunno who doug is (as yet) but a 2L bottle of stout 1kgmalt +1kgsugar dont alf hit the spot haha

dan_olo

Post by dan_olo » Sun Sep 23, 2007 10:17 pm

It'll be strong if nothing else! Can't say fairer than that :lol:

ambler

Post by ambler » Sun Sep 23, 2007 10:29 pm

its strong alright,, but dunno if its drinkable yet. i had a little sample as i put it in bottles and it tasted like that can of special that you fell asleep through while watching telly on the sofa after a bust up with the missus and woke up with a dry mouth and it was the first thing to hand but regretted it after

sparky Paul

Re: BEER KITS WITH A BIT MORE KICK

Post by sparky Paul » Sun Sep 23, 2007 10:45 pm

Welcome to the forum ambler!
ambler wrote:EARLY SIGNS ARE IT TASTES LIKE SPECIAL BREW. I THINK THATS A GOOD THING DUNNO IF YOU AGREE :=P
If you like Special Brew, I'd say its a good thing! :D

ambler

Post by ambler » Sun Sep 23, 2007 10:46 pm

look on the bright side, thats what i thought about the stout , but now i prefer it to guinness. EDME 1.8kg stout kit , 1 kg spray malt 1kg silver spoon

sparky Paul

Post by sparky Paul » Sun Sep 23, 2007 10:51 pm

Nowt wrong with EDME kits, I used to do them years ago... the extra kilo of sugar should pep it up a bit... :wacko:

The lager with 3kg of sugar should be like rocket juice... :flip:

Orkney_Rob

Post by Orkney_Rob » Sun Sep 23, 2007 11:18 pm

Pah - back when I was a student we swapped the yeast out for Turbo Yeast (alcotec's finest) and then made it up with enough sugar to sink the Bismark. The trick was to add the sugar gradually until the yeast could make no more alcohol, but which time you were abuot done. The whole lot was transferred to PET bottles and stored for a good 24 hours or so before drinking to allow the appropriate maturation time.

The net result tasted like some form of petro-chemical, had the clarity of your average peat bog and smelled like aviation fuel. It did, however, get you very, very drunk. Indeed - with said brew I managed the Messiah like trick of the feeding of the 5,000. Except it was closer to 200 crammed into a 3 bedroom flat in Glasgow's west end... lesson learned - never invite people back for a party over a PA at a gig... especially when the offlicence is long closed for the night and no one has any booze. The batch did get everyone rather drunk however :lol:

You could tell it was good stuff as we tried to give the last bottle to a tramp who took one sniff and gave it back declaring he would never be so desperate as to stoop as low as that evil brew in his search for oblivion.

Halcyon days I tells you - and it goes to illustrate that I modified kits as far back as I can remember! I am sure it was supposed to be a lager kit, so why it turned out black as the night I have no idea... unless they put a lager label on a stout kit... but that will remain a mystery!

booldawg

Post by booldawg » Mon Sep 24, 2007 8:46 am

Haha, great anecdote Rob! Got my monday morning off to a good start :D Is there a limit to how much sugar can be processed by the yeast? Would you end up with sweet tasting but strong beer. I'm a bit of a fan of Barley Wine and wouldnt mind getting one on the go this year.

Orkney_Rob

Post by Orkney_Rob » Mon Sep 24, 2007 9:05 am

All yeast strains have a maximum alcohol level which they can tolerate under ideal conditions so when playing that game you had to maintain perfect brewing conditions whilst adding the sugar. If you add it all at the start, judging by early experimentation, you overwhelmed the yeast and got very sweet brews without the kick that you were expecting. The trick was to maintain optimum temperature and slowly add the tate & lyle.

I must warn you though, the stuff was absolutely rank! Do not try ths one at home!!!! We also used Ribena and turbo yeast to make a highly intoxicating fruit drink using the same methodology - this was before uni when we were stuck away at a boarding school. Now that stuff made MD20/20 seem pretty classy!

sparky Paul

Post by sparky Paul » Mon Sep 24, 2007 9:17 am

booldawg wrote:Is there a limit to how much sugar can be processed by the yeast? Would you end up with sweet tasting but strong beer. I'm a bit of a fan of Barley Wine and wouldnt mind getting one on the go this year.
It depends on how tolerant the yeast is of alcohol, wine yeasts are better than beer yeasts, and the turbo yeasts will ferment to 20% plus. As Rob says, the way to get the most alcohol is to keep feeding in sugar... but eventually the alcohol will kill the yeast.

As the fermentables increase, so will the residual unfermentable sugars, so the stronger brews do tend to be sweeter - and sickly at the extreme.

I've not been into barley wines, ever since I made myself very ill with it... :out

mattfuzzy

Post by mattfuzzy » Mon Sep 24, 2007 9:47 am

alcotek + 8kg brewing sugar + water + 5 days = a 22L batch of stupidly strong, extremely dry, wine stuff thats supposidly around 18 - 22% doesnt taste sweet at all, which i have stored in 1L PET bottles.... i ended up mixing 1 bottle up with sugar and "ice lolly" flavoring to make some kind of sweet shot thing (to compare to them bottles you can buy in somerfields for £5.30 for 500ml) except mine tastes like some really crap dry as hell wine, i banished the rest of it (about 20L) into a cardboard box and its been in my bedroom ever since, been here for about 6 months now i think mabe less, mabe ill try it again around christmas.... 2010 :lol:

note: you do NOT want to use this stuff as a main drink, i can drink rank stuff, but not this, hell iv had a bottle of absinthe from the czech republic (worst absinthe around) that was quite palatable compared to this, and on another note, i couldnt even drink it when i was completely wrecked... which is a first :lol:
although begs the question about them water stills you can buy..... enough said :D
-matt

dean_bpm

Post by dean_bpm » Mon Sep 24, 2007 10:41 am

I have found a cheap & nasty bargain brew kit and im planning on brewing something strong with it. Would 500g of dark malt and 1kg of sugar be enough for a potent brew?

booldawg

Post by booldawg » Mon Sep 24, 2007 11:20 am

I got a recipe off another part of this forum for ginger beer. I'll be using a sachet of Safale 04 with 2 kg of glucose in 15L of water. Would it be OK to add all the glucose straight away or is 2kg far too much to start with?

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