Maltodextrin

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LlewBru
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Maltodextrin

Post by LlewBru » Thu Sep 22, 2011 6:39 pm

Hi Guy's,
I am about to bottle a (sort of) Black Dog Stout - recipe from Aussie Homebrewers. Well, it calls for dark DME but I could only get Medium LME, so it might not quite be there. [-o< However, my question is regarding using Maltodextrin as a priming sugar - will this be ok & if so do you use the same amount as with a normal prime? 8-[ I will be bulk priming & normally have used about 185gms of Coopers Brewing sugar to a 23l batch.
Any comments will be appreciated. :beer:
Cheers!!

twentyfootwilf

Re: Maltodextrin

Post by twentyfootwilf » Thu Sep 22, 2011 7:07 pm

The short answer is No. The reason being, maltodextrin is not fermentable and is used to add body to beer for this very reason. So to use it as priming sugar wont actually prime it at all. Better to use brewing sugar or cane sugar or if you like dried malt extract.

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Re: Maltodextrin

Post by LlewBru » Fri Sep 23, 2011 6:40 am

twentyfootwilf wrote:The short answer is No. The reason being, maltodextrin is not fermentable and is used to add body to beer for this very reason. So to use it as priming sugar wont actually prime it at all. Better to use brewing sugar or cane sugar or if you like dried malt extract.
Thanks for the reply. Could I still bung some of it in at bottling time , or is it now too late?
Cheers!!

twentyfootwilf

Re: Maltodextrin

Post by twentyfootwilf » Fri Sep 23, 2011 8:27 am

I'm not too sure on that one. It may add some body to the beer but I think the usual practice is to add it to the fermenter with the rest of the fermentables.
It makes up part of the Coopers Brew enhancers and I would suggest that's the best time to use it. Having said that I don't think it can do any harm putting it in at bottling or kegging time.

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Re: Maltodextrin

Post by LlewBru » Fri Sep 23, 2011 9:02 am

Hi Wilf,
Thanks. I did find some mention of it on a USA site. Apparently you can add it anytime. However, I have added it the only thing is to establish how much. The damn stuff is worse than DME - it clumps like blazes! Takes forever to break down the lumps. :/
Depends how it turns out, if I ever use it again! Never knew that Coopers had it in their enhancer - I wonder what the ratio is. I thought it was only Dextrose.
Thanks mate. :beer:
Cheers!!

Biamoasta

Re: Maltodextrin

Post by Biamoasta » Fri Sep 23, 2011 10:43 am

I believe that maltodextrin is still about 10-15% fermentable, so don't use it at bottling time without taking that into account.

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Re: Maltodextrin

Post by LlewBru » Fri Sep 23, 2011 11:47 am

Biamoasta wrote:I believe that maltodextrin is still about 10-15% fermentable, so don't use it at bottling time without taking that into account.
:shock: Oops! Didn't figure that! Ah, well - I'll have to listen for the explosions. #-o Hopefully I've not put too much of it in! [-o<

Thanks for the info. :beer:
Cheers!!

twentyfootwilf

Re: Maltodextrin

Post by twentyfootwilf » Fri Sep 23, 2011 7:47 pm

Coopers Beer enhancer 1 is 60% dextrose and 40% Maltodextrin. The beer enhancer 2 is 50% Dextrose, 25% Light dried Malt extract and 25% Maltodextrin.
They also do a brewing sugar which is 60% dextrose and 40% malto dextrin, but I've never seen that one offered for sale over here. In addition they do a straightforward 100% dextrose. Again I've not seen that for sale in the UK. Needless to say if you want to you can make up your own equivalents of these mixtures probably for less than the Coopers boxed items.

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Re: Maltodextrin

Post by LlewBru » Sat Sep 24, 2011 7:43 am

:wacko: Thanks Wilf, I'll have to keep a close eye on things - the sugar I added for the bulk priming was Coopers Brewing Sugar!
Should be fun... ;)
Cheers!!

twentyfootwilf

Re: Maltodextrin

Post by twentyfootwilf » Sat Sep 24, 2011 8:04 am

Well you should have some maltodextrin in your primer so your body should improve marginally (probably not enough to be noticeable though)

If you click on this link to Coopers web site brewing sugars page it gives some information on their products. http://www.coopers.com.au/the-brewers-g ... ars/sugars

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Re: Maltodextrin

Post by LlewBru » Sat Sep 24, 2011 8:29 am

twentyfootwilf wrote:Well you should have some maltodextrin in your primer so your body should improve marginally (probably not enough to be noticeable though)

If you click on this link to Coopers web site brewing sugars page it gives some information on their products. http://www.coopers.com.au/the-brewers-g ... ars/sugars
Ah, well you see Wilf I put in 185gms Coopers brewing sugar ( as per normal) & about 350 gms MD which is about the amount I found on the USA site for 23L.
Thanks for the site info, I'll have a look. :)
Cheers!!

twentyfootwilf

Re: Maltodextrin

Post by twentyfootwilf » Sat Sep 24, 2011 10:19 am

I'm no expert, but my understanding is that 80grams of priming sugar is about right for 23 litres. I could be wrong but 185grams seems a lot #-o , but I don't think it will be too much of a problem as long as there is a pressure release valve on your keg to let out any excess CO2 which may develop during carbonation :) The biggest problem with over priming I think comes if you bottle the beer using glass bottles with the potential for a bottle bomb sitting in your cupboard :shock:

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Re: Maltodextrin

Post by LlewBru » Sat Sep 24, 2011 10:30 am

Hi Wilf. I use the Aussie Home brewing calcs which for the stout I am making should have only been about 150 gms for a CO2 vol of 2,4 so I did over shoot a wee bit :oops: but I thought well what the heck, that was the last of that bag so I bunged it in! The other reason was that the last stout batch I did turned out a bit flat for my liking. As I said, I hope I will not be up to my neck in broken bottles as it gets warmer here! Luckily the storage cupboard is still quite cool (about 15'C). [-o<
:beer:
Cheers!!

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