DME or sugar what ratio for bitter and lager

[hitower_george]

for the experienced guys on here you probably get sick of answering this question,

i've done a few kits now bitter and lager so forth all but one has been good
i've used different ratios for each. but i still think there is room for improvement.

lager i used 50% sugar and 50% DME but i found that it tasted quite bitter and turned very quickly in the pressure barrel , maybe i should not have used the DME but the last lager i did was rather watery and had no sort of texture other than sweet water tasting.

also my bitters are coming on nicely now and i tend to be using around about 750grms of Dme and 250grms normal sugar.

I'm just wondering what else i could try to maybe improve the beer, i had one batch that made pedigree look tame real heavy but got you wrecked by the 6th pint stuff, but I've lost the ratio to that one and was thinking that i left it longer in first and second stage's .

anyway any advice is greatly appreciated

[sparky Paul]

You can't go wrong using 100% Spraymalt or Liquid Malt Extract as an adjunct for single can Ale kits. That includes stouts, bitters, milds, pale, porters, etc., etc.. For Lagers, I would recommend between 50-75% Light Spraymalt to get the lighter texture required.

The amount of alcohol in the beer relates directly to the amount of available sugar for the yeast to work on, so if you add lots of sugar/spraymalt, you will get lots of alcohol. However, it will also throw the flavour of the beer out, so you would need to start thinking about additional hopping to balance it out.

[hitower_george]

this may sound stupid but light spray malt and spray malt are not the same as DME right?? also if anyone knows of a good shop near the stoke or macc area's please point me in there direction.

also instead of increasing the sugar or having to add extra hops i just added less water so instead of getting 5 gallons of beer igot 4.5 gallons.

maybe this was wrong but i think thats what i did to get the best brew i had.

[maxashton]

Spraymalt and DME are effectively the same thing, but Spraymalt is a trademark of muntons.

Reducing volume is always the best way of increasing alcohol in kits.

[sparky Paul]

Spraymalt and DME are effectively the same thing, but Spraymalt is a trademark of muntons.

Not quite, spraymalt just describes the method of drying.

Spraymalt is spray dried malt extract made using a spray drier, as opposed to belt dried malt extract, which is evaporated on a vacuum belt going through an oven.

I'm not keen on the term DME for dried malt as it can be confused with Diastatic Malt Extract, which is very different stuff.

[andyp]

All DME is definitely the way to go.

Alternatively Lager kits especially, as per instructions, are low strength, low hopped and low flavour (and not in fact a lager) so why not leave the additions out all together and make 3 galls just from the tin. Don't use any less yeast tho'. Perhaps more appropriately; 1 tin, 500gms, DME made up to 3.5 galls.