Spray malt??

[Philip Parsons]

Hi,

In the midst of my first brew, and have been reading the forum to improve my general understanding of brewing.

One thing I'm struggling to understand is the adding of sugar. I've seen people adding sugar, glucose, brewing sugar, spray malt etc.

Can someone explain the difference between these, and when you should use one over the other?

Cheers
Philip

[Ditch]

In a nut shell? They're all 'sugar', except for the malt. That's ye best best. Gives the beer body and flavour. Makes for a more enjoyable pint

Loads more to it, of course. But that's the shortest answer.

[Philip Parsons]

Thanks, I'll buy some of that then. There are different darknesses though. Which is for which? Assuming extra dark is stout, medium for ales, and light for summer ales/lager?

P

[b.all]

for english ales you definitely want to be adding spraymalt but in some cases you would want other things. for belgian ales candy sugar works best as you often want a high alcohol content without too much added body. for some lagers brewing sugar/glucose (same thing:both names for dextrose monohydrates) is better to get a very clean taste.

when it comes to spraymalt a lot of it the darkness is just that: colour. you need to choose one which will either keep the colour of the beer you're making or change it if you'd prefer that. There is some taste different though as well so generally just pair the colour of the malt with the colour of the beer: extra light for pale ales and lagers, light for ipas and similar, medium for bitters, dark for dark bitters and some milds and extra dark for porters and stouts.

[mickhew]

I use 50-50, spraymalt is less fermentable than sugar, so your brew will have improved body, but a slightly lower alcohol content. I find half and half is a good balance. I don't want want a full bodied pint at 3%, as I DO drink it to get pissed! Best thing to do is try a few different combinations, see what works for you.

[Philip Parsons]

Thanks guys,

To confirm, the SprayMalt is to include in the FV, rather than during priming bottles/cask?

P

[phildodd]

Thanks guys,

To confirm, the SprayMalt is to include in the FV, rather than during priming bottles/cask?

P

Yes, that's right. You only need it if you're doing a one can kit, where you get one can of kit extract and it tells you to add sugar. Replace the sugar with spraymalt gram for gram. If you're doing a two can, 3kg 'premium' kit such as Wherry or one of the Milestones, you don't need to add any more fermentables.

When priming, all you need is regular sugar.