will it be strong enough?

[BIGTRACTOR]

hi all, great to be back on this excellent forum , just a quick one:

i've started a coopers original lager kit, used 1 kg muntons beer kit enhancer instead of 1kg sugar, took the SG at the start and it was 1.038, which i see should make an alcohol content of about 4.8 or so, if i understand it though, this alcohol % will only be correct if the brew ferments down to 1.000, which i know that, (unlike wine), beer won't.

fermenting is nearly finished now and its around the 1.013 mark, does this mean that the alcohol % will only be about 3% then ?

cheers

[Reg]

i had a couple of pints of Hooky Dark in the Strathmore Arms at St Pauls Walden at the weekend to clear my aching head.

That was only 3.2% but full of flavour.

[BIGTRACTOR]

cheers, i've got another coopers lager kit and a sachet of lager yeast waiting till temperature is a bit cooler to brew, i think with this one i may use 1kg muntons beer kit enchancer, but add some brewers sugar to up the alcohol a bit, how much extra sugar would i need to make a brew of about 5%?

[PieOPah]

To be honest if you want to increase the alcohol content do not keep adding more sugar. This will effect the taste of the beer.

Instead, I would add less water.

Just my personal opinion....

[BIGTRACTOR]

cheers! think i might make the next kit up to 32 pints then rather than 40 and see what the result is, by the way, what is the optimum temp range for lager yeast? i'm itching to start the next batch of lager but dont want to spoil it by being impatient and fermenting while weather is still too warm

[PieOPah]

between 10C - 15C I think is ideal for lager.

I might be wrong since I don't brew lager (haven't the conditions for fermenting or storing)

[steve_flack]

i had a couple of pints of Hooky Dark in the Strathmore Arms at St Pauls Walden at the weekend to clear my aching head.

Blimey, you live pretty close to me. I was in the Red Lion, Preston on Saturday evening - not far from the Strathmore.

[BIGTRACTOR]

nice one, (yeah its saflager) will have to wait till temp drops a bit then, i looked on cars temp guage this morning at 6.30 in the morning and it was 16.5 degress then !!!,

had a taste of the coopers kit thats finished fermenting (with the coopers yeast) and although it may not be the strongest lager it tastes bloody nice already, gonna keg it tomorrow, leave indoors for a week then mature in garage for as long as i can manage

gonna have to buy another king keg i think, got two, need one for the coopers and ones got a john bull cider in it, the cider is quite nice but i think i made a mistake kegging it as i dont really drink that much cider, i'll have to either neck it sharpish and put up with a few hangovers or invite a load of mates round to polish it off fairly soon, i want to do a couple of nice brupaks ales.
i really really enjoyed the ones i've done (so did the missus )

got a new homebrew shop opened near us, its ideal for bits and bobs like chemicals and smallish things but i noticed that the price of kits and heavy items like spray malt etc are a lot more than i can get on the web, (including postage) its a shame because i'd like to support them, but because of its small size and limited stock, i cant see them doing that well to be honest, not in my neck of the woods anyway. i make wine too and they are selling new demi johns for a tenner, just cant see people forking out that

[Reg]

i had a couple of pints of Hooky Dark in the Strathmore Arms at St Pauls Walden at the weekend to clear my aching head.

Blimey, you live pretty close to me. I was in the Red Lion, Preston on Saturday evening - not far from the Strathmore.

Yup in Knebworth, just a short "Hop" down the road.

(A normal and funny sense of humour will resume shortly)