Newtobrew2015
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Newbie question.. Can I use demerara sugar with a 1 can kit to start fermentation?
Can I use demerara sugar?
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Yes, but it sounds like a very expensive way to do it.
Newtobrew2015
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Hi, thanks for your answer. My first brew I used brewing sugar from wilko £2.50.. I've picked up 1kg of demerara for £1.58.
That sounds quite reasonable. Depending on the type of kit, the demerera could add a nice flavour but I suspect it would lead to quite a thin beer.
Newtobrew2015
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Thin? As in weak? It's a Coopers dark ale kit.
howyoubrewin
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Hi there, thin as in not a lot of body to the beer. With it being a dark ale I am sure you would like a nice malty beer with good head retention. I assume anyway so please forgive me if i am wrong. Would you consider maybe buying a 500g bag of light malt extract or spraymalt as it is sometimes called? Add that to your brew with 700g of the sugar and you will get a nice malty beer with good body and head retention and still have a reasonable abv.
Newtobrew2015
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No forgiving need, thankyou for your input.. The reason for my original question was because I might of messed this brew up and I wandered if the sugar might be the reason.
The first hydrometer reading came out as 1.010.. Should it have been more like 1.040?
Im a newbie as well but the final gravity should be about 1010. Are you sure the sugar mixed in properly and wasn't just left to sink to the bottom. If that is the case I guess it could dissolve while in the fv and still produce a good beer, but certainly not sure on that.
And I assume you made sure the malt was properly stirred into the water?
And I assume you made sure the malt was properly stirred into the water?
Newtobrew2015
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You probably took the OG reading before the sugars had been fully assimilated into the wort. Same thing happened to me. I now wait about 10 - 15 minutes after mixing it all up before I take my reading. Makes a big difference.
Newtobrew2015
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So just a bit too quick for my own good. I'm going to let it bubble away for another 7-10 days? Barrel it with some more sugar and see what it's like then. Many thanks.
MyQul
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Over the xmas holidays I was thinking about how you would go about producing the cheapest ossible beer (both kit and AG ) possible. Just using a kit with sugar is obviously the cheapest way but of course sugar thins out your beer. So I thought if you use a yeast with a lower attenuation this would be the way to go.
Different types of sugars are more or less consumable to yeast. Yeast can consume glucose most easiest followed by fructose, maltose and lastly maltotriose.
So a yeast with a lower attenuation would consume most (if not all - I'm not 100% clear on this point) of the table sugar but not be able to consume a lot of the kit as it contains lots of maltose and maltotriose therefore leaving more body behind than a higher attenuating yeast.
Windsor yeast would be a good yeast to do this with as its a 'moderate' attenuator.
Cost wise 500g of dried malt extract is about £5. Windsor is about £3 but you could repeatedly harvest it to spread the cost so it's more or less negligable
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