beer kit enhancements

[stixy]

Hi guys, got a quick question for you all if i may reguarding the above subject if i may!
Basicly the kit i have is the wherry, now from what i can gather the woodfordes range along with a few others suffer from the sydrome that they finish no where near the specified ABV as the FG finishes at about 1012 to 1020.
So therefore to cure this i could have added a DME (maybe a medium spraymalt) or topped up with less water to get a higher OG and therefore a better ABV. (Please correct me if this is incorrect,i am still new to this!)
Unfortunitly i didnt realise this until now by which time my brew is just about ready to kegg, so my question conserns what to do now.

Ive heard if i add the DME now for priming purposes, although it will improve the body and flavor of the final beer it will decrease the ABV further, is this true?
if so would it be better to prime with a beer enhancement as so to improve the flavor and ABV of the final brew?
your advice and tips will be gratefully apricated.

 

[falafael]

although i can't answer this, i only have done one woodfordes kit, and it was bloody horrible, and that was the only time i have done a bad kit, nowadays i use either brewmaster series, victorian bitter is great by the way, or i use the kits in wilkos, mainly the youngs ones, or geordie, sometimes.
Sorry can't answer you stixy, but will keep an eye on this one, mnaybe i can improve the youngs ones to my liking!!
:

 

[prolix]

The jury is still out on Wherry afik some finish at 1012 which is fine as it is a malty beer some up at 1018.

Two things could be happening

Poor yeast but people have swapped the yeast for saf4 and still got high fg's

Extra unfermentables to give it the malty taste.

change the yeast no matter what as it is not worth it for a quid then add extra malt extract (500g gram of dry should do it) and brew to length 40 pints.
You can then either dilute to lower the abv or have it stronger.

if it still says 1018 at least it will be the right abv just malty so balance should be ok, if the fg is lower 1010 say you will have a 5% brew which you can just drink or dilute as preferred.

hope that helps

 

[tubby_shaw]

Ive heard if i add the DME now for priming purposes, although it will improve the body and flavor of the final beer it will decrease the ABV further, is this true?
if so would it be better to prime with a beer enhancement as so to improve the flavor and ABV of the final brew?
your advice and tips will be gratefully apricated.

No is the short answer
The long answer is that so long as the yeast is active and can consume the malt extract then the ABV will increase :party:

 

[stixy]

thanks guys thats greatly appricated, one more question should i boil the sugar/DME before adding it if so for how long, also do the hops get boiled for a short while when dry hopping or just added direct.

 

[tubby_shaw]

thanks guys thats greatly appricated, one more question should i boil the sugar/DME before adding it if so for how long,
If you are going to use white sugar I don't normally bother boiling, it depends how paranoid you are :shock: ideally yes just for a quick boil to sanitise, if I ever use DME to prime then yes as I have to dissolve anyway it gets boiled :)

also do the hops get boiled for a short while when dry hopping or just added direct.

Nope no boiling for dry hopping just do exactly what it says in the description add the hops dry :thumb:
Hops have natural anti fungal, anti bacterial action so just bung em in