Beer kit enhancers

[Bitter_Dave]

Hi all,

In the past I've been an AG brewer, but in recent times have fallen into kit brewing for reasons of time mainly.

I find I have got best results with the Muntons one can kit + 1 kilo of DME formula. Particularly big fan of the Yorkshire Bitter + 1 kilo of medium DME.

My question is this: lots of people use beer enhancers, but as they can cost as much as DME I wonder why people use them? I've never used a beer enhancer, I'm just curious.

 

[Bitter_Dave]

I'm a bit surprised that people don't have views on this?

My local homebrew sells a kilo of DME for £6.99. Young's enhancer is £6.50. the Cooper's engancer costs more than the DME, at £7.50.

Maybe the difference in cost is generally higher than this which is why people use enhancers?

Or maybe people prefer enhancers?

 

[GhostShip]

Isn’t ‘enhancer’ just DME anyway? I tend to use the Dark Rock enhancer because I’ve had great results with it - and I really like the fact that it comes with Pure Brew as well. Only £5.50 and comes in different packs - Pale Ale, Amber Ale, Dark Ale, Stout etc. It’s great stuff.

 

[jof]

A few years back I looked at enhancer ingredients.
Can't remember the brand, but it was 50% sugar, 50% dme

I think that's why he's asking why not just use 100% dme

 

[The Baron]

Ditto Jof when I did kits some of the enhancers were 50/50 but not all some varied in %

 

[Rwilts]

I think,.looking back that enhancer was an obvious choice on the shelf next to the kits , whilst DME was a mystical powder that I didn't know

 

[dad_of_jon]

I'm a bit surprised that people don't have views on this?

My local homebrew sells a kilo of DME for £6.99. Young's enhancer is £6.50. the Cooper's engancer costs more than the DME, at £7.50.

Maybe the difference in cost is generally higher than this which is why people use enhancers?

Or maybe people prefer enhancers?

Enhancer sounds better than DME which sounds more like a weedkiller IMO. I used one once then 500g DME 500g sugar as that was cheaper. then 1kg of DME all the way until I ditched LME kits and went full DME/DWE

 

[Bitter_Dave]

Thanks for the replies.

There seems to be different types of enhancers. Cooper's has three, the first of which is just brewing sugar and maltodextrin; the other two also include some DME. Sounds like the dark rock one includes pure brew. Maybe it's the extras that make them a good buy (as well as the ratio of sugar to DME)? In brewing, if something works for you keep doing it, and people seem to rate those dark rock enhancers (and they seem to be a bit cheaper than the equivalent amount of DME from what you say).

The Young's one is 50/50 DME and sugar and costs about the same as a kilo of DME, so if you specifically wanted half a kilo of white sugar in your brew you could mix your own and save some money, but I guess convenience is a factor.

 

[dad_of_jon]

And you can also use golden syrup that also brings something else to the table that you may be able to detect depending on the amount used. A 710g ish bottle certainly gives colour and a touch of flavor in a brew. it's also reasonable cheap and 75% sugar. As its partially inverted its a bit easier to digest for yeast generally than sugar.

 

[Bitter_Dave]

And you can also use golden syrup that also brings something else to the table that you may be able to detect depending on the amount used. A 710g ish bottle certainly gives colour and a touch of flavor in a brew. it's also reasonable cheap and 75% sugar. As its partially inverted its a bit easier to digest for yeast generally than sugar.

Yes, I can see the logic in that. I used to use golden syrup for priming but in those quantities I don't think it added much flavour. You could also use regular dark sugar, maybe with some molasses to give it a bit more depth. Obviously that might not work in a pale ale or lager!

With the beer kits I make - regular bitter/milds - i think they need as much help as possible in the malt-depth-department, hence the use of medium DME. But as I say, I've always done this and I don't think I've ever used more than 250g of sugar in a brew, and that would have been an AG brew, so I'm not speaking from experience re. kits.

 

[Bitter_Dave]

That Cooper's enhancer that is just sugar and maltodextrin seems like a very odd product. Sugar to thin it out, maltodextrin to give it body.

 

[jof]

I use soft dark brown sugar (from well known budget supermarkets) in my stronger winter beers.

Not sure I would want to use something as strong as molasses or treacle though.

So feel free to experiment and find out what works for you.

But I would recommend going easy with strong flavours. If they work for you try incremental quantities each brew rather than use too much in your first attempt - that you may end up pouring away as it's awful

 

[dad_of_jon]

I use soft dark brown sugar (from well known budget supermarkets) in my stronger winter beers.

Not sure I would want to use something as strong as molasses or treacle though.

So feel free to experiment and find out what works for you.

But I would recommend going easy with strong flavours. If they work for you try incremental quantities each brew rather than use too much in your first attempt - that you may end up pouring away as it's awful

I think I used a whole 454g tin of T&L treacle once. it took ages before it was drinkable. In fact it was ok, but almost a year to get to ok isn't something I'd repeat.

 

[Bitter_Dave]

I think the Dave Line recipes use 60-100gm of molasses in his recipes. Sounds like less is more when it comes to treacle/molasses

 

[The Baron]

golden treacle is ok but dark treacle is a no no unless in small quantities