Beer Strength

[Chippy_Tea]

Now please stop the bickering 'cos I've lost interest in the original subject!

Well said Dutto :thumba:

 

[GerritT]

The Title of this Thread is "Beer Strength".

With much respect to the scientific minds amongst us, if a brew doesn't taste of vinegar, old socks or a Turkish Wrestler's jock-strap I don't give a toss that it may contain 0.5% more or less of alcohol.

I use the "Calculators" and "ABV - Alcohol by Volume" that is at the top of every page on this Forum and so far my results (given the fact that most SG readings are a very hit or mis affair) have been more or less what I expected.

Now please stop the bickering 'cos I've lost interest in the original subject!

My apologies for the deviations. Brewing is a hobby, beer is meant to be drunk, both are meant to entertain.

@Custodian how about we leave it as it is? I'm sorry.

 

[Festival Man]

Not really a question this time, more of a comment.
Brewing beer from kits mainly around 5% alc. and have to say the ones I have made have come out at
5% or even a bit higher, usually with 3.5 kg of extract and varying amounts of additional sugar.
No problem so far!
However, some kits state a finished beer of 4.5% but only come with 3kg of extract and no mention of
additional sugars.
You cannot make 40 pints of 4.5% beer with only 3kg of malt. It makes roughly 4% beer.
Anybody else found this?

On a different note I use quite a few 'Festival' beer kits.
The thing I don't like about them is the pesky pouches the extract comes in, in fact after cutting the top of
one the other day the thing fell over while I was putting the scissors down - only let it go for a second and lost
half the extract in that one pouch, had to add less water to the brew to compensate.
'OH DEARY ME' I said.
Anyway, to stop it happening again I bought one of those small containers that are sometimes used in the kitchen for storing flour etc. It's just a little one from a pound shop, discard the lid and the pouch just slips
in a nice fit and no more danger of it tipping up.
Worth a try if you make Festival beers.

One of my favourites so far is Festival Summer Glory.

Paul.

Yes Paul, I have noticed the same, they may have taken the priming sugar into account though?
Also the fermentability of their malt ,given the type or strength( attenuation capabilities) of yeast that comes with the kit. Sometimes I have used a different yeast and noticed a higher FG. Apart from that, their Festival Summer Glory is great. I tried the Landlord copy, but its not quite there. Gave me an idea,- since the answer to most pale types is taste through dry hopping, then leave out their dry hopping addition and sub- in one type of your own say between 50-100gms pellets, This way, you can experience the many many different flavour hops that are currently available, Cheers.

 

[Festival Man]

Also ,malt exctract loss is suffered because of those, as you say 'pesky pouches'

 

[Stevieboy]

Also ,malt exctract loss is suffered because of those, as you say 'pesky pouches'

Agreed - you've really got to swill those bu**ers out....I warm mine up in hot water bath, then bull dog clip them to the side of my FV, then squeeze down the bags with an old credit card...and then swill em out with warm water.

 

[Festival Man]

Agreed - you've really got to swill those bu**ers out....I warm mine up in hot water bath, then bull dog clip them to the side of my FV, then squeeze down the bags with an old credit card...and then swill em out with warm water.

Too right, I clean the sink out, sterilize it, fill with hot water, Starsan my hands and the bags and the scissors, squash the extract out ,use fingers etc. but there is a loss still in the pouch. Tins are better.

 

[Stevieboy]

Too right, I clean the sink out, sterilize it, fill with hot water, Starsan my hands and the bags and the scissors, squash the extract out ,use fingers etc. but there is a loss still in the pouch. Tins are better.

I did an Evil Dog IPA recently - brilliant - one large bag with a lid - squeeze it out and rinse as many times as you like - zero wastage. I wish they were all like that.

 

[Applesnmore]

I think retort pouches are great. Because they are thinner, the time:temperature required to thermally process is significantly less. Downside not recyclable.
The one I dislike is mangrove jacks double pouch because you have to open the whole pack to get at the yeast before you warm the malt up.

 

[Festival Man]

I r

What is dme? 350lod roughly?
3 * 350 gives 1050 / 20L sg 52.5?
Assume 80% attenuation

Dried Malt extract, I work off 40 points per pound per UK gallon. 5 lbs in 5 uk gallons (23 litres) willattenuate to 75% to 80%, giving FG of 1010 to 1008 respectively. ( I use 'Nottingham' yeast)