Brewing Sugar in a kit

steve denholm · Aug 16, 2018

Hi all,

I've now got my third brew bubbling away in the FV (first was an extract IPA, then extract Weissbeir, currently fermenting a partial mash american pale).

I was working away and found homebrew store so I ran in a brought a new world Saison kit; I didn't want a straight to FV kit but it turned out that's what I brought (has additional hops for dry hop).

https://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/New-World-Saison-Beer-Kit.html

The kit is mostly LME (maybe pre bitterd not too sure) with additional brewing sugar, my question is if this is just a cheaper way of whacking the ABV up?
Would it be possible to swap the sugar for a mini mash of some sort or is the sugar there to help keep the beer dry?
I feel a little like going backwards in my brewing journey but just adding cold LME to a FV (maybe I'm being a snob :).
Any advice or comments you have will be most appreciated
Steve

MmmBeer · Aug 16, 2018

The sugar will as you suggest whack the ABV up, but not add any additional flavours. Not being a fan of saisons personally, I'm not sure whether or not it would benefit from the extra malt flavour.
If you have the equipment you could mash some lager and/or speciality grains and boil before adding to the kit.

When you feel like being more adventurous, have a look at https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/have-a-go-at-simple-ag.51779/

It is a great introduction to all grain brewing on a budget, but it will take about 5 hours and you will soon be shopping around for bigger pans, a wort chiller, brewfridge etc. etc. etc. I moved to this straight from kits, before trying partial mash brewing and not looked back.

Sadfield · Aug 16, 2018

I would guess that extract is made using a mash temperature that provides a nice balance between fermentability and body, a balance that would facilitate the extract brewer to brew all styles. Saisons, however, are usually mashed lower and longer to give a highly fermentable wort and drier beer. The sugar is likely there to compensate for this lack of control over mash parameters, faced by the extract brewer.

You could do a mini mash and just leave out some of the sugar and extract, or, mini mash and brew a bigger batch size, if you want to be more involved in the brew.

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steve denholm · Aug 17, 2018

thanks for the replies guys.
Mmmbeer I'm definitely going to go AG (i have a friend who works at rubbermaid great source of mash tuns ;P ) the only thing holding me back is my hob won't handle 5g boils, hopefully when i get my range put in my new kitchen the wok burner should be able to handle it.
Sadfield, that makes sense, I think I'll just make the kit as per instruction and use it as a learning experience, at the end of the day I will learn from it and get the beer as a bonus =)

Thanks all

-Bezza- · Aug 17, 2018

The NWS kit is pretty good when made up to the instructions to be fair. I think the "saison" term was abused by the Americans for quite a while, being used to describe anything that had high ABV, a boat load of hops and, more often, some whacky adjunct. Young's have avoided that with their kit and you get a reasonable, true-to-style beer at the end.

I guess you're right about the brewing sugar being there to up the ABV but I would imagine that is a factor of the malt extract only being able to contain so much sugar before it becomes unworkable and the style tending to have a higher ABV.

Unless you particularly want to adjust what the kit is already doing, I'd say just make it as it comes.