Budweiser tasting kit?

[MadLarkin]

well i picked up my stuff from wilkinsons today, got an idea for making a water bath with aquarium heater.

what i need to do now is ask advice from you clever folks about what kit to buy.
im not into ales, i havent found one in a pub i like, they all seem to taste a little funny to me in their own way.
ideally i need a lager with a budweiser type of taste but id like to up the alchohol in it to around 6/7% if poss by using less water and a yeast with a higher alcohol tolerance if i need it

so my questions are what kit should i buy and what yeast could i use that would work?
oh and how much water should i leave out? i wouldnt want to leave out too much and make it taste like crap


ta :drink:

 

[gsidford]

lager with a budweiser type of taste

Doesn't that come out of your bathroom tap? :whistle:

 

[Grumpy Jack]

lager with a budweiser type of taste

Doesn't that come out of your bathroom tap? :whistle:

:rofl:

 

[shearclass]

No expert in such things mate, but for extra strength you ad add more fermentable stuff, (sugar, beer kit enhancer, spray malt) and use less water. However, if you are adding a little extra sugar, probably best to use a 2 can kit, as piling loads of sugar into a 1 can kit will apparently spoil the taste.

As for a kit, i've got lager kits on the go but haven't tasted them yet as they are conditioning. However, i'd say look for a American style lager rather than a European style one, if you are after a Budweiser taste. i apologise if this is stating the obvious!

 

[marshbrewer]

Coopers Canadian blonde would be a good place to start experimenting

 

[Kyral210]

Oh dear, where do I begin with this one?

1) 6-7% beer? Ok, you should NOT be doing this. Why? In short your general kit is 'designed' to be made with 1 Kg of sugar, which is around 33% of the fermentable sugars. It also gives you a alcohol level around 4%. If you want to boost the alcohol to 5-7% you would increase the sugar content to maybe 50% or more! Your no longer brewing beer, your brewing slightly beer flavoured sugar water. While cane sugar, and particularly unrefined cane sugar contributes rum like flavours to your beer, these flavours are not favourable in high quantities. What is worse is beet sugar, which gives bad off flavours from small quantities. American lager (like budwiser) is produced using corn syrup, rice, maze etc. These provide fermentable sugars with little or no flavour, which allow for the body of the beer to be light while the alcohol content high. However, these adjuncts are only used in small quantities (relatively) and your budweiser is only 4.x percent anyway.

1.1) There is a second problem. Your can kit contains enough hop bitterness to work with one batch of beer (say 23 litres). In brewing beer, bitterness from hops is important, and it is an amount relative to the sweetness of the beer from malt. In simple terms the more fermentable sugars in your brew the higher the final alcohol content. The higher the fermentable sugars in your brew the sweeter your end product, so the more hops you need to add to bring the sweeness down and in ballance. If you throw a load of sugar into your brew to boost the alcohol content, your end beer wont have the right bitterness balance, so will be overly sweet. This is not nice.

1.3) Third problem, NEVER use sugar! Some of the best beers int he world are in Germany and they only use malt, water, hops and yeast by law! When making up kits, use spray malt. The cost is more expensive, BUT the end result is much better. Ignore hopped extract by the way. 1 Kg sugar = 1 Kg spray malt.

2) You dont like ale, fair enough. The probelm is larger is the german word for store, as in to store the beer. So what? Lager gets its flavour partly from the light malt used, partly from the hops used, but also from the low temperature fermentation (12C for 3 weeks) and the even longer and lower conditioning (2C for 8 weeks) and finaly carbonation (12C for 8 weeks). You need to be able to controll those temperatures to be able to brew a good batch. If you dont, the clean crisp end flavour you wont just wont be there. Compare it to a stout, 2 weeks at 21C then bottle and condition for 2 weeks in the bottle at 21C. In ales if you dont get fermentation right the off flavours can actually be a flavour bonus. Do you like wheat beer? If so a lot of those flavours come from 'bad brewing' techniques to develop the banana and clove characteristics. Chosing to brew a lager as your first brew is fine, but you will find it harder to brew a great beer than if you learn your craft with ale and then move onto lagers later.


So what do I suggest? Well, you want to brew a good lager like budweiser first time. Ok. I will ignore your high alcohol request. Dont like it, tough, just have a vodka shot before your pint. My job here is to advise on brewing the best beer you can.

Get your Canadian Blond kit:
http://www.brewuk.co.uk/store/beerkits/ ... 1-7kg.html

get your 1 Kg extra light spray malt:
http://www.brewuk.co.uk/store/ingredien ... t-1kg.html

Get some good chemical cleaner:
http://www.brewuk.co.uk/store/chemicals ... n-1kg.html

Proper Yeast (not essential, but will improve your brew) - 2 packs NEEDED
http://www.brewuk.co.uk/store/ingredien ... yeast.html

I assume you have the brewing equipment. Steralise EVERYTHING that might come in contact with your beer. Follow instructions on the tin using spray malt instead of sugar. Make sure you get LOTS of air into your beer before the yeast is added. A few minutes of vigerous stiring should do the trick. You need 2 packs of yeast, so I recommend two packs of the linked yeast above.

Pitch your yeast, add the lid with the air lock, and then move your fermenter into a 12 deg C enviornment (or as close as) for 4 weeks. Now add sugar to your bottles. syphon your beer into the bottles, cap them and leave them in as cool an enviornment as possible for 4 weeks, then room temp for 8 weeks. If you have a second fermenter the schedule would be 3 weeks in the primary, 4-8 weeks in the secondary and then just the bottle and room temp conditioning for the bubbles.

Yes, this is a long way to get the beer done, but it will give you the best lager possible for very little money (compared to the shop stuff). Is it worth it? Well you can cut corners and costs by useing the coopers yeast (1 sachet) and cheap-o beet sugar, fermented for 2 weeks and bottled, but your end beer will be disapointing at best and undrinkable at worst.

Brewing is a science not an art, and taste comes with skill and craft and not penny pinching and rushing.

 

[Aleman]

Oh dear, where do I begin with this one?

I haven't a clue or the time either but I will start with these.

While cane sugar, and particularly unrefined cane sugar contributes rum like flavours to your beer, these flavours are not favourable in high quantities.

Cane Sugar adds no flavours to the beer unless you use unrefined ones. Plain white granulated sugar is a flavour and body dilutant . . . which in sensible quantities actually may be beneficial in some beer styles . . . and in certain beer styles that sensible quantity can be 30%!!!

What is worse is beet sugar, which gives bad off flavours from small quantities.

Complete total and utter cr4p! Why do you continue to state this? it is wrong, I know it may be quoted in certain homebrew books but they are wrong as well . . . there may well have been a reason way back in the 50's when refining techniques and quality control were poor and some of the earthy flavours remained in the sugars (as well as bacteria allegedly), 60 years on things have improved . . . If you don't believe me brew a batch of beer and split it into two add 10% beet sugar to one and 10% cane sugar to the other ferment under identical conditions with identical yeasts . . .In a blind tasting you will not be able to tell the difference . . . and neither would any judge BJCP qualified or not!

 

[shearclass]

Kyral210
1) The higher the fermentable sugars in your brew the sweeter your end product, so the more hops you need to add to bring the sweetness down and in ballance. If you throw a load of sugar into your brew to boost the alcohol content, your end beer wont have the right bitterness balance, so will be overly sweet. This is not nice.

I am new to this game, but why would fermentable sugars be left over? If they were fermentable, surely they would have been fermented? I was under the impression that adding sugar doesn't make a brew any sweeter, but it did make it stronger? I'm aware it affects the taste of the brew, but i didn't think this was down to sweetness.

Pitch your yeast, add the lid with the air lock, and then move your fermenter into a 12 deg C enviornment (or as close as) for 4 weeks. Now add sugar to your bottles. syphon your beer into the bottles, cap them and leave them in as cool an enviornment as possible for 4 weeks, then room temp for 8 weeks. If you have a second fermenter the schedule would be 3 weeks in the primary, 4-8 weeks in the secondary and then just the bottle and room temp conditioning for the bubbles.

I have attemoted to do a cooper European lager kit. This contains lager yeast, yet the instructions provided are not like the instructions you have given. Their instructions say to ferment in bucket at a lower temperature, then bottle and condition for 3 months. Doesn't say they haev to be stored at room temperature for 8 weeks :hmm:

You need 2 packs of yeast

Why is this? I thought if you bought an extra packet of named yeast (12g) this was sufficient?

 

[Aleman]

Ideally i need a lager with a budweiser type of taste but id like to up the alchohol in it to around 6/7% if poss by using less water and a yeast with a higher alcohol tolerance if i need it

so my questions are what kit should i buy and what yeast could i use that would work?

What you could try doing is brewing something like Coopers Cerveza short (try 4 gallons instead of 5) and adding 250g of extra light malt extract and an additional 250g sugar along with the Kilo of sugar. . . . this would produce a beer around the 6% mark. . . . Ideally ferment with a good lager yeast (S23 or W34/70) at around 14-15C . . . which should take around 2 weeks to ferment . . .ideally you would then rack to another sealed vessel and store it for another month in the cold before bottling . . .but you can skip this step.

It won't be a clean and crisp as Budweiser but should be a nice light lager.