Courage Directors to 40 pints

[Jon1964]

My first kit a Courage Directors is in PB now after priming 2 weeks ago, ready to move to cold. Had a taste last night, nearly clear, good head, tastes bloody lovely
I'm ordering another one today for another barrel.
The kit is made up to 36 pints as per instructions, for the next one I'm thinking of making to 40 pints, but don't want to reduce the flavour or abv so what options have I got
Cheers Jon

 

[terrym]

You are basically increasing the volume by approx 10%. So to maintain the ABV you need to up the fermentable sugars by about 10%, and as the kit is 3kg LME that is approx half jar H&B Malt Extract, or 250g medium DME.
However by diluting the original you will also dilute the flavours and that includes hop flavours and bitterness, although by adding extra malt as above you have rebalanced the malt. You probably won't notice the slight reduction in bitterness so I would not do anything about that, but to rebalance the hop flavours you could add a hop tea at the end of the fermentation. I have no idea of what hops are used in Directors (others might) but EKG suits the style, so my suggestion is to use a 25g tea bag of EKG, which should work irrespective.

 

[Jon1964]

You are basically increasing the volume by approx 10%. So to maintain the ABV you need to up the fermentable sugars by about 10%, and as the kit is 3kg LME that is approx half jar H&B Malt Extract, or 250g medium DME.
However by diluting the original you will also dilute the flavours and that includes hop flavours and bitterness, although by adding extra malt as above you have rebalanced the malt. You probably won't notice the slight reduction in bitterness so I would not do anything about that, but to rebalance the hop flavours you could add a hop tea at the end of the fermentation. I have no idea of what hops are used in Directors (others might) but EKG suits the style, so my suggestion is to use a 25g tea bag of EKG, which should work irrespective.

Thanks for the info Terry
The hop powder added at start of ferment was a small sachet of goldings hop powder.
It's a cracking pint BTW even at this young stage. As a comparison last night I had a can of hobgoblin on the go. After tasting the Directors went back to the can and it tasted so bland
Think I'm hooked now.

 

[terrym]

You can buy 25g hop tea bags including EKG and Goldings and many others from CML. However it's more cost effective to buy hops loose say 100g at a time, and when you have taken what you want from the packet keep them sealed in the freezer for next time.
https://www.crossmyloofbrew.co.uk/online-store

 

[Jon1964]

You can buy 25g hop tea bags including EKG and Goldings and many others from CML. However it's more cost effective to buy hops loose say 100g at a time, and when you have taken what you want from the packet keep them sealed in the freezer for next time.
https://www.crossmyloofbrew.co.uk/online-store

Mrs Jon has a vacuum sealer she uses for freezing stuff, so should be good

 

[AnimatedGIF]

This kit was my second ever, and I really enjoyed. Just asking, is it worth the effort of modifying a kit that you like just for the extra 4 pints? I wouldn't myself, as the risk is, if the modification doesn't go to plan, you'll have 40 pints of not-as-good beer. Sure, it would likely be fine, but if you like the kit as-is, I would just enjoy the 36 pints.

 

[Jon1964]

This kit was my second ever, and I really enjoyed. Just asking, is it worth the effort of modifying a kit that you like just for the extra 4 pints? I wouldn't myself, as the risk is, if the modification doesn't go to plan, you'll have 40 pints of not-as-good beer. Sure, it would likely be fine, but if you like the kit as-is, I would just enjoy the 36 pints.

Half a gallon is still half a gallon
I know what you mean though.
It's a cracking Brew.