enhancer, spray malt, wheat spray malt???

[sanch3z]

So for my next two brews I was going to do the following but am confused as to what I should use in the way of enhancers, spray malts etc...

Cooper English Bitter
• Kit
• 1kg enhancer
• Hop tea fuggle or goldings 20-30gms of tea
• muslin bags

Cooper wheat beer
• kit
• zest of 5 large oranges
• crushed coriander seeds
• safbrew wb06 dried yeast instead of kit yeast
• muntons spray malt wheat 2 x 500g bags

Extra kit:
• Light spray malt 500g
• Medium spray malt 500g

Should I actually be using a combination of enhancer and spray malts for the wheat beer? I do have a couple of bags or spray malt from wilkos so I could split the enhancer across the two batches then supplement with malts...

Thanks for any pointers

 

[Fil]

afaik enhancer is just a mix of something like 80%+ of glucose and some spreymalt tho could just be glocose depending on the brand sometimes called brewers sugar.

the advantage of glucose is yeast can eat it as is where sugar needs to be broken down into 'smaller' chunks first. both have the same drying thinning effect on beer tho, so imo you would probably get a better result using just spray malt with your recipes, and forgetting the enhancer, a day or so less in the fermentor isnt really gonna have that much impact on the time u wait till u sup.

 

[pittsy]

I 2nd Fils comments :thumb:

 

[JonnyD]

the advice i got from my LHBS was that enhancer is 50% spray malt and 50% brown sugar. So i agree with Fil and just use spray malt

 

[sanch3z]

Hi guys, thanks for the pointers, I'm more than happy to leave the stuff in the fv longer, no advantage in rushing these thing

 

[Fil]

While most of the kits ive seen recently dont demand the boil that all the old kits did. if using a significant quantity of spreymalt i would consider boiling it to achieve a hot break, the dme starters ive boiled have left significant hot break deposits.

 

[Pearlfisher]

I had bad results using spraymalt , although I've only used it once so I stick to LME with 100% success. https://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/ingre ... -3_38.html

 

[Daveg]

I've got this on at the minute. Someone in the "kit review" bit used 1kg of spraymalt with this kit and I think a hop tea and was very happy with the result but I'm using 1 kg of light spraymalt and a Better Brew Finishing hops Challenger tea bag to dry hop for a week. I might have made a boo boo and should have used medium spraymalt but if I like it I'll brew it again with the medium.

 

[Slid]

I've got this on at the minute. Someone in the "kit review" bit used 1kg of spraymalt with this kit and I think a hop tea and was very happy with the result but I'm using 1 kg of light spraymalt and a Better Brew Finishing hops Challenger tea bag to dry hop for a week. I might have made a boo boo and should have used medium spraymalt but if I like it I'll brew it again with the medium.

I would suggest that the main difference will be the colour, although the darker extracts might give slightly more "body" and slightly less (~0.1 %) alcohol.
If you have made a Coppers kit with 1kg of DME it will be really quite good.
Just give it some time - maybe 6-8 weeks after bottling and you will be well impressed.

 

[Daveg]

I left it for a fortnight to ferment out then dry hopped it for a week in the primary. Just bottled it and it was at 1011 so that's about 3.9% so I'll leave it for a week inside then 6 to 8 weeks as advised before I try it. I was a bit disappointed with 3.9% but it tasted fine, none of the Homebrew twang you can get. It'll be a pretty decent session beer I hope.
I used 20g of Challenger to dry hop ( the better brew tea bag thing didn't come in time!) but they didn't hit me like I thought they would so I'll try 20 of Challenger and 20 of EKG next time and brew short. I've used Coopers carbonation drops for the first time so I'll see how it turns out.

 

[Fil]

afaik as u have dry hopped, it may be worth cracking the first sample after a couple of weeks in the cold, the benefits of dry hopping soon dissipate with maturing. and is best suited to pratice with beers that taste good 'green', a subjective judgement.. the lack of any HBtang bodes well :)

let us know...

 

[Daveg]

Will do.

 

[Daveg]

Right, it's had a couple of weeks in the cold and I've just finished a swift pint.
The hops are definitely there in smell and taste, it's slightly over carbonated for me using one of the Coopers carb drops in 500ml flip top bottles. Not too bitter and hopefully the malt will come through a bit more with age. It's suprisingly dark in colour and it's got good head retention so all in all a decent pint and at roughly 4% it'll be great for that Saturday night session. Will definitely try another one with EKG next time or a combination of the two.
I'm 50 in May so Hopefully I can keep my hands off it till then!

 

[Bernie]

I just did a Coopers English Bitter with a generic LME (1.7 kg of the kit + 1.7 kg of the LME). I tasted the last bit I couldn't bottle and does taste like a good pint I'd expect at the pub, so I'm expecting good things from the matured bottles.

 

[sanch3z]

Just picking up on this thread I started a month or two ago as i've brewed my other ales and am now ready for this one...

I was going stick 4l-6l of filtered water in a big pan and boil for 30mins with the orange zest, coriander seeds and 20-30gms of fuggle dry hops in a muslin sack. If I do this, sieve and add directly to the main extract then top-up with cold filtered water will this be ok? Going on past experience this has left the batch with an initial sitting temp or around 22-26 degrees. As i'm adding 1KG of wheat spray malt will I have to do anything else? Someone mentioned a 'boil break' in an earlier post but wasn't sure if this is something I needed to consider (whatever it is)

Thanks

 

[Fil]

Someone mentioned a 'boil break' in an earlier post but wasn't sure if this is something I needed to consider (whatever it is)

Thanks

going by experience boiling up 1l of 1040 dme solution for starters, solid matter does break out of the solution, and i can only assume that this is the hot break proteins (im no chemist..). google 'hot break' and brewing for a much better explaination than i can give..

The kits of old also required a short 15-20min boil, modern kits dont often require this so i assume they have undergone a preboil treatment??

So to be on the safe side adding your dme to the hot solution and giving it a 15min boil would cover the bases.

just my opinion..

 

[pittsy]

Just picking up on this thread I started a month or two ago as i've brewed my other ales and am now ready for this one...

I was going stick 4l-6l of filtered water in a big pan and boil for 30mins with the orange zest, coriander seeds and 20-30gms of fuggle dry hops in a muslin sack. If I do this, sieve and add directly to the main extract then top-up with cold filtered water will this be ok? Going on past experience this has left the batch with an initial sitting temp or around 22-26 degrees. As i'm adding 1KG of wheat spray malt will I have to do anything else? Someone mentioned a 'boil break' in an earlier post but wasn't sure if this is something I needed to consider (whatever it is)

Thanks

Only add the coriander seeds and orange at the end of boil , i recommend at 5 mins left . It will be boiled off and will not be noticeable , no flavour left .