How much Grain to substitute 500 grams DME

[DamageCase]

I'm thinking of buying up one of those 2 can Brewmaker Best of British kits from Wilkinson's while they're cheap and modifying it. I want to do the IPA and the standard kit comes out at around 4.3 % or there about. I'm a believer that proper IPAs should be strong beers so this standard ABV doesn't cut it for me. I reckon 500 grams of DME would give me the desired ABV of 5% or more but I want to try steeping some grains and adding hops to it to boost it up both in strength and flavour. How much will I need to substitute 500g of light DME? I only have a 1 gallon pot, will this be big enough. I intend to do a Target hop tea and to dry hop with East Kent Goldings as well to boost the hop profile.

 

[BigYin]

Google is your friend :thumb:

try "dme to grain calculator"

Grain > LME >DME Conversion chart for the lazy

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/dme-grain-conversion-189079/

the rule of thumb I always use is 1 lb of DME = 1.67 lb of grain

 

[pittsy]

none , as you said steeping . When steeping (soaking for around 30 mins) you add flavour and colour and not sugars , this is why you use malts like chocolate etc . If you want sugars then you need to mash the grains (same as steeping ) but for 60 plus mins so the starch in the grains gets converted to sugar ready for the yeast to convert to % . I would stick with the dme and use special grains to boost flavour of brew .

 

[DamageCase]

Ahh forgive my newbyness. This is my first step beyond bog standard kit brewing. I believe the term is a mini mash. Is the one gallon pot I mentioned big enough for 1.6 pounds of grain?

 

[morethanworts]

Ahh forgive my newbyness. This is my first step beyond bog standard kit brewing. I believe the term is a mini mash. Is the one gallon pot I mentioned big enough for 1.6 pounds of grain?

To answer that directly, I think most people would say not, although it might just about 'fit'. I recently measured my smallish stockpot and submerged a 3Kg kit in it. Even without steeping or mashing any grains, I had only a few pints to play with to avoid a boil-over, and if you ever stick hops in you might want to take it off the heat for a moment first to avoid it jumping up at you.

I've just bought a Wilkos 18L (though I reckon it's more like 15L) stockpot to give me more space and to get more of the wort boiled.

 

[morethanworts]

Ahh forgive my newbyness. This is my first step beyond bog standard kit brewing. I believe the term is a mini mash. Is the one gallon pot I mentioned big enough for 1.6 pounds of grain?

...Or...for greater strength alone, you could just add less water when you top up the wort. No extra space in the stock pot needed!

Maybe someone will have a calculator, or at least a rough guide, for the amount by which you are likely to have to reduce the water to increase ABV by x%, though I guess an accurate calculation would require knowing the amount of fermentable sugars in the kit.

 

[DamageCase]

I was thinking of doing it boil in the bag style, would that help with the amount of water needed? Also I'm adding this to a pre hopped kit and then adding a hop tea and dry hopping. Do I need to do boiling hop additions too?