I want to brew an ESB/IPA style beer

[timmorris]

I want to brew an ESB/IPA style beer with an OG of 1050-1060 and a final ABV of 6%. I was intending to use Coopers Bitter as a base with brew enhancer 1 as a base. Is there an online calculator that will help me work out how much extra brewing sugar I'll need to add/use in total to achieve my target OG? Does brew enhancer contain the equivalent of 1kg of sugar in Dextrose?

My closest large brewing shop is the homebrewshop in Aldershot and they don't appear to sell Dextrose. I have a load of brewing kit left over from university from 30 years ago including a boots pressure barrel which I'll probably have to junk once I inspect it all on Monday. I'll replace it with a barrel with an S30 valve on the cap. I always used to use finings when primary fermentation was complete as it resulted in a much clearer pint.

Would I be better off buying a tin of Coopers Malt (which one?), some quality yeast, brew enhancer and brewing sugar and following one of the threads on here (which one?).

No rinse sanitiser and a spray bottle seems to be the best way of keeping everything clean and disinfected. Is there any advantage in using traditional sterilisers?

As I now approach my 50s I've forgotten all of my brewing experience from my late teens (at boarding school - I'd probably have been expelled if caught!), through to my early twenties at university. Barrels were just easier to keep hidden than litre bottles of beer. My inspiration came from my father who made Boots bitter kits when he first started and then bought kits from a shop in Kingston which was knocked down when the Bentall Centre was expanded.

I'm keen to start again and know from memory that it is pretty easy to improve on the off the shelf kits by making up your own, and by adding in finings and using an auto siphon device to leave all the sediment behind after the first fermentation. I also need a calculator for the quantity of priming sugar to add to the barrel. I'll probably run two barrels - one so I can let the beer to mature for 4-6 weeks in the barrel and another to drink from. If I don't I won't be able to avoid drinking it after two weeks! People used to come and visit me at Uni just to drink my beer!

Tim

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Welcome to the forum :

 

[MyQul]

Welcome to the forum

I fairly sure tescum sell dried malt extract (haven't looked on their site for a good while now though) which you can use instead of dextrose. It will give you a better result, especially if you are making an ESB. Better body/mouthfeel to the beer. Tescum have a 25% sale on at the moment. Better get in quick though before the rest of the forumungers buy everything

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=55311

 

[ManseMasher]

http://www.brewersfriend.com/stats/

Have a look at this. Half-way down there is a calculator for extract brewing that might help you out? Good luck!

I want to brew an ESB/IPA style beer with an OG of 1050-1060 and a final ABV of 6%. I was intending to use Coopers Bitter as a base with brew enhancer 1 as a base. Is there an online calculator that will help me work out how much extra brewing sugar I'll need to add/use in total to achieve my target OG? Does brew enhancer contain the equivalent of 1kg of sugar in Dextrose?

My closest large brewing shop is the homebrewshop in Aldershot and they don't appear to sell Dextrose. I have a load of brewing kit left over from university from 30 years ago including a boots pressure barrel which I'll probably have to junk once I inspect it all on Monday. I'll replace it with a barrel with an S30 valve on the cap. I always used to use finings when primary fermentation was complete as it resulted in a much clearer pint.

Would I be better off buying a tin of Coopers Malt (which one?), some quality yeast, brew enhancer and brewing sugar and following one of the threads on here (which one?).

No rinse sanitiser and a spray bottle seems to be the best way of keeping everything clean and disinfected. Is there any advantage in using traditional sterilisers?

As I now approach my 50s I've forgotten all of my brewing experience from my late teens (at boarding school - I'd probably have been expelled if caught!), through to my early twenties at university. Barrels were just easier to keep hidden than litre bottles of beer. My inspiration came from my father who made Boots bitter kits when he first started and then bought kits from a shop in Kingston which was knocked down when the Bentall Centre was expanded.

I'm keen to start again and know from memory that it is pretty easy to improve on the off the shelf kits by making up your own, and by adding in finings and using an auto siphon device to leave all the sediment behind after the first fermentation. I also need a calculator for the quantity of priming sugar to add to the barrel. I'll probably run two barrels - one so I can let the beer to mature for 4-6 weeks in the barrel and another to drink from. If I don't I won't be able to avoid drinking it after two weeks! People used to come and visit me at Uni just to drink my beer!

Tim

 

[timmorris]

I'd never even thought of going to Tesco for home brew kit. They sell a replacement barrel for 30 quid, and also sell a 75W immersion heater for controlling the primary fermentation in cool rooms. I can buy all the bits I need to get me started again at a discount over and above the normal home brew outlets.

If someone would be so kind as to answer the rest of my questions I'll put together a shopping list. I could just buy a kit, but I seem to remember you get a much better result by buying the ingredients separately and calculating the recipe yourself. I had to set up a spreadsheet with equations taken from a home brew book as there wan't quite the plethora of web sites in 1985! The calculators,I have found tend to be aimed at home brewers that mash their own barley so aren't particularly appropriate.

Any help would be most gratefully,received.

Tim

 

[clibit]

Brewing sugar is dextrose, your homebrew shop will sell it. But I wouldn't use much. If any.

Make an extract brew. Use light dried malt extract, steep some crystal grains, boil the wort with hops, it's easy.

Or go straight to nirvana, also easy, and you won't regret it ...

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=51779

 

[GlentoranMark]

Brewing sugar is dextrose, your homebrew shop will sell it. But I wouldn't use much. If any.

Make an extract brew. Use light dried malt extract, steep some crystal grains, boil the wort with hops, it's easy.

Or go straight to nirvana, also easy, and you won't regret it ...

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=51779

He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy.

Go for AG, you know it makes sense.

 

[MyQul]

Brewing sugar is dextrose, your homebrew shop will sell it. But I wouldn't use much. If any.

Make an extract brew. Use light dried malt extract, steep some crystal grains, boil the wort with hops, it's easy.

Or go straight to nirvana, also easy, and you won't regret it ...

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=51779

Told ya :lol:

 

[timmorris]

http://www.brewersfriend.com/stats/

Have a look at this. Half-way down there is a calculator for extract brewing that might help you out? Good luck!

I've already been through all the calculators on that page and can't find one that suits my needs. Unless I'm misunderstanding the extract calculator says I have tto add 2Kg of sugar to bring the OG up to 1050 and that results in an ABV of only 4.7%!

Tim.

 

[MyQul]

I've already been through all the calculators on that page and can't find one that suits my needs. Unless I'm misunderstanding the extract calculator says I have tto add 2Kg of sugar to bring the OG up to 1050 and that results in an ABV of only 4.7%!

Tim.

using the extract calculator - A coopers kit is 1.7kg LME (?) so to get you up to 6% you need 2.5kg of DME (based on 23L and 72% medium attenuation)

 

[clibit]

You won't get good beer with 2kg of sugar.

 

[timmorris]

Brewing sugar is dextrose, your homebrew shop will sell it. But I wouldn't use much. If any.

Make an extract brew. Use light dried malt extract, steep some crystal grains, boil the wort with hops, it's easy.

Or go straight to nirvana, also easy, and you won't regret it ...

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=51779

Not quite so easy if you are a paraplegic and have to do it from a wheelchair. I simply wouldn't be able to shift those quantities of water around hence the need to just improve on the standard kits. That"s what I used to brew 30 years ago and it was very drinkable.

 

[MyQul]

Not quite so easy if you are a paraplegic and have to do it from a wheelchair. I simply wouldn't be able to shift those quantities of water around hence the need to just improve on the standard kits. That"s what I used to brew 30 years ago and it was very drinkable.

The AG link to clibit's thread is for a 5L brew so there's not much weight to shift, but you might not fancy that short a brew length of course.

Don't you move largish amounts of water around for kits? as you need to dilute them down by about 20L or so. Or do you just add the water in smaller amount? (thats basically what I do for AG as I have a bad back)

 

[timmorris]

using the extract calculator - A coopers kit is 1.7kg LME (?) so to get you up to 6% you need 2.5kg of DME (based on 23L and 72% medium attenuation)

So is that 1Kg of brew enhancer and a further 1.5kg of brewer's sugar? It seems like a huge amount of sugar to me. I decided to do this on Friday, have done lots of reading in the last 24 hours but it's a steep learning curve. I have no desire to setup a true micro brewery, I'd just like to have 5 gallons in a FV, 5 in a barrel maturing, and 5 drinking. To answer a further question My water comes from an Artesian well and needs filtering. I can quite easily move a 3L plastic jug of cold water from the kitchen to my brewing room but would struggle to lift pans of boiling water without the risk of,scalding myself. I only have power from the chest upwards, I'm lucky that I still retain full power to both arms so even with some assistance making up a kit will take me all afternoon. I just remember that the 6% bitter I made all those years ago was excellent, though I don't remember using quite so much (granulated) sugar in those days on a Baby Belling with a large pan of water (I could walk then).

I'm not trying to be deliberately negative, it's just that brewing from scratch takes a long time for a much smaller volume of beer. Bear in mind that because

I can't walk holding pans in my hand on average it takes me twice as long to prepare a meal as it did 20 years ago before I was knocked off my bike.

I'm more than happy to use beer enhancer, decent yeast, finings and malt extract instead of buying off the shelf kits, but I might need assistance from you all when making my first few brews. I'll be able to drive the 90 minute round trip to Aldershot to pick kit up, but I have to live with my limitations.

Tim

 

[clibit]

Not quite so easy if you are a paraplegic and have to do it from a wheelchair. I simply wouldn't be able to shift those quantities of water around hence the need to just improve on the standard kits. That"s what I used to brew 30 years ago and it was very drinkable.

Understood. Follow MyQul's advice, use DME, and some brewing sugar. If you add 1kg dme to a one can kit, plus 200-500g dextrose, you'll find the right balance of body and strength by experimentation. You could steep some steeping grains like crystal, caramalt, chocolate, roast barley, black malt to add fresh grain flavours. You only need small quantities in a litre or two of water. And adding hops is a great way to improve the flavour, of course.

 

[timmorris]

Understood. Follow MyQul's advice, use DME, and some brewing sugar. If you add 1kg dme to a one can kit, plus 200-500g dextrose, you'll find the right balance of body and strength by experimentation. You could steep some steeping grains like crystal, caramalt, chocolate, roast barley, black malt to add fresh grain flavours. You only need small quantities in a litre or two of water. And adding hops is a great way to improve the flavour, of course.

Thanks,

I used to add a handful of hops to my brews in the past. I just want to get the base brew sorted out first. I'll add 200g of dextrose in syrup form initially, and keep adding it until I get the OG to 1060. My dad's home brew was always on the strong side. He used to leave the primary FV on top of the big old fashioned boiler in the corner of our kitchen so the temp was probably higher than recommended. He always had 40 pints on the go. I've got a thermostatic immersion heater that always gave me complete fermentation though I wasn't particularly thorough when it came to sanitisation. Are the modern "no-rinse" sanitisers in a spray bottle up to the task of sanitising all utensils?

I'll have to make a phone call on Monday and order the kit I'm missing. I'll check my old barrel out but if I'm in any doubt I'll send it off to the dump!

 

[timmorris]

I've just got it DME is direct malt extract. Tesco have the Coopers Bitter kit and Coopers DME as well as brew enhancer on sale at the moment, plus I have just received £10 of clubcard vouchers which get you double bubble on the tesco direct website. I guess I'll be buying all the kit that I need from Tesco at least for the first brew.

Is the DME used in addition to the dextrose in brew enhancer?

Thanks for all the answers so far. I'm just about there.

 

[clibit]

DME = dried malt extract.

Brew enhancer is half DME half dextrose.

 

[terrym]

Tim
DME is Dried Malt Extract.
Youngs 'Beer Enhancer' (in the Tesco sale) is probably 50% DME ; 50% dextrose, which are all fermentable.
Coopers Brew Enhancers 1 and 2 also contain maltodextrin as well, which doesn't ferment but is there to enhance the taste of the brew.
Coopers English Bitter (Tesco sale) which you have mentioned is a good kit in my opinion. Its a dark malty beer which I think is better than their IPA. Coopers kits ale yeast ferments well and packs down well too unlike other some kit yeasts. Personally I would only use 1kg Youngs BE to top the kit up if you want to keep it simple. Importantly it tastes good even after two weeks in bottle but improves with age. And if you want to dry hop it you can buy hops off fleabay at a reasonable price or even subscribe to MyQul's hop sampling service (plug!).
And finally today's kits are much improved over what was available 20 plus years ago, in all aspects quality, variation, and end product.

 

[timmorris]

Tim
DME is Dried Malt Extract.
Youngs 'Beer Enhancer' (in the Tesco sale) is probably 50% DME ; 50% dextrose, which are all fermentable.
Coopers Brew Enhancers 1 and 2 also contain maltodextrin as well, which doesn't ferment but is there to enhance the taste of the brew.
Coopers English Bitter (Tesco sale) which you have mentioned is a good kit in my opinion. Its a dark malty beer which I think is better than their IPA. Coopers kits ale yeast ferments well and packs down well too unlike other some kit yeasts. Personally I would only use 1kg Youngs BE to top the kit up if you want to keep it simple. Importantly it tastes good even after two weeks in bottle but improves with age. And if you want to dry hop it you can buy hops off fleabay at a reasonable price or even subscribe to MyQul's hop sampling service (plug!).
And finally today's kits are much improved over what was available 20 plus years ago, in all aspects quality, variation, and end product.

That really is music to my ears. I'll measure the OG with Young's BE, and only add more dextrose if it is way off. I'll just use the kit (and some finings) for my first brew, barrel it and report back as soon as it is drinkable!

If it works well I'll come back for some advice on dry hopping. I do have access to some 2 pint screw top cider bottles which I can use for longer term storage and refrigeration in the future, it's just easier for me to use a barrel for secondary fermentation.

There are a few things I can't find on the Tesco website - I'll buy them from the homebrewshop in Aldershot. Their prices are very reasonable. My £10 in club card vouchers should cover most of the cost of the first brew!