LME vs Sugar for Mangrove Craft

[gingerneil]

Hi all,
I have just received my MG Rye Brew Days pack from Brew2Bottle (great service btw!!).

It comes with 1kg LME, but on the main malt pack it says use 1kg LME or 800g brew enhancer. The ABV is estimated at 5.6%, but the LME pack says "ABV increae 1.6-1.7%".
Is the 5.6% on the malt pack calculated if using the 1kg LME ?

The pack also includes carbonation drops. Annoyingly, the guidance on the pack gives 1 drop for 350ml and two for 750ml bottles.... but I'll be using 475ml Grolsch and 500ml crown top bottles! Two drops feels little too much, but I dont want by MG Rye to be under carbonated! Adding a little extra sugar alongside one drop seems silly if using the drops to save time! I could dissolve a load in some boiling water and prime the whole FV before bottling - but again, seems a waste.
I've never brewed the MG Rye before - so not sure how carbonated it 'should' be. Would one drop be enough ? I could add one to some and then use sugar for others to compare.. ?

 

[ClownPrince]

Keep the drops for something else and just use table sugar? I use a flat t spoon for most of my beers and they turn out OK.

 

[gingerneil]

That was my thought son the drops - but then I cant see any reason to ever use them! How 'lively' should a Rye IPA be ??

 

[ClownPrince]

You could maybe use the drops for a beer that requires less carbonation? Or if you ever acquire smaller bottles? Or even just dump them into a brew to give the ABV a bit of a bump.

I prime all my beers at the same rate, so I'm perhaps not the best person to be answering this.

 

[DavidDetroit]

I would save the drops and not waste them. Boiling priming sugar in water (or some of the beer) and using a calculator can give you the correct amount of carbonation.
FV siphoned onto the cooled priming solution in a bottling bucket.

I don't use the method but there are many that measure out sugar for each bottle.

Beer priming calculator link:
https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

I do a lot of kit recipes and just put in the recommended amount. Sometimes this amount is at odds with what the calculator suggest but I've never noticed much of a difference.

 

[terrym]

Hi all,
I have just received my MG Rye Brew Days pack from Brew2Bottle (great service btw!!).

It comes with 1kg LME, but on the main malt pack it says use 1kg LME or 800g brew enhancer. The ABV is estimated at 5.6%, but the LME pack says "ABV increae 1.6-1.7%".
Is the 5.6% on the malt pack calculated if using the 1kg LME ?

The pack also includes carbonation drops. Annoyingly, the guidance on the pack gives 1 drop for 350ml and two for 750ml bottles.... but I'll be using 475ml Grolsch and 500ml crown top bottles! Two drops feels little too much, but I dont want by MG Rye to be under carbonated! Adding a little extra sugar alongside one drop seems silly if using the drops to save time! I could dissolve a load in some boiling water and prime the whole FV before bottling - but again, seems a waste.
I've never brewed the MG Rye before - so not sure how carbonated it 'should' be. Would one drop be enough ? I could add one to some and then use sugar for others to compare.. ?

Brew enhancer(BE) typically contains 50% dextrose 50% LME, although other formulations are available. Since LME is a little less fermentable than dextrose 1kg BE will produce slightly more alcohol than using 1 kg LME. However the beer will be slightly drier and 'thinner', but you will probably not notice any different. If it were me I would be using the LME.
As far as carb drops are concerned this regularly crops up on this forum. Basically they are an expensive way of adding priming sugar. Ordinary granulated sugar is fine and you can easily adjust how much you add. A rule of thumb would be one half tsp to a 500ml bottle for a normal level of carbing and three quarters tsp for a high carb like a wheat beer or an AIPA.
And if you batch prime you could calculate the sugar quantity using this
https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

 

[Drunkula]

Doing the grapefruit IPA from doing the readings the 5.7% it says on that kit is calculated from adding a kilo of sugar. Using the LME it came out 4.9%.

I'd never used carbonation drops so did a few with 1 per bottle and batch primed the rest. The 500ml bottles with one drop are definitely lively enough. I go for 2.3 volumes normally and the batch primed version was a bit fizzier.

 

[gingerneil]

cheers @Drunkula . I think I'll do similar as an experiment - some with a drop and others with a half teaspoon in the others. Seems daft not to use them if I have them!

 

[chesters-mild]

1 carb drop will be enough for a 500ml. bottle, I never have to use more in my swing top bottles - just give it enough time

 

[abacab666]

I made this kit recently. I used the MJ LME rather than BE. Bottled in 500ml crown tops. 1 carb drop in each bottle. Hands down the best brew I've ever done.
Interesting point above about LME giving lower abv than sugar. I've only been brewing since Feb, and all my kits bar one have used LME. I always seem to come under on the suggested OG, so my final kits end up with lower abv than shown. Would adding more LME/DME or even just a pound of normal sugar improve on this? Would bog standard granulated sugar do the job, or would you guys recommend castor for the finer grain?

 

[gingerneil]

Thanks for the reply - really looking forward to getting this going - prob tomorrow.
Great question on the sugar - altho 5% is at the top end for me anyway.

 

[terrym]

I made this kit recently. I used the MJ LME rather than BE. Bottled in 500ml crown tops. 1 carb drop in each bottle. Hands down the best brew I've ever done.
Interesting point above about LME giving lower abv than sugar. I've only been brewing since Feb, and all my kits bar one have used LME. I always seem to come under on the suggested OG, so my final kits end up with lower abv than shown. Would adding more LME/DME or even just a pound of normal sugar improve on this? Would bog standard granulated sugar do the job, or would you guys recommend castor for the finer grain?

Caster sugar, granulated sugar, icing sugar etc etc are all sucrose. When it dissolves it makes no difference to the yeast it will still convert these to alcohol and CO2 although there is an intermediate step where to yeast uses enyzmes to converts the sucrose into glucose (with fructose along the way). If you use brewing sugar which is dextrose/glucose there is no intermediate step. However you probably wouldn't notice any difference. Some people say if you use large quantities of sucrose you get a cidery taste. So what many kit homebrewers do is to use dextrose for the main addition and table sugar for priming although you can use dextrose for that, or indeed any fermentable sugar, although in my view in the quantitities used for priming you won't notice the difference unless of course you prime a lager with black treacle. And there is no rule to say you can't use all sucrose instead of dextrose.
Finally if you want to increase the ABV of your kit you can either add more fermentable sugars or brew short which is to brew less volume say 21 litres rather than the recommended 23 litres . Latter is particularly useful with 1.5kg one cans where the base malt content is a bit on the lean side (compare this to premium kits where you get twice as much malt for the same intended volume).

 

[gingerneil]

Is it just a case of adding more sugar to boost the OG higher, and then ferment to the same level as required on the pack ? Is there any guidance for how much extra sugar will impact the OG and therefore ABV ?

 

[terrym]

Is it just a case of adding more sugar to boost the OG higher, and then ferment to the same level as required on the pack ? Is there any guidance for how much extra sugar will impact the OG and therefore ABV ?

Use this to calculate how much sugar.
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator
Choose 'extract' from brewing method options. The rest is self explanatory using the drop down menus.
Thats how I and others on here do it.
And typically 100g of cane sugar adds about 0.2%ABV.