Loon Juice

[Fizzy]

Hello all.

I'm new to this game and today have bottled my first brew, just doing the extract shuffle for now which I know is cheating a bit, I have been looking into using grain & hops but as I say, just a pup when it comes to this.

Now just a thought. :hmm:
If I wanted to make the next batch of extract stronger the key ingredient would obviously be more sugar, but this would probably alter the taste of the beer for the worst or the yeast that comes with the can of extract might not fully ferment with the extra sugar.. Am I right?

With this in mind would a wine or even a champagne yeast be the way forward to meet the demands of the extra sugar content?

Should I just forget the idea for danger of either pouring a ruined batch away or worst blowing myself up?

I'm quite keen to start messing around now & I think some proper loud mouth soup would go down quite well for Christmas, but it also needs to taste nice. :drink::drink:

What do you think?

 

[VillageBrew]

A couple of options:

- Add spraymalt (Dry Malt extract - DME) or extra Liquid Malt Extract (LME) instead of sugar. That way you are not 'watering down' the malt flavours

- Brew the kit 'short'. Instead of making it up to 40 pints (for example) make it up to 32 pints. Essentially, you are not stretching the ferrmentables as far so will get a more concentrated version

- Get cracking on your own malt extract version of a recipe (Greg Hughes' book is a good place to start). That way you can adjust the flavour/ strength to suit

One of the strongest beers I ever brewed was a Coopers' Stout. Essentially the key was temperature control. I somehow managed to hit the perfect fermentation temp throughout so the efficiency was spot on. I can only describe the result as tasting like Guinness with a shot of vodka in it... That is probably the one lesson I have been trying to re-learn for years: temperature control will improve your beer faster than any expensive equipment or complicated method.

 

[Fizzy]

temperature control will improve your beer faster than any expensive equipment or complicated method.

I'm actually using a corner of my office for my fermenting bins.
Not doing anything fancy but it is a constant 22 degs C in here.
So far the yeast is loving it.

 

[dad_of_jon]

Hello all.

I'm new to this game and today have bottled my first brew, just doing the extract shuffle for now which I know is cheating a bit, I have been looking into using grain & hops but as I say, just a pup when it comes to this.

Now just a thought. :hmm:
If I wanted to make the next batch of extract stronger the key ingredient would obviously be more sugar, but this would probably alter the taste of the beer for the worst or the yeast that comes with the can of extract might not fully ferment with the extra sugar.. Am I right?

With this in mind would a wine or even a champagne yeast be the way forward to meet the demands of the extra sugar content?

Should I just forget the idea for danger of either pouring a ruined batch away or worst blowing myself up?

I'm quite keen to start messing around now & I think some proper loud mouth soup would go down quite well for Christmas, but it also needs to taste nice. :drink::drink:

What do you think?

A 454g can of golden syrup will help you there.

dark beers improve with age so your dark strong xmas beer should be on by now. I'm brewing my xmas 2018 atm :whistle:

you can get up to 12% or so easily with the correct beer yeast and if you hydrate it first you have less chance of getting a stuck brew.

 

[Gunge]

John Bull diabetic kit, 3 kilos sugar ferment at 35C. Twas 35 years since me and a pal did that. Still can't shake off the flashbacks.

 

[Simonh82]

Regardless of how strong you brew to, replacing the kit yeast with something better is never a bad idea. Kits usually come with 5-6g of yeast which isn't really enough and can often lead to stuck fermentations. Grab some Wilko Gervin ale yeast (rebranded Nottingham) yeast, or pick up some yeast from Cross My Loof Brewery (contact them through facebook and pay with paypal) Either option will be 10-11g, fresh, cheap and reliable.

 

[Fizzy]

Great.

Looks like my logic is... well logical then.

With the much appreciated advice on this thread I’ll see what masterpiece I can create & get back to you.

I’m enjoying my new hobby, feel like some kind of mad scientist. 😷