Malto Dextrin

[Desmnd]

Hi. I used to use this years ago a biik by David Lions called it brewing sugar then abd it was marketed as that. pitting it into beer was supposed to get you a creamly long lasting head. I am breing kits theseday a lot easyer and less washing up and less problems. I was thinking of adding this to a kit (St Peters red ruby ale). Has anyone done this or are their any other products (UK) that would do this. This is in 1kg powder form.

 

[Drunkula]

I've used a good amount of it because I got loads of Cooper's Brew Enhancers for 55p each. It definitely didn't make creamy long lasting heads on my beer kits. I just checked on brewing software and adding 500g to a 40 pint batch leaves an extra 6 gravity points - so a 1.009 final gravity would be 1.015 which is definitely a boost in body and an extra 50 calories per pint.

 

[Desmnd]

Okay thanks. I don't have a problem with calories but I nice full body beer is nice.

 

[terrym]

Hi. I used to use this years ago a biik by David Lions called it brewing sugar then abd it was marketed as that. pitting it into beer was supposed to get you a creamly long lasting head. I am breing kits theseday a lot easyer and less washing up and less problems. I was thinking of adding this to a kit (St Peters red ruby ale). Has anyone done this or are their any other products (UK) that would do this. This is in 1kg powder form.

Brewing sugar and maltodextrin are not the same thing. Brewing sugar or dextrose or corn sugar will completely ferment out and will add alcohol but no body to your beer. Maltodextrin is supposed to add body but is basically unfermentable. Brewing sugar is usually readily available from home brew suppliers, maltodextrin is not so easy to buy and typically is about 3x more expensive than brewing sugar, and is not much less than dry malt extract. Some brew or beer enhancer contain maltodextrin in addition to dextrose and dry malt extract, but not all
And I had a quick look through my David Line book (Brewing Beers Like Those You Buy ca. 1984) and in the main all he uses in addition to grain is liquid malt extract, barley syrup, invert sugar, golden syrup and brown and white sugars, although there is reference to glucose chips, and saccharin (!) for sweetness as required.

 

[Desmnd]

Thanks for that. Back in the 1980s I got brewing sugar. These days whrn I talk to a supplier they say they never heard of it. I can get Maltodextrin without a problem. Back in the late 80s I used to get bru packs scammonden dark but could not get hold of it. it is a nice dark beer and I got a good head. In desperation I contacted bru packs who where more than happy to sell me it direct. They even threw in six aluminium vackumed packs of hops with strange names. Will look into using these at some point.