Newbie - 2nd Brew

[uncleinan]

My first attempt is out of the FV and into bottles and a keg so I am now thinking about starting another brew.

I like ruby beer so I am going to buy the St Peter's Kit which tends to get good reviews. I want to try and make it a bit sweeter though so it is a bit more like Hobgoblin.

Excuse my ignorance for this question but what can I add to the kit to make it sweeter without increasing the ABV too much?

Thanks in advance

 

[RobWalker]

People will start telling you things like aspartame, xylitol etc here, but just don't - artifical sweeteners are exactly that - very artificial tasting. Lactose is more of a body substitute than a sweetener, so avoid that too!

Realistically the only ways to increase sweetness in a kit beer without screwing up the flavour is to use a low attenuating yeast which will leave more residual sugar, or to add more malt extract. Other than that, maybe have a shop round - there will be sweeter kits around, or this one may be sweet enough already. Not sure as I havn't made it!

 

[Andyhull]

For the keg you could stop the brew before kegging with campden tablets and potasium sorbate, then sweeten to taste and gass it with a cylinder.

For bottles, unfortunately you need the brew to be active to carbonate so really there is no real solution other than useing the stopped sweetened brew and carbonate it with a sodastream when you want one, not sure what it would be like though but personally wouldn't try it! :wha:

Andy

 

[Duncs]

For the keg you could stop the brew before kegging with campden tablets and potasium sorbate, then sweeten to taste and gass it with a cylinder.

For bottles, unfortunately you need the brew to be active to carbonate so really there is no real solution other than useing the stopped sweetened brew and carbonate it with a sodastream when you want one, not sure what it would be like though but personally wouldn't try it! :wha:

Andy

There is a way to do it with bottles, but it's a lot of hassle. Brew as normal until the brew is slightly sweeter than you would like. Bottle as normal, then after a couple of days depending on how fizzy you want your beer, put the bottles in the dishwasher on its hottest setting. That will kill the yeast in the bottles stopping any more fermentation.

As I said, a lot of hassle and a potential for bottle bombs if you leave them too long before killing the yeast off.

 

[uncleinan]

Thanks for the replies. I am just going to add some more malt extract I think.

 

[RobWalker]

For the keg you could stop the brew before kegging with campden tablets and potasium sorbate, then sweeten to taste and gass it with a cylinder.

For bottles, unfortunately you need the brew to be active to carbonate so really there is no real solution other than useing the stopped sweetened brew and carbonate it with a sodastream when you want one, not sure what it would be like though but personally wouldn't try it! :wha:

Andy

There is a way to do it with bottles, but it's a lot of hassle. Brew as normal until the brew is slightly sweeter than you would like. Bottle as normal, then after a couple of days depending on how fizzy you want your beer, put the bottles in the dishwasher on its hottest setting. That will kill the yeast in the bottles stopping any more fermentation.

As I said, a lot of hassle and a potential for bottle bombs if you leave them too long before killing the yeast off.

You can do that on the stove top by submersing them in hot water at a specific temperature too - pasteurization. It's long and tedious, but your method sounds quite good!