substituting sugar

[cask is best]

I'm thinking of doing a stout or dark ale kit form around next month.

I have read about peeps on here putting honey and treacle in the fv instead sugar. I just use the usual tate and Lyle 1kg but now I'm feeling a bit adventurous so was thinking of putting honey or treacle to my kit. can anyone advice me as to how much i would need to put in. Also what about secondary fermentation do i use ordinary tate n lyle to prime the bottles/barrel.

I like a nice toffee or treacle taste stout or dark ale btw

Regards.
CIB

 

[RobWalker]

do you have a LHBS? steeping some crystal malt in will give you more toffee, easy to do and will expand your knowledge of brewing. beer kit enhancer would also improve the quality of your kit beer tenfold! my brother just made the brewbuddy bitter with 1kg enhancer and it's like a pub bitter, lovely and malty.

to get the same abv, you need to add about 1.25x the amount of honey/golden syrup/treacle as you would sugar, so 1kg of sugar will be 1.25kg honey. you will only want to sub out about a pot worth though, any more and it'll be overkill. not sure about quantity on treacle so i'll let someone else answer that.

as for priming, just use regular sugar, it's such a small amount that it's not worth mucking about with.

 

[pittsy]

totally agree with Rob

 

[cask is best]

Thanks Rob. Must say I've never heard of crystal malt and i never knew you could get a kit enhancer.
What a sheltered brewing life i have led. I just buy the kit and follow the instructions. But was thinking of getting braver in my old age :thumb:

CIB
PS yes i do have a lhbs where i live and it's a very good one at that. Thanks again.

 

[lagerlout]

I have read posts from a few people who have used a half or whole can (450g) of treacle in their stout. I wouldn't go that far as the 100g I used for priming is noticeable in the flavour, so much more would be OTT.

 

[cask is best]

Appologies for sounding thick. So i make the kit up as normal but just substitute 1.25kg of honey in the fv instead of sugar. :whistle:

 

[cask is best]

Well i finaly got round to being brave. Just king keg'd 40 pints of Northern brew and added 98g of honey as a prime. Fingers crossed :pray:
SG 1059 FG 1017. ABV 5.9% [think]

Regards.
CIB