The Fermentables.

[Hyster]

I have a Coopers lager kit, 500g of hopped spray malt, two small jars of clear honey, one jar of golden syrup and a kilo of demerara sugar.

My question is, while I'm not necessaraly trying to produce a true lager, out of that lot what would you add to the kit to liven things up?

As a noob, I'm just really interested to hear everyone's thoughts.

 

[boozy_shoes]

I'd add spraymalt and one of the jars of honey. That should produce a good strong lager with a slightly different after taste.

Golden syrup is good in Belgian beers.

Demerara can be good in stouts and other darker beers.

In general sugars lighten the body of beers and make them seem thinner. This is why they work better in Belgian or darker beers that can be too heavy or cloying with all the malt otherwise. The more unrefined a sugar is the more flavour it will add as it will contain a higher level of unfermentable sugars that the yeast won't be able to work on and so will still be there to give flavour in the final brew. I've used soft dark brown sugar, jaggery gor (unrefined palm sugar block) and maple syrup with success.

 

[mmaguy41]

i would also go with the malt extract and either one or two of the jars of honey

 

[rpt]

I've seen golden syrup added to lager kits to make it like San Miguel. Have no experience of it myself though.

 

[mattrickl06]

1kg of spraymalt and a 30g hop tea with some Saaz or Hallertau in there and 20g of Simcoe dry hops for aroma

 

[Pawlo7671]

The spray malt, 1 jar of honey and about 200 g of the sugar, and if you can get some hops to ad aroma