To add spray malt or not?

[dad_of_jon]

Er … as far as I’m aware, Dextrose is 100% fermentable and I’ve also treated DME as if it is!

yup,

I think the confusion for beginners often arises when dealing with liquid malt extract as that has water in it which won't ferment. just like when you use Golden syrup - the one I have in the cupboard is 78% sugar

 

[tigertim]

I think the confusion for beginners often arises when dealing with liquid malt extract as that has water in it which won't ferment

Indeed. I've found the BrewersFriend calculator "Extract OG/FG" (linked from "Calculators" in the ribbon at the top of this forum) to be very helpful.

You can see the increase in OG/ABV created by LME/DME for any given quantity of batch size.

I've used this calculator when adding DME to the late stages of fermentation to boost the ABV of an AG brew where I got less than ideal efficiency (for an unknown reason). Ended up with the ABV right where it was supposed to be.

 

[Goldthirst]

I found my spray malt in a sealed bag within a sealed container and after not using it for a couple of years and it had turned into a solid block!

 

[user 44889]

Er … as far as I’m aware, Dextrose is 100% fermentable and I’ve also treated DME as if it is!

IF the kit requests a kilo of sugar, then replacing it with 1kg of Beer Enhancer (or DME) will suffice!

BTW:
1. I very seldom put in the full amount of adjunct requested in a kit; mainly because I drink a lot and very seldom wish to produce a “falling down juice”.
2. The Wilco Cerveza kit is my “go to” kit for experimentation. With only 250g of Light DME and a litre of Tesco Rosé Grapefruit Juice I made a beautiful summer lager; and with a shot of Chilli Vodka it made a “Winter Warmer” as well.

Enjoy!
:hat:

That's the kit i got from Wilco. Think this time im going to just add the enhancer and keep it basic as its my first ever Beer brew. Like the sound of your summer Lager. So you just add 1 ltr Rose' Grapefruit juice at the very start instead of 1ltr water. Well deffo give that a go next time.
I've got 2 x 23ltr fermenting buckets, one with a tap which im going to use as the bottling one. Going to batch prime in that.
I'm also going for the 2+2+2 method
Thanks for all the help, can't wait to start.

 

[user 44889]

At bottling I make a solution from wilcos brewing sugar and water and inject the required amount of mm's into the bottle. This lets me easily inject a bit less for the second half of the batch so they they don't overcarbonate 6+ months down the line.



I m going to batch prime this time as im not a big drinker and I'm using different size bottles from 250ml to 330ml. So working out how much per bottle of sugar solution would be... aaagggghhhhh. Lol
So how long can i store the bottled brew before it will over carbonate. I've done Turbo Cider in the past and had no problem after 8 months plus. Will use the calculator from one of the top posts to work out how much sugar for priming.

 

[Dutto]

……. So you just add 1 ltr Rose' Grapefruit juice at the very start instead of 1ltr water. …….

Yes, but I only use 500g of DME, so you will have to drop the sugar/ DME/Brew Enhancer to not make “falling down juice”!
:hat:

 

[user 44889]

Yes, but I only use 500g of DME, so you will have to drop the sugar/ DME/Brew Enhancer to not make “falling down juice”!
:hat:

So add an extra 2kg ....... lol

No worries reduce or will be to strong.

 

[booza101]

Great info, thanks peeps!