unexpected kit - young's harvest stout

[lupinehorror]

i had ordered a munton's gold stout kit. for various reasons, which i won't go into here, i've ended up with a young's harvest stout kit. 30 pints.
i would be shortfilling it so 23 pints. don't think it's worth my while.
has anyone brewed this one?

 

[terrym]

I'm not sure what you want to achieve but be aware that if you brew any kit at a lesser volume than intended you increase the bitterness in proportion. In this case brewing to 23 pints compared to 40 pints will roughly double the bitterness. That might not worry you.
So as an example if you want to brew your Harvest stout to about the bitterness intended by Youngs and with about the same ABV as the Muntons stout I suggest you use 2 x 1lb jars of Holland and Barrett Malt Extract and 500g of Golden Syrup, or any combination of similar sugars equivalent to 1.5kg of LME.
And If you want to see what other people have done with a 1.5kg stout kit have a look through the Wilko Stout review here
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/wilkos-dark-velvet-stout.28049/Coopers stout reviews (more LME) are here
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/coopers-irish-stout-review.17818/https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/coopers-original-stout-review.17817/

 

[lupinehorror]

I'm not sure what you want to achieve but be aware that if you brew any kit at a lesser volume than intended you increase the bitterness in proportion. In this case brewing to 23 litres compared to 40 litres will roughly double the bitterness. That might not worry you.
So as an example if you want to brew your Harvest stout to about the bitterness intended by Youngs and with about the same ABV as the Muntons stout I suggest you use 2 x 1lb jars of Holland and Barrett Malt Extract and 500g of Golden Syrup, or any combination of similar sugars equivalent to 1.5kg of LME.
And If you want to see what other people have done with a 1.5kg stout kit have a look through the Wilko Stout review here
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/wilkos-dark-velvet-stout.28049/Coopers stout reviews (more LME) are here
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/coopers-irish-stout-review.17818/https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/coopers-original-stout-review.17817/

thanks for that. 30 pints to 23 pints though.
cheers for the H&B tip. have gotten stuff from them in the past but never their malt extract.
my real problem with this is quantity and ABV. increased bitterness is fine with me but the low yield and the amount of extra ingredients required to boost it sufficiently make me think it'll be retired to the cupboard or passed on to someone else.

 

[terrym]

thanks for that. 30 pints to 23 pints though.
cheers for the H&B tip. have gotten stuff from them in the past but never their malt extract.
my real problem with this is quantity and ABV. increased bitterness is fine with me but the low yield and the amount of extra ingredients required to boost it sufficiently make me think it'll be retired to the cupboard or passed on to someone else.

Rather than write it off if its a 30 pint kit (and not 40 pints) just do it to 30 pints with one jar of H&B LME and a 500g tin of GS, which will cost under a fiver. That will give you about 4.8%. You can also experiment with it too. Why not add some coffee (not instant) to the wort and say 75g dark muscavado sugar.

 

[lupinehorror]

food for thought.
it may need a larger boost than that though i have plenty of yeast and could increase the fermentables some more.
a super stout. maybe.
thank you for the suggestions and advice.