First Dry kit - Help / Ideas ?

[Waffty]

Hi,

Just finished my last kit (Woodfords Nelson's Revenge) & whilst pottering around my local homebrew shop, Harris's (those of Harris filter fame), I picked up one of their own brand dry kits for £8.

The kit contains two 500g packets of Muntons light spray dried malt + a bag of fresh hops & grain + a packet of yeast.

On reading the instructions here, it says to boil 6l of water, dd the extract, then add the hops/grain & simmer for 30mins, pour in fermenter & add either 1Kg of sugar for a pub style bitter or 3lb for something stronger & top up to 22l (with cold water).

So given that this is my first extract/dry kit, I was wondering if there was any benefit in replacing the 1Kg (or 3lb) of sugar, with another two 500g packets of dry extract, making 2Kg in total? How would this alter the ABV (2Kg of spray malt verses 1Kg spray malt & 3lb of brewing sugar?).

As for styles, I like my bitter, very much in the style of London's pride, so if anyone has an idea of how to make a similar brew, using spray malt, grain & hops, let me know

Many thanks in advance.
Darren.

[sparky Paul]

So given that this is my first extract/dry kit, I was wondering if there was any benefit in replacing the 1Kg (or 3lb) of sugar, with another two 500g packets of dry extract, making 2Kg in total? How would this alter the ABV (2Kg of spray malt verses 1Kg spray malt & 3lb of brewing sugar?).

Pesonally, I would always substitute spraymalt for the sugar addition, particularly for an ale. Any addition of sugar will lighten the resultant beer, sometimes this is desirable, but usually only in small proportions.

Using 1Kg of spraymalt instead of 1Kg sugar will give you a similar SG, but as the FG ends higher with all malt brews, the ABV will be slightly lower - you may want to add a little extra spraymalt to compensate.

An extra 500g of sugar will add around 10 points of gravity, or around 1-1.5% ABV, but will make the beer thinner and lacking body, despite what the instructions say...

[smoggy]

Chris, what is the benefit of adding one bag of spray malt to the boil? Would you not get a better hop utilisation from just adding all the spray malt to the FV and just boil up the hops in the wort from the steeped grains?

[Waffty]

Wow, thanks for taking the time to reply, I'm glad I asked now

I do have a couple of larger pans (thick Aluminium 24l & 36l) that I bought off Ebay, so would you advocate steeping the grains first (in a smaller pan), then combining this & all the other ingrediants (hops, extract) into the 24l pan & pretty much boiling the whole brew length (or say 15l or so, to avoid boil overs). If so, what are the risks, with regard to cooling, as I don't have a wort cooker or lid for the 24l pan (I do have a lid for the larger 36l pan)?

On a wider point, if I bought 2.5Kg of light malt extract & a hand full of specialist grains, do you have any good bitter recipes (currently got both Saaz & Northern hops but can easily buy others) ?

Many thanks again.
Darren.