Leaving out spray malt / sugar

[mooj]

I am familiar with all grain brewing but not kit brewing. Not having time to put on a all grain brew at the moment I decided to get a coopers english bitter kit (was half price at tosco). Rather than adding spraymalt or beer enhancer (don't have any) can I reduce the total volume to 11 litres instead to make a reasonable beer? Or will it turn out too bitter or too sweet? Does anybody do this? I don't want a thin beer so don't want to add sugar.

Cheers,

Matt

[Troutman47]

Not done it myself but I've read of guys reducing the brew length to 19 litres instead of 23 but not to 11l.

Cheers

[Secue]

Maybe buy a couple jars Holland and barrett LME?

[Rookie]

I am familiar with all grain brewing but not kit brewing. Not having time to put on a all grain brew at the moment I decided to get a coopers english bitter kit (was half price at tosco). Rather than adding spraymalt or beer enhancer (don't have any) can I reduce the total volume to 11 litres instead to make a reasonable beer? Or will it turn out too bitter or too sweet? Does anybody do this? I don't want a thin beer so don't want to add sugar.

Cheers,

Matt

Half the fermentables in half the water should work okay. Give it a go and let us know.

[mooj]

Thanks for the replies. My guess is this will create a fuller bodied beer which should be ok, but it might end up too bitter. If the starting gravity is more than 1.046, then I'll probably dilute it a bit more. I'll let you know about the results.

[boingy]

I think the can will contain more than half the fermentables so diluting it to get the target OG might be a good idea. In theory it will be more bitter than intended but kits always seem to be a bit lacking bitterness in any case. Go for it!

[mooj]

Cheers Boingy. I ended up with approximately 12 litres (bucket not calibrated) and got an OG of 1.042. Didn't taste overly bitter from the trial jar to me. 2 litres of it is growing up some st austell proper job yeast I harvested a week ago. A very simple brew day compared with all grain and not much to lose for 7 quid

The thing that surprised me though is that if I had done the kit as per the instuctions it would have had an OG of 1.030 approximately.