Beginners question about making bitter and adding malt !

[thaibeer]

Ive recently just started my very first home brew with youngs bitter beer kit.

Ive been trying to research on how to make the perfect tasting beer but im a little confused.

So far i have found out that adding malt or malt extract will make my beer more full bodied.

I like a nice smooth bitter thats not too strong and has a nice pleasant taste. My question is how can i acheive this with my current set up ?

I have a brewery shop 15 min away so obtaining malt etc is not a problem.

Can anyone recommend anything for a raw beer making novice ?

Many thanks in advance

[Kev888]

Single can kits suggest that you add additional sugar to the mix, but malt extract can be substituted instead of some or all of the sugar acording to taste and budget. (Two-can kits (like woodfordes) already contain the extra malt extract). You're right that most people prefer full malt rather than part-sugar brews, although some strong brews can get a bit heavy with full malt; part of the reason is that sugar mostly disapears when it ferments whereas malt isn't as completely fermentable and so leaves you with some flavour and body afterwards.

The dry malt extract (or spraymalt) can be added pretty much like for like by weight in place of the sugar, but liquid malt extract is heavier so you need a bit more by weight. You don't need any more equipment as all the hard work has been done in creating the extract by its manufacturer. You may need to do more stirring in though, personally I would do this before too much cold water is added as it dissolves better when its warmer.

Cheers
kev

[thaibeer]

Thank you very much for the reply Kev.

Is there anything i could add to my current brew ? Its been stood 4 days in the fermenting bin.

[Kev888]

Hi,
Assuming that you didn't forget the sugar, if you were to add malt now then the brew would become stronger than intended because you'd be adding more fermentables rather than substituting better quality ones, and its quite late to do that so you'll also extend the fermentation time and possibly alter its success. So its probably a better idea to let it finish and use it as a valuable comparison to a future brew using malt instead, then you can see quite directly if you prefer it and/or if its worth the extra cost to your own personal taste buds.

About the only thing I ever add to beer late on is dry hops, usually after the fermentation has finished; they can give a more hoppy aroma and subtle flavours to hop-oriented beers like IPAs. But not all beer styles would suit dry hopping and not all types of hops would suit those that do, so you could unballance the kit's flavour just as easily as improve it. So again (unless anyone has done this with your kit) I'd suggest not to fiddle on this occasion and maybe leave it for the future - maybe if you tried say a Coopers IPA or something it could be worth a try.

Cheers
kev

[thaibeer]

Thanks so much for all your advice Kev. You have saved me wasting time and money and now ill hopefully avoid messing up my first ever brew.

My next question is what other beer Bitter or similar kit would you recommend next ? Pref one thats not too bitter and has a nice taste, colour etc.

Thanks again

[AnthonyUK]

Any of the Woodfordes bitters are pretty nice. They are two can kits so around the £20 mark but not much more than a single can +malt etc.
Some people have issues with stuck ferments so maybe try an alternative yeast but not experienced this myself.

[houblon]

On the advice from others from this forum, I'm planning to do a Cooper's English bitter fairly soon. I'll probably use a combination of household brown sugar and medium spraymalt to make it up. Toying with the idea of doing a "hop teabag", but might well leave that for a later edition if the first works out alright.

[hard water]

Any of the Woodfordes bitters are pretty nice.

i've tried them twice, and they were both rubbish. obviously some people have success, but it's unkind to recommend it to a beginner, imho.

no-one's failed with a coopers kit, afaik

[thaibeer]

Thanks for the input everyone. Ive heard alot about the coopers beer kit so i think that could be my next one to try.

Could i add brown sugar insted of normal sugar to my exsisting brew when ive transferred it to a pressure barrel ? Would i make it taste better?

Just a novice thought

[Monkeybrew]

Thanks for the input everyone. Ive heard alot about the coopers beer kit so i think that could be my next one to try.

Could i add brown sugar insted of normal sugar to my exsisting brew when ive transferred it to a pressure barrel ? Would i make it taste better?

Just a novice thought

You can use brown sugar for 'priming', but as you will only be using approx 85g for a 23L brew, I doubt that you would notice any difference to normal white sugar or brewing sugar.

At the end of the day it's your brew, and it can't hurt to try

Welcome to Jims BTW!!

[thaibeer]

Many thanks. Ive got to say im loving this forum already. I just wish i could taste my first brew Its been in the FB for 6days now.

Its looking clear and smelling good but still has some bubbles on the surface so im assuming its not ready for the barrell yet ?

[Kev888]

Its probably very close to being finished by now, a lot depends on temperature and yeast and so on but normally it takes several days; maybe leave it for ten to be sure. Sometomes there are small bubbles on the surface for a long time so its not that easy to tell visually. Its not that critical though; I normally leave mine in the FV for at least two weeks as i like to let it settle a bit before kegging (and I also like to work on beer-stuff at convenient weekends).

Its important not to fiddle with the beer too much as there's always the chance of introducing an infection by accident, but in the future you may consider investing in a hydrometer - the readings gradually drop during fermentation and when they remain stable this indicates that it has stopped.

Cheers
kev

[thaibeer]

Thanks again. Ill leave it til Sunday/monday time that would have been around 10 days.

Its really nice to have kind, honest people taking time out to read and answer all my questions.

Ill be paying a visit to the brew shop near me tomorrow where i do plan to get a hydrometer, some spray malt and a coopers kit if they stock it, all ready for my next brew.

One final question (and sorry if it sounds stupid) Once iv transfered this brew to the PB would there be any reason why i couldnt get another brew on ? Would i need another PB or bottles if i wanted to?

My thinking is that whilst this brew will have almost finished the other one would be well on the way.

Im guessing i couldnt leave it in the FB for more than 2 weeks. How does everyone else do this ?

Id also like to get a brew on so its ready in time for Christmas at some point soon.
Again apologies for all the questions

[houblon]

One final question (and sorry if it sounds stupid) Once iv transfered this brew to the PB would there be any reason why i couldnt get another brew on ? Would i need another PB or bottles if i wanted to?

Absolutely! There's always a bit of a sinking feeling when you get to the end of your supply. You'll definitely need another keg or set of bottles to get it into. I certainly wouldn't want to leave beer sitting on yeast cake for more than a few weeks.
Keg's aren't always the cheapest things in the world, and they can sometimes be difficult to find somewhere to put them so you're probably better thinking about bottling for a Christmas beer. It also allows you to take them somewhere else. Lugging a keg round to a mate's house isn't normally practical.

One other tip when it comes time to start the next one, try to avoid using anything that will scratch the inside of your fermentation vessel when you clean it. I only ever clean off dried froth with a soft sponge after leaving it to soak in a mild disinfectant solution. Scratches on the inside are perfect places for bacteria to hide, ready to ruin your next batch and makes it harder for any steriliser to get rid of all the nasties.

Most importantly, have fun doing it!

[Kev888]

Yes, if you want to brew all your own beer then firstly you'll need to brew at a rate that matches your rate of consumption and secondly you'll need more storage capacity - either bottles or kegs. Whilst you can drink it soon after it has finished fermenting, many brews improve if you let them condition for a few weeks at least - or more if its a fairly high gravity brew.

The exact number of batches on the go at once is a tricky ballance between batch size, rate of consumption and brewing and conditioning time - for instance some people can drink a barrel faster than it takes to brew one and certainly faster than it takes to condition if they're patient. Others don't drink as fast and/or don't wait so long for conditioning and/or keg sooner and so on.

Personally I always found that between myself, family and friends I got through (up to) a Pressure barrel per week. So obviously I also needed to brew one batch per week, but as my beer is in the FV for two weeks then I needed two such Fermenting Vessels to allow that rota to work. But then I don't drink each batch fresh from the FV, rather I like to condition it for say four weeks, so I needed enough Pressure Barrels to store the beer - at my rate of consumption/brewing that needed four PBs (or equivalent in bottles if you use those rather than pressure barrels.)

This'll change with your own personal consumption and batch sizes and so on so its just an example. I've moved to brewing bigger less frequent batches now, so my storage needs are different again.

Cheers
kev