Spraymalt + Hops

[tadbrewer]

Is it possible to just use spraymalt and hops to produce a beverage without having to use the 'canned' stuff?

if so would it be 2Kg of spraymalt along with a boiling process to extract some bitterness from the hops?

[Garth]

yes, I think that would work, I believe some of Brupaks kits are simply spraymalt and hops.

2kg of spraymalt made into a 23 litre batch would roughly give you an OG of 1033, a very light ale, 2.5kg would give a respectable 1042

[tadbrewer]

thanks garth,

was at work this morning and thort of the idea(is this takin over my life). if instead of buying pre hopped spraymalt, having never hoped b4- would i just need to boil my hops along with a the spaymalt for a certain time. as i dont have a pan big enough to boil 23L (only have normal cooking pans-'just a student') how would you therefore suggest i would go about adding the bitterness via hoping?

i have added roasted barley to a stout before by just adding it to boiled water for 20mins, just as if making a cup of tea, and then siving it into the FV. would i go about it in this same process, but keeping the hops on the heat for maybe an hour?

OR

would it be much easier to buy pre hoped spraymalt?

[boingy]

Fresh hops will give you a much better beer imo. You can split the boil across as many pans as you want. If you only have one pan you can boil multiple batches one afer the other (obviously this takes longer). Dissolve malt, divide equally across pans, distribute hops equally and boil for about an hour then strain the wort into a bucket. It would be best to boil the whole 23 litres but you won't lose too much flavour if you only boil, say, 10 or 15 litres and then top up with cold water in the bucket. Ideally this water will be previously boiled and could but you can get away with water straight from the tap as long as the water does not taste too "chloriney". Make sure the temperature is down to about 20 degrees C before chucking in the yeast.

[tadbrewer]

cheers boingy.

was thinking of maybe boiling up as little as possible. dont have a wort chiller you see, so dnt really want to have to be leaving my wort around for too long, for it too cool. maybe just 4-8 litres, 8 at the most and then using fridge-freezer cooled bottled water (asda style) to get an ideal pitching tempreature.

was thinking of going for a light ale. using maybe a mixture of light spraymalt and medium spraymalt. Not used hops before, was thinking of 'borrowing' some from my current holiday employment at the brewery and using them...bt this option could be risky (pretty skint till student loan kicks in). Any ideas of hops variatys, quantitys and price?

and as for yeast, maybe along the lines of some kind of safale? either -04 or US-05

any help is much appreciated!
cheers

[boingy]

You'll get away with boiling the smallest amount you can comfortably dissolve the spay malt in. There is a small price to pay because the smaller the boil volume the smaller the amount of extraction from the hops but it's not a massive variation so best not to worry about it for this, slightly random, experiment!

In terms of hops the quantity depends entirely on the variety. Hops have an alpha acid value. Basically the higher the number the more "power" they have so you need less. You could wing it and chuck about 2 or 3 ounces of hops into the boil or you could choose a variety (or two) and post them on here and let one of the very lovely tecchie brewers advise on your IBU level. Yeast: any normal ale yeast will be fine. The two you mention are very popular.

So, in summary there are two ways of proceeding:

1. The randomiser. Boil "a few kg" of spray malt with "a few ounces" of hops then ferment. You will (probably) get a very drinkable ale but the exact style will be a bit of a lottery. Could be very hoppy, could be very malty! Whatever you do, make sure you record the exact quantities for future tweaking (unless you like the random approach!)

2. The scientist. Name a style and OG or ABV level (or name your fave beer) and one of us will invent an easy recipe based on just spray malt and hops.

BTW, if you work in a brewery you might be able to blag a few handfuls of hops.

[boingy]

I should also add that if you have greater ambitions, many all-grain recipes can be brewed by replacing the main malt with spray malt (I seem to remember you use about 800g of spray malt to replace each kg of grain but you'd need to check) and then making "grain tea" with the adjucts and then proceeding as per the rest of the recipe. Once again. Ask on here about a specific recipe and I'm sure someone can advise on quantities.

[tadbrewer]

thanks guys.

here is a very rough plan;

Ingrediants

1KG Hopped Light Spraymalt
1.5KG Medium Spraymalt
113grm of Northdown Hops (as it will be a light ale) [not sure on how much i will use here, Alpha Acid is 8.5%]
1 x Sachet Danstar Nottingham Yeast
22L Water

Plan

add 2 x 200g of hopped spray malt into 4L of warmed water. (2 pans worth).
allow spraymalt to dissolve. then increase heat.
add '??certain quantity of hops??' at certain '??tempreature??' for '??certain time??'
add sived concoction to FV add 14L of cooled water along with rest of spraymalt and stir in to dissolve
reach pitching temp and pitch yeast

have i missed out?
btw if anyone could help me on the hops side that would be much appreciated

[boingy]

Well, there you go, TB. I reckon you now have all the info you need to choose between "The Randomiser" and "The Scientist" heheh

[Invalid Stout]

You could always just do a small batch of 8 litres or however much your biggest cooking pot will hold. Then you don't need to faff about with calculating hop utilisation deviation caused by a high-gravity boil. And the wort will cool quickly so you don't need a chiller.

I find that filling and capping a dozen or so bottles is also a lot less tedious than doing 40.

[NickK]

I've done an tin + spraymalt brew before and then boiling with hops as per normal. I found the brew a little uncontrolled in terms of the taste that appears. Most cans/spraymalt don't have an indication of which malts were used to make the powder/extract.

The result was a little malt taste but far too thin to really call a beer.

[stupid_squaddy]

Just to throw my Two pennies in. I don't think you are fielding a viable idea. Either cough up for more kit (Stockpot etc) or do what i do and Heavily modify some kits. If you want to increse mouthfell/head/body/alcohol increase sparaymalt (I find 1.5KG perfect) For increasing bitterness try hop tea use a small amount of wort/spraymalt and boil 20g of hops for 15 mins turn off heat add another 10g then strain in to FV ( 1.234 million willl argue about these timings, it's personal choice)! Another hopping option is dry hopping get a muslin bag and place your chosen amount/type of hop in bag use a sterilised marble in the bag to sink it in to the brew . Place it either after the initial fermentation has calmed down and leave for a few days or (as Brewers once did), in the barrel that the beer matures in. Every, and/or, choice here will produce a different result luckily you need to drink them all to find your preference

Finally your priming material can make a difference(treacle/honey/sugar/etc) but ignore the LHBS that tell you too buy their spraymalt/glucose/something expensive when you prime SUGAR IS SUGAR, TREACLE IS TREACLE, ETC

If you like any of this advice please donate to Help The Heroes, My friends without legs need it to keep drinking.