Just some advice needed on hygrometers

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zippy40

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Hi All

Done a brew tonight - John Bull IPA kit with a kilo of brew enhancer and 400gram of extra brew sugar. I intend to dry hop at the end with either cascade or Amarillo.

Some queries here. I got an OG of 1038 which I think is low for the amount of sugar I wacked into it. My hygrometer is one I got when starting with my first kit. It has a plastic trial jar with it and registers 1000 with water.

Could my hygrometer be useless, can you recommend a very accurate one or could the plastic of the trial jar somehow affect the reading???

I just cant seem to brew with a high OG. Also, when I brew with kits it states it should get down to 1006-8. I never get it below 1012... EVER.

Any thoughts on this from you experienced guys????
 
If your hydrometer is reading 1.000 with plain water it's correct. You need to mix everything thoroughly for the reading to be correct. If say some of the added brewing sugar is just sitting on the bottom of the FV and not mixed thoroughly you wont get a correct reading.

How much yeast is provided with those john bull kits and do you re-hydrate or just sprinkle
 
If your hydrometer is reading 1.000 with plain water it's correct. You need to mix everything thoroughly for the reading to be correct. If say some of the added brewing sugar is just sitting on the bottom of the FV and not mixed thoroughly you wont get a correct reading.

How much yeast is provided with those john bull kits and do you re-hydrate or just sprinkle

The yeasts are more and better than the munton kits. I don't rehydrate them but they have all started bubbling well after 12-24 hours. I use a shower head to add the water to the kit and as such the wort is always really well aerated.

You might be right re the extra sugar. I usually dissolve brew enhancer in hot water in a pan before adding but I just dumped the extra brewing sugar in tonight. I did stir well and it looked as if it had dissolved but really don't know. Should I dissolve all the extra sugar in hot water before adding to the fermenter???

Ta
Zippy
 
The yeast of course will find it's way to the sugars no problem. But if you want an accurate hydrometer reading disolving the extra sugar in some hot water should do the trick

Thanks for the advice. I will be brewing again in a fortnight so will try then.

cheers:thumb::thumb:
 
Hi All

Done a brew tonight - John Bull IPA kit with a kilo of brew enhancer and 400gram of extra brew sugar. I intend to dry hop at the end with either cascade or Amarillo.

Some queries here. I got an OG of 1038 which I think is low for the amount of sugar I wacked into it. My hygrometer is one I got when starting with my first kit. It has a plastic trial jar with it and registers 1000 with water.

Could my hygrometer be useless, can you recommend a very accurate one or could the plastic of the trial jar somehow affect the reading???

I just cant seem to brew with a high OG. Also, when I brew with kits it states it should get down to 1006-8. I never get it below 1012... EVER.

Any thoughts on this from you experienced guys????

Brew Enhancers come with a mix of maltodextrin, dextrose and LME.
Coopers range as follows as provided by Pirate_Pete

  • Brew Enhancer 1 - 60% dextrose, 40% maltodextrin
  • Brew Enhancer 2 - 50% dextrose, 25% maltodextrin, 25% light dry malt
  • Brew Enhancer 3 - 50% light dry malt, 30% dextrose, 20% maltodextrin
If you put your kit can plus sugar plus assumed BE2 you get an OG of 1.041 so I don't think your reading is too far out, assuming you made up to 23 litres. http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator/

There really isn't enough malt in the 1.5kg cans imo but the solution is to brew short, or accept a low OG, or add extra malt, but not dump lots of sugar in to up the OG since you end up with a 'thin' tasting beer.
 
I've managed to not comment so far but the pedant in me has surfaced! Sorry! :doh: :doh: :doh:

A hygrometer measures the moisture content of the air and my wife uses one to decide whether to put out her washing or use the dryer. :thumb:

I use a hydrometer to measure the SG of my beer. :thumb:

I often make mistakes which is why I take photographs of the hydrometer and then work out the SG when I can expand the photograph! :whistle:

Recession Session.jpg
 
Brew Enhancers come with a mix of maltodextrin, dextrose and LME.
Coopers range as follows as provided by Pirate_Pete

  • Brew Enhancer 1 - 60% dextrose, 40% maltodextrin
  • Brew Enhancer 2 - 50% dextrose, 25% maltodextrin, 25% light dry malt
  • Brew Enhancer 3 - 50% light dry malt, 30% dextrose, 20% maltodextrin
If you put your kit can plus sugar plus assumed BE2 you get an OG of 1.041 so I don't think your reading is too far out, assuming you made up to 23 litres. http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator/

There really isn't enough malt in the 1.5kg cans imo but the solution is to brew short, or accept a low OG, or add extra malt, but not dump lots of sugar in to up the OG since you end up with a 'thin' tasting beer.

Great advice. I should have added that the brew enhancer I use is 50%Light malt extract and 50% brewing sugar. It isn't a branded one that I use. Also, I made it up to 19-20 litres rather that the full 23 as I cant be bothered bottling and want it all in the corny keg. Lastly, the John Bull kits are I think 1.8kg of malt extract. Do you think this would come out ok then???

Ta
Zippy
 
I've managed to not comment so far but the pedant in me has surfaced! Sorry! :doh: :doh: :doh:

A hygrometer measures the moisture content of the air and my wife uses one to decide whether to put out her washing or use the dryer. :thumb:

I use a hydrometer to measure the SG of my beer. :thumb:

I often make mistakes which is why I take photographs of the hydrometer and then work out the SG when I can expand the photograph! :whistle:

duly noted lol - Hydrometer!:grin:
 
Great advice. I should have added that the brew enhancer I use is 50%Light malt extract and 50% brewing sugar. It isn't a branded one that I use. Also, I made it up to 19-20 litres rather that the full 23 as I cant be bothered bottling and want it all in the corny keg. Lastly, the John Bull kits are I think 1.8kg of malt extract. Do you think this would come out ok then???

Ta
Zippy
Zippy
You are correct.:thumb: JB kits are in fact 1.8kg not 1.5kg. (although what I said about 1.5kg kits is also correct imo)
Using all the above you should have ended up with an OG of about 1.054 (again using calculator) so as you originally suspected, summat's wrong somewhere.
Looking back through my notes I found I had done a JB IPA some time back, and it turned out OK. I preferred it to the Coopers equivalent (which is no longer available). I dry hopped with 25 g goldings, but whether that was enough I can't remember. I tend to go for 50g now. I brewed to 22 litres and used a half kilo dextrose, and same DME and the OG was 1.045.
I'm sure yours will a be alright on the night :thumb:
 
The yeasts are more and better than the munton kits. I don't rehydrate them but they have all started bubbling well after 12-24 hours. I use a shower head to add the water to the kit and as such the wort is always really well aerated.

You might be right re the extra sugar. I usually dissolve brew enhancer in hot water in a pan before adding but I just dumped the extra brewing sugar in tonight. I did stir well and it looked as if it had dissolved but really don't know. Should I dissolve all the extra sugar in hot water before adding to the fermenter???

Ta
Zippy

Quick Tip...Dissolve your enhancer in cold water and then boil it..It can get very lumpy and sticky if you dissolve in hot water, same with DME
 
Zippy
You are correct.:thumb: JB kits are in fact 1.8kg not 1.5kg. (although what I said about 1.5kg kits is also correct imo)
Using all the above you should have ended up with an OG of about 1.054 (again using calculator) so as you originally suspected, summat's wrong somewhere.
Looking back through my notes I found I had done a JB IPA some time back, and it turned out OK. I preferred it to the Coopers equivalent (which is no longer available). I dry hopped with 25 g goldings, but whether that was enough I can't remember. I tend to go for 50g now. I brewed to 22 litres and used a half kilo dextrose, and same DME and the OG was 1.045.
I'm sure yours will a be alright on the night :thumb:

Cheers. Thanks for the advice. :thumb::thumb::thumb:
 
Quick Tip...Dissolve your enhancer in cold water and then boil it..It can get very lumpy and sticky if you dissolve in hot water, same with DME

Thanks for the tip - duly noted.

I would never have thought of that but now that you say it does make a lot of sense.

Cheers:thumb::thumb:
 
As mentioned above beer enhancer is a bit of a rip off containing only a proportion of useful dme and being packed with simple thinning and drying sugars with no real difference to the brew than sucrose.
a diy 50/50 mix of dme and sucrose would save you quite a few pounds.. dropping the sucrose entirely and using lme or dme will provide your brews with substantially more body and malt flavour.

Brew sugar has no real benefit either, granted sucrose needs a lil yeast break down into glucose and fructose which in a commercial environment can tie up the FV for a few more hours, but at home where primary fermentation is allowed to take its time over a week or longer there is NO benefit from using these expensive sugar substitutes.


OK Im stepping off the soap box.. (mostly)

The benefit of using LME or DME additions is that the malt extract is a mix of both simple and complex sugars,
the yeast convert the simple sugars, and break down some of the complex sugars into simpler ones they can also digest, But Some of the larger complex sugars remain intact and its these that contribute towards the body mouthfeel and malty flavour of a brew. And are evident by the Final Gravity reading you take for your beer.

1.010-1.012 is a very healthy FG for a brew imho, 1.007 would be a very thin watery brew probably lacking in flavour as well as body and mouthfeel.
 
As mentioned above beer enhancer is a bit of a rip off containing only a proportion of useful dme and being packed with simple thinning and drying sugars with no real difference to the brew than sucrose.
a diy 50/50 mix of dme and sucrose would save you quite a few pounds.. dropping the sucrose entirely and using lme or dme will provide your brews with substantially more body and malt flavour.

Brew sugar has no real benefit either, granted sucrose needs a lil yeast break down into glucose and fructose which in a commercial environment can tie up the FV for a few more hours, but at home where primary fermentation is allowed to take its time over a week or longer there is NO benefit from using these expensive sugar substitutes.


OK Im stepping off the soap box.. (mostly)

The benefit of using LME or DME additions is that the malt extract is a mix of both simple and complex sugars,
the yeast convert the simple sugars, and break down some of the complex sugars into simpler ones they can also digest, But Some of the larger complex sugars remain intact and its these that contribute towards the body mouthfeel and malty flavour of a brew. And are evident by the Final Gravity reading you take for your beer.

1.010-1.012 is a very healthy FG for a brew imho, 1.007 would be a very thin watery brew probably lacking in flavour as well as body and mouthfeel.

Great advice :thumb: only one thing though that you could fill me in with - when reading on here and other forums they say that using table sugar contributes to the 'homebrew twang'. Are you saying that this is not the case??? I am genuinely interested because as you say if I could get away with cheap sugar instead of brewing sugar then I would:grin:
 
Great advice :thumb: only one thing though that you could fill me in with - when reading on here and other forums they say that using table sugar contributes to the 'homebrew twang'. Are you saying that this is not the case??? I am genuinely interested because as you say if I could get away with cheap sugar instead of brewing sugar then I would:grin:
Table sugar is said to introduce a 'cidery' taste to homebrew beer if used in significant quantity. That's why 'more experienced' homebrewers avoid using it except for priming sugar (where quantities are small). The straight alternative is normally dextrose (alias brewing sugar).
Homebrew 'twang' is a subject in itself. The suggested reasons include using table sugar, using liquid malt extract rather than grain, cheap kits and not enough conditioning amongst others. Someone on this forum recently attributed twang to the use of tap water if I remember correctly. Need I go on :whistle:
 
Im far from a chemist but my understanding is 1 x sucrose molecule + 1 water molecule will break down into 1 x glucose + 1 x fructose, the homebrew twang is something that thankfully has passed into the annels of history and was a tart astringent back of the tongue after taste to a sup of a green 70's boots or geordie kit. Those brews would benefit from a good 5-6 months of maturing in a bottle before that god awful after taste would mellow out.

My best guess as to what was the cause is something to do with how the LME and hop mix was brought together in the kit assembly? perhaps 2nd rate lme was used for the kits of old?
thankfully even the cheapest 1 tin kits today brew a fairly good if not thin brew (when using sugar hehe)

same as cooking if you put top quality ingredients in your hedging your bets for a top notch result ;)
 
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