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[Smithywick]

Yep Terry spot on l always have carapils on hand , chocolate malt , wheat , oats , etc... don’t underestimate yeast though. Always treat your water according to style you are after. Can’t beat a good hop tea & simple dry hopping.

The chocolate malt sounds good and yes I'm definitely going to give the dry hopping a go

 

[terrym]

... don’t underestimate yeast though. Always treat your water according to style you are after.

I don't underestimate the impact of yeast, but not for a kit. And I suggest water treatment for kits is not necessary since that should have been done in the manufacturing process, although treating mains water sourced brewing water for chloramine might be a good thing where it is noticeable.

 

[Winterbournebrewery]

Kit tweaks Terry , sorry should have made clearer. Deffo on water though

 

[Winterbournebrewery]

I have bought out of date kits & changed the style massively using simple ingredients & processes. Changing yeast on old out of date kits is important & adding speciality grains etc... always worth a punt if you can pick up kits ultra cheap because of the date. It’s always fun & you learn a lot through this process.

 

[Smithywick]

I'm using Morrisons bottle mineral water and a slight change of plan now as the last John bull English ale was sold so I'm now doing a sweet newkie brown instead

 

[Winterbournebrewery]

Nice , brew it straight & see what you like about it. Unless you have brewed it before & want to add something ? You need that benchmark to start tailoring to your tastes.

 

[Smithywick]

Nice , brew it straight & see what you like about it. Unless you have brewed it before & want to add something ? You need that benchmark to start tailoring to your tastes.

Yes mate just going to do it bog standard this time round and at least get some success this time round, second time lucky I hope pretty sure I know where I went wrong last time so, I'll experiment on the next one

 

[terrym]

Yes mate just going to do it bog standard this time round and at least get some success this time round, second time lucky I hope pretty sure I know where I went wrong last time so, I'll experiment on the next one

I am not sure what the Wilko kit instructions recommend but my advice is not to add any more than 500g of sugar/dextrose to make up the wort and preferably less than that, with the balance being malt extract, not 'brew enhancer'. I also advise that you don't brew to 23 litres. Around 20/21 litres is fine. And the reason, you only get 1.5kg LME in the can and that will produce 'thin' beer, more so if you use lots of sugar. That's a lesson you don't need to learn by personal experimentation, just take my word for it.

 

[Winterbournebrewery]

100% agree Terry.

 

[Smithywick]

I am not sure what the Wilko kit instructions recommend but my advice is not to add any more than 500g of sugar/dextrose to make up the wort and preferably less than that, with the balance being malt extract, not 'brew enhancer'. I also advise that you don't brew to 23 litres. Around 20/21 litres is fine. And the reason, you only get 1.5kg LME in the can and that will produce 'thin' beer, more so if you use lots of sugar. That's a lesson you don't need to learn by personal experimentation, just take my word for it.

Thanks for that terrym great advice I'll take that onboard well I'm going to do it Wednesday so I'll keep updating as I go along cheers

 

[Smithywick]

100% agree Terry.

Some really great advice on here and I really do appreciate it all thanks everyone

 

[Smithywick]

So far so good all smelling and bubbling away nicely, put some pics on the home brewing thread