Brewferm Kriek, which sugar?

[Aethelstan]

Simple question here, I have a Brewferm Kriek cherry beer kit. I assumed at £25 for a 12 litre kit it would not need anything else, but it turns out it needs 500g of sugar. What with not knowing about fruit beers, which sugar is best? Brewers sugar, improver or spray malt?

Cheers :)

 

[NickW]

Spray malt all the way, or liquid malt extract :thumb:

 

[serum]

Brewferm kits often don't need extra maltiness as they're quite heavy tasting so candi or just brewing sugar is normally advisable but not sure about that particular kit. You probably can't go wrong with candi sugar.

 

[Aethelstan]

Thanks, is candi sugar just normal granulated sucrose?

 

[morethanworts]

Definitely NOT spraymalt or LME, IMHO, for this one. The extra body is not what the style requires.

It's a good kit, with loads of cherries in it (hence the price) and the yeast supplied is fair, but it almost certainly won't finish as low as the commercials. Unless you're trying to create something else, just use a totally fermentable sugar. I used Golden Syrup (allowing for 20% water IIRC) and a small amount of cane sugar. If I was doing it again, I'd probably use dextrose for this one, or just cane sugar.

 

[serum]

Thanks, is candi sugar just normal granulated sucrose?

You can buy big rocks of it quite cheap at homebrew shops. It's inverted sugar. I've heard it's easy enough to make the syrup at home but I've never tried it. Golden syrup is kinda halfway there so that's good to use as well, just up the quantity to get the right gravity.

 

[WelshPaul]

Thanks, is candi sugar just normal granulated sucrose?

There's a guide on this forum on how to make your own candi sugar:
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=16473

 

[Aethelstan]

Nice one, thanks! I will make some of that up this evening. I have 12kg of sucrose for non beer brewing :)

 

[Toonahfish]

What about standard brew enhancer by way of sugar?

 

[Toonahfish]

Well I got this going this afternoon, and it's gone off like a rocket! I've never had a brew get going so vigorously so quickly! Within 4 hours it was already blowing out through the airlock and I've had to wash it out twice!

 

[Rockuronium]

I've just started a Brewferm Gallia and used Spray Malt based on advise from the forum. Some kits do appear to provide the sugar/dextrose but not this one.

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Fermenting: Brewferm Gallia
Fermenting: Forrest Fruits & Pomegranate WOW
Conditioning: Brewferm Diabolo
Bottled: Brewferm Triple