First Beer Brew - have done quite a few wine brews though

[Kircky]

I hoping to start my first attempt at brewing beer in a few days

I am going to brew a 1.7kg Coopers IPA with 1kg of muntons beer enhancer, and after fermentation put it in a pressure barrel

I have a few questions though...

1, Could I \ Should I add a little sucrose (say 300g) to the wort for a bit of extra alcohol?

2, My wife and I both like IPA's such brewdog punk and the like - is there any hop you would recommend me dry hopping to improve the brew? or should I leave it as is?

Thanks, Ian

 

[kelper]

Why not just follow the instructions until you have had a few good beers under your belt? Apart from where they say, 'ready in 4 - 6 days! If you start being clever and modifying the recipe, you might be disappointed. Then you won't know if the kit was not to your taste or if you ruined it.

The kit makers have fettled their products very carefully.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I agree with Kelper if you don't know what the original tastes like how are you going to know if you have improved it.

 

[Kircky]

Well that's a fair point I have to admit

 

[cushyno]

I think the guys make good points, but it's good to see your ambition to think beyond the basics. A lot can be done to tweak and improve, particularly with hops and yeast. Taste what you get from the kit as standard and think about what you want beyond that. If you are able to say where you want to take the taste I'm sure there will be lots of great advice forthcoming.

 

[Kircky]

I think the guys make good points, but it's good to see your ambition to think beyond the basics. A lot can be done to tweak and improve, particularly with hops and yeast. Taste what you get from the kit as standard and think about what you want beyond that. If you are able to say where you want to take the taste I'm sure there will be lots of great advice forthcoming.

Yes I think that's a sensible way forward. Hope to put on my brew sometime mid week

 

[Kircky]

The beers been fermenting for three days now and is coming along nicely.

Kit called for 1.5kg of spray malt \ dextrose beer improver mix, but I only had 1kg of that so I added sucrose to make up the difference.

Og 1.050 a little above the 1.048 suggested on the tin so not too far out

It's currently burbling along at a temp of 21c lots of co2 coming off nice and regular