Hot to obtain sweetness

[mirsultankhan]

As I understand it there are traditional and non traditional methods of obtaining sweetness,

Higher mash temp.
Increase non fermentable speciality malts

My question is this, how high a mash temperature should I be aiming for?

 

[clibit]

68-69C. No higher IMO.

 

[MyQul]

decrease your bittering addition too

 

[mirsultankhan]

68-69C. No higher IMO.

Ok many thanks Clibit. I am going for a kind of all grain ginger beer and was worried that it may not be sweet enough. Of course one cannot add sugar prior to fermentation to sweeten otherwise it will simply get eaten up and I don't fancy adding anything like lactose so it appears I am forced to go the traditional method. 68-69 it is

 

[mirsultankhan]

decrease your bittering addition too

No bittering additions MyQul, I am planning on making ginger beer with 2000g of fresh ginger, 4 lemons, 2 limes, 500g of brown sugar, 500g of honey and 3500g of Maris Otter as a base and I was wondering if it would be sweet enough. :drink: From what I have read some people add non fermentable sugars/additives at bottling but have problems with a kind of chemical taste, being a natural sort of guy, i want everything to be healthy and natural meaning no sugar substitute additives.

 

[clibit]

You could add some pale crystal, caramalt or Caramunich. They will all provide sweetness by adding unfermentable sugars.

 

[Tony1951]

You could add some pale crystal, caramalt or Caramunich. They will all provide sweetness by adding unfermentable sugars.

This post led me via Google to some interesting articles about speciality malts and something called diastatic power, which were well worth ten minutes of reading. A new door opened.

It also made me see why you raised eyebrows at my last weeks stupidity of tipping in 450gms of crystal rather than the 300 the recipe asked for. At the time, it seemed daft for me to keep that fag end of the bag of crystal - so why not tip it in?....... Sweet beer coming up soon I think.

Cheers

http://beersmith.com/blog/2014/06/26/caramel-and-crystal-malt-in-beer-brewing/

http://beersmith.com/blog/2010/01/04/diastatic-power-and-mashing-your-beer/

 

[clibit]

450g of crystal is by no means ridiculous, the beer should be ok.

But specialty malts act like flavourings and colourings. Add 350g roast barley to a blond ale and you have a dry stout. Black malt and chocolate malt have a similar dramatic effect. And crystal malts are pretty powerful too, hence the low percentages used. Chucking spare base malt in will just affect the abv a little, but you have to be precise with crystal and roasted malts.

 

[mirsultankhan]

You could add some pale crystal, caramalt or Caramunich. They will all provide sweetness by adding unfermentable sugars.

I will try this next time, I have no speciality grains at the moment except half a Kg of roasted barley, just a few Kgs of the ol Maris Otter left over so thought I might try a ginger beer (25Kgs more coming on Monday though, nom nom nom), hopefully the beer will be ok, if its too dry i can always sweeten it somehow with something natural. Thanks for the advice though it sounds great and is much appreciated. The dark ruby that i love takes a full KG of crystal malt and its super tasty

 

[rodabod]

Try subbing some of your base malt for Vienna.

 

[DoctorMick]

You could also use a low attenuating yeast so more sugars are left over.

 

[MyQul]

You could also use a low attenuating yeast so more sugars are left over.

I was going to suggest that too but it can be a bit tricky to do as you can't guaruntee replicable attenuation figures. Especially in the summer, unless you've got a brew fridge and even then you can't be sure

 

[Hopping_Mad]

If you get it wrong and it's not sweet enough, add some maltose before secondary fermentation - it's unfermantable!

 

[mirsultankhan]

Some great advice guys, thanks very much.:hat:

 

[HebridesRob]

No bittering additions MyQul, I am planning on making ginger beer with 2000g of fresh ginger, 4 lemons, 2 limes, 500g of brown sugar, 500g of honey and 3500g of Maris Otter as a base and I was wondering if it would be sweet enough. :drink: From what I have read some people add non fermentable sugars/additives at bottling but have problems with a kind of chemical taste, being a natural sort of guy, i want everything to be healthy and natural meaning no sugar substitute additives.

Ever tried a ginger beer plant. Kids love them if you have any.
http://wholesomebee.co.uk/how-to-start-a-ginger-beer-plant/

Looked a bit further down my google list...
http://gingerbeerplant.net/

 

[Tony1951]

If you get it wrong and it's not sweet enough, add some maltose before secondary fermentation - it's unfermantable!

Hi Hopping_Mad.

Did you have a mis-type there or is it me?

I think that Maltose is the main fermentable sugar in brewing wort. Did you mean Dextrin malt, or malto-dextrin? It can be got from cara-pils apparently, or I think you can make it by mashing at a slightly higher temperature, like around 68C

http://maltingandbrewing.com/fermentable-sugar-and-non-fermentable-sugar.html

Cheers

Now and again I type stuff and post it and then think, how did I type that? :)

 

[Hopping_Mad]

It's me! I had a brain fade. I meant Lactose!!! Durrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! :nah:

 

[Tony1951]

It's me! I had a brain fade. I meant Lactose!!! Durrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! :nah:

I do it all the time, especially if I am tired. :)