SHOULD I ADD BREWING SUGAR OR NOT?

[mancer62]

Just about to make a 'Brewmaker best of British India Pale Ale Beer kit 3kg'
It was bought at weekend from Wilkinson's and for a 2 can kit seemed very competitively priced.
It says if I follow the instructions I should have a OG of 1040 and a FG of 1009 = 4.1% approx
I have 250g brewing sugar lying round in the kitchen and was wondering if it would be ok to use it or not?
Or would a smaller amount be better ie 100g?
What could I expect the gravity to increase to with adding 250g or 100g? :

 

[SloeBrewer]

All that sugar will do is add alcohol, but no flavour. In fact, it will actually reduce mouth feel and the general balance. Best to brew as per instructions or use DME (Or brew it short) if you want a higher ABV.

 

[Hollow Legs]

+1 on the last post, it will taste thin and spoil the taste.

 

[mancer62]

Thank you I reduced to 21L instead of 22.5L but OG still seemed to be 1040. Oh well sigh!

 

[SloeBrewer]

Did you give it a really good stir, before taking the OG? By that, I mean enough to get a good frothy head on it. Sometimes low OG readings are a result of incomplete mixing.

Regardless, leave it to ferment for 2 weeks before bottling or barrelling, then allow another 2 weeks for carbonation and a further 2 weeks (minimum) to condition and I'm sure you'll have a really nice brew.

 

[winelight]

Regardless, leave it to ferment for 2 weeks before bottling or barrelling, then allow another 2 weeks for carbonation and a further 2 weeks (minimum) to condition and I'm sure you'll have a really nice brew.

Where can I get some more patience?

 

[GrumpyBunny]

Getting patience requires time :rofl:

 

[SloeBrewer]

Where can I get some more patience?

Sadly my local home brew shop never has any patience in stock!

The only solution is to brew regularly, so you always have a good supply. In the meantime, buy some beer - it comes with free bottles :grin:

 

[winelight]

Well I am fortunate (I think) to live somewhere where is a bar. So I can drink there and take all their empties.

 

[Markus]

+1 on the last post, it will taste thin and spoil the taste.

I thought brewing sugar wouldn't affect the taste. Or is that Glucose?

 

[SloeBrewer]

I thought brewing sugar wouldn't affect the taste. Or is that Glucose?

There are two main ingredients which give beer its flavour: Malt and hops. Adding sugar will simply increase the ABV above what the kit is supposed to be. This will change the flavour profile and make the beer taste thinner, even though it is stronger. If you want to increase the ABV, but also keep the beer's body, then you should add malt extract, or beer kit enhancer (which is half dextrose, half malt extract).

If you think about Vodka, it is basically just ethanol with no flavour. Whisky on the other hand, has been made with malted barely, so has lots of flavour. This is a simplified analogy, but serves to illustrate the point!

 

[bigboots]

As GA pointed out in a previous post somewhere, it depends on what you are used to! :whistle:
Every beer I have brewed at home has had more body than any shop bought beer I have tasted. (and I increase the OG on almost all of my brews to around 1080).
DME is better than pure sugar,certainly, but if you haven't any DME it certainly won't be a disaster if you just add sugar.
(BTW Tesco Tate &Lyle caster currently £2.08 per 2kg.......whereas 1kg brewing sugar is £2.04 and 500g light spraymalt is £3.84 :wha: )
2.5 oz raises 1 gallon by 1%.
12.5 oz raises 5 gallons by 1%
A 1kg bag raises 5 gallons by 3% (all approximations)
Chucking in a 1kg bag of caster at the start, when you are mixing everything up, will boost your ABV from the suggested level (lets say 4.2%), to now being approx 7.2% :thumb: . This is only as an example, and will most certainly upset contributors on this forum, but remember if you don't give it a go sometime you'll never know if I was right or wrong.
It really won't affect your brew as much as you are being told,and anyway as I said previously, your beer will still have more body than anything you are likely to have previously bought and sampled.
HTH :
PS Increasing the amount of fermentables (sugar) will also increase the fermenting time, however, it will be worth the wait!
(Might take you 2 days to sober up, to realise it was worth the wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
: : :
:drink: :drink: :drink:

 

[calumscott]

When it comes to kits, I can say for certain that the ones that I've brewed with sugar (even the prescribed amount) have been significantly inferior to those brewed with dried or liquid malt extract.

Brew it short or add extra malt if you want more volume and stronger beer.

I'd also go no further than a single % ABV higher than the intended ABV of the kit or the alcohol will start to overpower the malt and hops. High ABV beers require different malt profiles to more session oriented beers to put more body in otherwise its a bit like someone's lashed a shot of vodka in your pint.

Mind you, if you like that sort of thing...

Keep your dextrose for bottling. :thumb:

 

[bottler]

Maybe one answer to this is buy 2 can kits. No need to add any sugar or malt. Sometimes they turn out as cheap as buying single can kits then enhancer, dme etc etc to add to them. :thumb:

 

[mancer62]

Bottler my original post says that is a 2 can brew I am actually doing it said with an OG 1040 for 22.5L I reduced to 21L but hydrometer reading was still 1040 lol I had 250g of brewers sugar lying around and wondered what sort of impact it might have on my batch. Some say go for it -it won't impact the taste as much as some say while others are dead against it. :

 

[rpt]

I thought brewing sugar wouldn't affect the taste. Or is that Glucose?

Brewing sugar is glucose.

Well, actually it's dextrose monohydrate. That means there is one molecule of water for every molecule of dextrose (which is why you need slightly more brewing sugar than sucrose for the same amount of fermentables). Dextrose = glucose.

 

[bigboots]

That 250g you have kicking around will barely add 1% to your ABV so I am sure almost all on here will say chuck it in, it will make next to no difference to the overall feel of your finished brew!
:

 

[calumscott]

I am sure almost all on here will say chuck it in, it will make next to no difference to the overall feel of your finished brew!

That's quite a statement given that, of the people who actually gave direct advice, six said "It'll make your beer worse" and one (you, as it goes) said bung it in it'll be fine... :hmm:

 

[bottler]

I dont like tampering with good 2 can kits... i add nothing.

 

[bigboots]

Calumscott..........
I stand by what I said, based on a considerable amount of experience "tampering" with kits.
Not 1 single kit that I have "modified" has turned out average, never mind BAD.
I really would say if there had been any bad ones, but there genuinely haven't.
My one piece of advice regarding modded brews is that honey added to the wort takes MUCH longer to ferment!
I challenge someone on here to brew 2 identical kits (apart from one having an extra kilo of sugar added). In an honest appraisal I really think you'll be hard pushed to tell the difference, or at least there will be much less difference than people are being led to believe on here.
PROVE ME WRONG