wilko stout

[bigbeefy]

going to start one of these tonight
going to add 500g brown sugar 500g white sugar and a tin of treacle

 

[Mark1964]

be careful or it will taste awful try adding a small amount of dme and always test the starting gravity. Anything above 1.050 or above the yeast will suffer

 

[bigbeefy]

dme ???


sorry you lost me there im assuming its sugar but

 

[clibit]

Dried malt extract.

 

[Mark1964]

adding that much sugers will overload the yeast it wint work properly. You will end up with a beer that may not ferment and will be a waste. Just add dme and take a gravity reading when it hits 1.048 youll have a decent beer. You could prime with treacle or brown sugar if you want to alter taste

 

[bigbeefy]

right i think i got you now

i havnt got any dme only the sugars and the treacle or am i being really thick

im now going to assume there sugar in the treacle will look at the tin once i get my glasses on im glad i posted on here before i started this

just looked it doesnt say sugar anywhere on the tin it lyles black treacle

 

[clibit]

Treacle is a form of sugar and is fine. The suggestion being made is that you use less sugar and use some malt extract instead. Maybe replace the white sugar with 500g dme, or cut the white and Brown sugar to 250g each. Or replace all the white and Brown sugar with 1kg dme. Commercial ales are made entirely or mostly from malt, not 50% sugar.

But if you go ahead as you planned, you will still get stout and it might be good.

 

[Brew2Day]

With that much table sugar it wouldn't taste very nice, it will probably taste a little cider like.

I'd highly recommend some dextrose or Dark Dry Malt Extract and only half a tin of treacle..

 

[bigbeefy]

hmmm ok so if i use the treacle i need to keep my eye on the sugars and make it up to the 1050 with sugar

maybe only add half the treacle then

sorry for being a pain im new to all this i like to play with recipes and read somewhere about treacle being added to stout

 

[Brew2Day]

A lot of people add treacle to stout but I wouldn't use much more than 10% table sugar.

If it was me I'd go with this:

200g Treacle
800g Dark Dry Malt Extract

If you've got a homebrew shop near you you can get the Dry Malt Extract (DME) from them http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Muntons_500g_Dark_Spraymalt.html#.VMQc9NKsUgs

 

[bigbeefy]

already done another stout kit using pure sugar

didnt realise that dme was essential

maybe time to rethink then

 

[clibit]

Wilko sells DME too.

 

[bigbeefy]

ok trip to wilko first thing but then the car is being put away as it my bday and i wanna get pished as a fart

 

[bigbeefy]

just checked the coopers stout kit says use sugar hence why i thought it would be ok to use it on the wilko kit

 

[bigbeefy]

and the wilko says use sugar or dme will go for the dme this time to see the difference

what im looking for in the end is as close as poss to a draught guinness as i can possibly get

 

[BruinTuns]

bb,as a newbie one of the first things I learned was to take the kit destructions with a pinch of salt. Too often they are inadequate (as when they instruct the addition of 'sugar' without advising which type), at worst they can be misleading, as with estimated fermentation/conditioning schedules.
Regarding the dried yeast being able to cope with extra fermentables (sugars), advice that I've read many times, and which I follow, is to re-hydrate it before pitching. This apparently gives it a big advantage when it starts work.
Boil the kettle and pour about 250ml (ish) into a sterilized cup or jug. Cool it to approx 32 degrees centigrade (+/- 2 or 3 degrees, not crucial) then add the yeast to it. Don't stir, but you can gently swirl every few minutes to help mix. Then after about 15 minutes add the yeast solution to the wort.
If I add loads of extra fermentables to a kit to up the abv then I also add a couple of teaspoons of yeast nutrient. May not be necessary but if it doesn't help it shouldn't hurt either, and I've read that it might make the difference between a stuck brew and a successful one.