Next Steps

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

iamacup

Member
Joined
12/8/21
Messages
20
Reaction score
8
Location
Canberra
Hi folks,

I'm setting up for my next beer and have some questions about next steps.

I'm doing another Pale ale can extract, but with DME not sucrose this time. I've found varying advice on the swap ratio. On one forum i've found that DME and sucrose are fermentable at a (roughly) 2:1 ratio. So I'd need 2kgs of DME to replace the 1kg of sucrose for the same effect (abv?). However, in other forums I've found quotes saying that DME and sucrose have the same pppg of 1.046 (unsure about the meaning of this) and this makes them a 1:1 swap. On the site for the producer of the can (Black Rock) it says to use light DME instead of sugar, with no further guidance.

Initially after reading the first information I was planning 1kg of light DME and 0.4kg Dextrose, but now I'm not so sure. I've had a look on brewers friend and not found a calculator/converter that seems to address this. I'd be pleased to get some clarification on this conversion.

I presume the more important question is, what alcohol content do I want, as that can be tailored by the amount of fermentable, right? I might be asking the wrong question. This might be answered in the FAQ for advanced brewing, but Safari won't open that link, (maybe broken, more likely Safari not playing ball). If this is really what I need to address, I'm looking for between 3.5 and 4% in this pale ale. It looked like brewers friend would have covered this but I was overwhelmed by the amount of input and jargon, way beyond my level.

Another question, and I think I've answered this with my Google Fu, if I put 9L of Canberra tap water in a 10L container it will, given the 1L air gap above the water, off gas the chlorine overnight with a lid, to prevent the inevitable cat hair getting in, on? It seems like this should work, and is the laziest way to get rid of chlorine before brewing.

Third and final question. I'm going to bulk prime, and I've found a few good guides on the method and the brewers friend calculator seems easy to use. However, the amount given, for example 100g to prime 20L to an ale style Co2, is this 100g per/L or 100g per batch. I presume it's 100g only as you input the beer volume in the calculator, but that doesn't seem like a lot compared to 2 (I actually only use 1) carb drops per 750 bottle. 100g/L seems like HEAPS!
Before writing this I had intended to weigh a carbonation drop, but the opportunity to write this came up first.

Thanks for the help folks,

Cup
 
I don' do kit beers but some things are basic. I stand to be corrected

1. 1 kg LDME + kit should be around 1.042 OG - stay away from that site that said 2:1 ratio 1kg sucrose = 1.04kg LDME

2. Should come out at around 4.2%

3. 100 grams total for 20Litres is OK - less if kegging
 
As with most things with brewing, simple questions can have complicated answers.
I’m terms of your starting gravity, it’s pretty much a 1:1 swap between sugar and extract.
Final gravity is a different story. Sugar is 100% fermentable whereas malt extract isn’t. How fermentable it is mostly depends on the the yeast. You can use the yeast supplier’s attenuation percentage as a guide.
If you’re making a lower abv beer, malt extract is a much better option as the stuff that isn’t fermented will give you a better ‘mouthfeel’. Ie it won’t be as watery…
To work all this out you can use some software like Brewfather (which has an annual subscription), or look up Ian H’s spreadsheet on this forum. (It’s what I started with and is free.)
Edit: sorry if a lot of this is jargon to you, feel free to ask follow-up questions. There are some very knowledgeable brewers (not me) who are happy to share their expertise
 
Back
Top