17 Ltr Brew?

[Silver]

Please advise if you have made a brew without adding fermentables. I am considering making perhaps a 17 litre brew without adding any sugars and then pitching the yeast. Just a thought as I can pretty much fill a corny and not bother bottling remainder or throwing it. Is there enough for the yeast to feed on and do its thing.
Thanks in advance.

 

[HeavyNova]

Please advise if you have made a brew without adding fermentables. I am considering making perhaps a 17 litre brew without adding any sugars and then pitching the yeast. Just a thought as I can pretty much fill a corny and not bother bottling remainder or throwing it. Is there enough for the yeast to feed on and do its thing.
Thanks in advance.

You haven't really said but I assume you're talking about leaving out the kilo of sugar in a kit and kilo brew? Anyway, brewing like this is fine and if anything a stepping stone to extract brewing where you are using you're own hop schedule with plain malt extract (liquid or dry).

I'd suggest getting hold of IanH's extract excel spreadsheet. It'll help you understand and predict what your brew will turn out like. I don't have a link for it but it should pop up with the search function.

If you only add the can of goo and skip the sugar completely you'll end up with a pretty light beer if it's a 17L batch. So use this spreadsheet to design your brew and talior it to your liking for colour, alchohol content, bitterness etc. e.g. you might want to use the can plus 500g of DME or sugar for 17 L - it al depend on what you'r aiming for.

 

[MaltyHops]

Please advise if you have made a brew without adding fermentables. I am considering making perhaps a 17 litre brew without adding any sugars and then pitching the yeast. Just a thought as I can pretty much fill a corny and not bother bottling remainder or throwing it. Is there enough for the yeast to feed on and do its thing.
Thanks in advance.

No problem at all - you will/may get a stronger (alcohol level) beer.

Hmm - thinking about it might be best to check the gravity as you
add water to the can of goo (assuming this is what you're using.
Add contents to say 10L of water, mix thoroughly an then check
the specific gravity - if it's way above 1.050 add more water until
gravity is down to 1.035 (the normal kit target for gravity) and
then pitch - or you could brew it at high gravity for a stronger
beer.

Needless to say, this might increase risk of infection but once you've
done this once, you can get an idea of how much water is need for
a particular specific gravity so it should be more straight forward
next time.

Actually, just remembered the Ianh kit brewing Excel spread sheet you
can get from AHB where you can play around with different amounts
of water to add to just a can of goo and it will estimate the gravity for
you.

T.

 

[HeavyNova]

This current thread;

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...mp;#entry750219

might be helpful?

 

[mickpc]

I do this all the time, only I use the can and a brew enhancer 2, just makes it a bit stronger.

Mick

 

[MHB]

Just a can (1.7Kg) and water to 17 L comes in at 1.032 so you're looking at a fairly low gravity beer. Remember that the bitterness will be going up (22.5/17) by about a third so you might want to think long and hard about which kit you choose.

To hit 1.050 you would be diluting to just under 11 litres (bitterness doubles), using 2 cans is widely talked about around here so same thing as 2 cans in 22 litres, only you would be making half as much.

Another option might be to just use a kit and a Kg of DME or your weapon of choice and just cut the water back to around the 17 L you are looking for, should put you at about 1.044 and be fairly easy drinking.

MHB