All My Dumb Questions

[Os7]

gday mateys

a complete novie brewer here so i have a ton of questions but of course i cant remember them all right now so i thought id make a thread for my stupid questions as i come across them and post them in this thread rather than making 20 different threads. hope this is cool with the admins.




anyway on to my first question:

i have a couple of kits from the local brew shop (coopers English Bitter, Mangrove Jacks Belgian Ale) and i also bought some of the shops brew enhancer that they package themselves and this is my question of the day.

i have 2 packs here, one has 250g Dextrose, 250g Maltodextrin, 500g Light Malt,

the second has 500g Dextrose, 300g Light Malt, 200g Dark Malt

is the light and dark malt in these sugar? or is the 500g of dextrose and maltodextrin in them making them both only 500g of sugar so therefor only a midstrength beer if i use them?

before you slam me, noobie remember haha.

 

[Os7]

i also have another dickhead question, what are these used for?

http://www.coopers.com.au/the-brewers-guil...t-extract-range

 

[Bubba]

Hey, welcome.
No dumb questions here, but not sure about some of the answers!
Anyway, Malt is a fermentable (sugar), so is Dextrose, Maltodextrin is not afull fermentable and will not fully ferment and is used to add body and "mouthfeel" to a brew, so the more maltodextrin the less youor alc will be.
Malt and Dex will convert/attenuate with yeast to create alcohol, the light, dark, wheat malts etc are used to add flavour, body, colur etc to different brew types.

Hope that helps.

 

[Bubba]

i also have another dickhead question, what are these used for?

http://www.coopers.com.au/the-brewers-guil...t-extract-range

Th emalt extracts are a liquid malt, and basically replace fermentabel sugars in kit brewing or can be used to do extract brewing. Think of them as a kit without any hops.

A 1.5k tin of malt extract is the same as just a tad more than a kilo of dried malt extract, so these can be used to replce your malt, sugar, dextrose etc in kit beers, or the next step is to not use kit beers and use these, add your own hops and then fermentable sugars.

Again, they come in different types such a slight, dark, wheat etc for different varieties of beer.

 

[bconnery]

gday mateys

a complete novie brewer here so i have a ton of questions but of course i cant remember them all right now so i thought id make a thread for my stupid questions as i come across them and post them in this thread rather than making 20 different threads. hope this is cool with the admins.




anyway on to my first question:

i have a couple of kits from the local brew shop (coopers English Bitter, Mangrove Jacks Belgian Ale) and i also bought some of the shops brew enhancer that they package themselves and this is my question of the day.

i have 2 packs here, one has 250g Dextrose, 250g Maltodextrin, 500g Light Malt,

the second has 500g Dextrose, 300g Light Malt, 200g Dark Malt

is the light and dark malt in these sugar? or is the 500g of dextrose and maltodextrin in them making them both only 500g of sugar so therefor only a midstrength beer if i use them?

before you slam me, noobie remember haha.

The first one looks like a 'standard' enhancer park. Some dextrose for adding alcohol without adding too much body, maltodextrin for a little body (this isn't full fermentable, light malt for the same reason, amongst others.
The second sounds like a amber/dark brew enhancer pack. A little dark malt, which will be made up originally from some darker grains perhaps, or darkened by whatever process they use, and thus will provide colour and some flavour to your brew, but has more sugar to lighten the body a little. Both of them have 1kg total.
What strength beer you get by adding them will vary depending on the base beer and how fermentable the products in each are.

With regards to the coopers products these are unhopped (I think) malt extract. You use these in place of a kit, or you could add them to one, and add hops for bittering and steeped grains for flavouring yourself.
Do a search for extract brewing and you'll get a lot of information about this process.

 

[Bribie G]

Your tin of beer kit consists largely of malt extract which has had hop extract added to it. The tins of malt extract you are enquiring about are unhopped. You can use them like a beer kit but need to add hops to them. Another way you can use them is to make up a brew using a kit tin and a tin of malt extract and do not use any additional sugars or 'brew enhancers'. And it will turn out really flavoursome but nothing like a commercial beer.

Second brew I ever did was a Morgans Lager kit and a tin of Coopers malt extract and it was excellent.

 

[Os7]

interesting, thanks for the info guys. i am a little more enlightened on the magic of brewing.