Brewferm Abdij (belgium Beer Kit)

[rupal]

Hello, i am new to beer making. i just ordered off 2 Tins of Brewferm Abdij - http://www.brewferm.be/en/brew_prod1.htm . Each makes 9L & i want to make roughly 20l so i bought two.
However the instructions on their website are not very clear & i want to follow the guide from - http://www.howtobrew.com . But the methods are different, The instructions on the brewferm.be website say to add sugar to ferment with the kit but the guide at howtobrew.com says not to use sugar, except for conditioning, (before bottling). If i don't add sugar will i still achieve the same alcohol volume (8%) ? Also what should be the correct reading on my hydrometer when the batch is ready for bottling. Also i am up in cairns in the tropics, should i wait a couple of weeks until the temperature cools down a bit? Sorry if my questions sound a bit stupid. Any advice would be much appreciated. Rupa

 

[glenos]

What they mean by do not use sugar is do not use sucrose, you need to add sugar so that there is something to ferment to produce alcohol/CO2

There are lots of sugars, you could use Dextrose, Dried Malt Extract (Light or Dark), Maltodextrin, Corn syrup. these all have different effects on the final beer, I am not clever enough to exactly know which does what, I will leave that to someone else to explain.

Given that it is described as malty you might not want more malt character, this is something I have been overdoing lately and I am not happy with the results.

The instructions on the .be website say to use an open bucket to ferment in, I would think a barrel with an airlock is a safer option, keep those nasties out.

EDIT - Fermenter comments

 

[razz]

Welcome rupal. For your first up brew just follow the instructions on the kit. That way you will know what it's like and if you don't like anything about it you can then look at changing it. I'm not sure you should be doing such a strong ale for your first, you will have to leave it for sometime before it matures and becomes reasonable to taste.

 

[Stuster]

Belgian beers often include sugar. You can use any kind of sugar for this, standard white sugar can be fine. It's certainly not appropriate/desirable for all beer styles or with all yeasts. In this case, stick with sugar. For most other beer styles, be careful about using too much sugar. How to brew is a fine resource and the more you can read of it the better.

In terms of temperature, again, Belgian beers can be different from most other beers. Many Belgian yeasts can ferment at higher temps cleanly, while most other yeasts would produce terrible tasting, hangover inducing brews at the same temp. What yeast does the kit contain? What temperatures do they recommend using?

 

[rupal]

I cannot find info on the yeast that comes with it. But, i was actually thinking to use this specialty yeast instead of the one that comes with it :

http://craftbrewer.com.au/index.php?page=s...t&Itemid=29

Recommended fermentation temperature: 15C 24C. But we are getting 30+ degrees celsius during the day
at the moment. Or would you recommend using the yeast that comes with it?

 

[Stuster]

Living where you do, you should probably think about getting an old fridge set up to ferment in if that's at all possible. If you can't do that, drape a wet towel over the fermenter or keep it in an old esky, rotating ice blocks to keep the temp down. The T58 yeast is ok, and dry yeasts are probably the go for now. I'd say stick with the yeast in the pack this time until you know what temp you can ferment with. You might also want to send a PM to FNQBunyip on this site. He's not tooooooo far away from you IIRC.

 

[bconnery]

This is meant to be an abbey, or trappist, style ale so if you do use sugar, and I would to get the high alcohol without excessive malt taste, I would recommend a combination of sugars, including at least some portion of darker sugars such as brown etc. You could also use some malt etc. but I would use at least 50% sugar to make up whatever amount you add to the two kits.

Belgian beers are amongst the many to break the often quoted no sugar "rule"

 

[Rod]

I have just made a Brewferm Tripple

The recommended sugar addition was 500 g cane sugar

I added 525 g of Candi sugar which I made myself


The recommended method is ( directions are under lid and you need to search to find English )

Abdijbier 9 l 500 g 5 l 1.010 90 g

ie
to make a 9 litre batch

add 500g of cane sugar to 5 litre water or less add can mixed with hot water (about 1 litre ) and make up to 9 litres finished volume , add yeast when temp of brew is about 25'C

final gravity should be 1.010

bulk prime with 90 g sugar

for 2 can double everything

 

[brewchild]

HI,

I made this one back in March 2006 using 500g of dark candi sugar. It was at its best after about 5 months, but still very drinkable after 1 year.

happy brewing

Brewchild

 

[Darren]

Rupal,

try adding some barley malt liquid (yes you can easily make this yourself) to your brew. You won't look back with the quality of your beers.

cheers

Darren

 

[rupal]

where would i get barley malt liquid from? How do i make it? Or is it just malt extract.

 

[rupal]

Thanks For the advice. One more question, i am planning on using this yeast: http://craftbrewer.com.au/index.php?page=s...t&Itemid=29 If i am going to use 2 cans of the Brewferm malt extract & double everything, should i also use 2 packets of the yeast? Also would you recomment doing a secondary fermentation before bottling ? Thanks in advance.