Coopers IPA Kit and Sugar

[Coalface]

Greetings all,
absolute noob brewer here... I prepared a coopers IPA kit last night and had some confusion with the sugar component - The back of the tin says to add 1.5kg of light dry malt, I had 500g of the coopers light dry malt and substituted the remaining 1kg for Brigalow Extra Malt Brew Sugar.

Note that in terms of calories the Coopers dry malt was higher than the Brigalow product per 100g. I took the specific gravity and it was 1055 @22 degrees (calibrated for 20 degrees). I had a look at some SG calculators and the additional 2 degrees doesn't seem to change the SG.

Any guesses what this will do to alcohol content and taste?
Cheers.

 

[Timbo]

Not knowing the content of the brigalow product, probably a combination of dex, maltodextrin and LME? Would ferment out more than than just LME. Slightly dryer tasting and a little bit more boozy would be my guess.

 

[Coalface]

Yep, no longer have the bag but I believe so. Thanks for the feedback. Cheers!

 

[Coalface]

Good morning,

It's been pretty cold lately in Melbourne, so I set the fermenter up on a heat pad and wrapped it in a towel.

After 24 hour it was at 24 degrees and bubbling constantly, i.e. less than 1 second between bubbles. I have read that IPAs are best brewed at 20 degrees, so I took the towel off, took the fermenter off the pad onto cold floor boards till it dropped to 22 degrees, then before I went to bed I put it back on the pad with a portion of the fermenter overhanging the pad so it wasn't in contact.

The next morning the temp was at 20, when I got home from work that day it was still at 20 but for the entire evening and this morning I haven't heard it bubble once.

Last night there was still pressure forcing all the water in the airlock into the last chamber, but this morning the airlock chambers had equalised.

I put the yeast in on sunday evening.

So I'm wondering... does this require more heat or just more patience?

Personally I'm not averse to the banana flavours in say a coopers red, so perhaps more heat is the go?

Any advice / insight greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

 

[Timbo]

Check with your hydrometer, but I certainly wouldn’t be bumping up the temp. I’d say the bulk of the fermentation is completed with the warm temperatures, but allow the yeast to keep working the beer. There will still be fermentation occurring, albeit slower, and you won’t notice this as airlock activity. Homebrewing 101, don’t trust the airlock.

Just leave it a couple more days, then do your hydrometer readings over three days to make sure the beer has finished.

 

[Coalface]

Thanks again Timbo,
Much appreciated.

 

[Hangover68]

Agree with Timbo, i just bottled a lager a few days ago that seems to fizz out after a few days. I brew in our laundry which is downstairs and usually sits at around 10c in winter, i ended up adding a fresh pack of proper lager least and let it does its thing for about 12 days. Temp was up and down as i was also using a towel and heat belt, decided to now set up a brew fridge with an inkbird controller for the next batch.

 

[Coalface]

Yep, all good in the end - dropped from 1055 to 1010. Been in the bottle for a week now, and I tested one last night wasn't bad... nice bitterness but not much of a hoppy aroma. I'm guessing it will get a little more gassed in the next week. Next batch I'll add some hops.