Idiots K & K Recipes

[xknifepointx]

Budget Booster
Use as an adjunct to a 1.7kg can of liquid extract when making pale ales and lagers. Increases fermentables and body.
1Kg Dextrose 60/Maltodextrin 40 $4.00

Mega Booster
Use as an adjunct to a 1.7kg can of liquid extract when making pale ales and lagers. Increases fermentables and mouth-feel and adds some extra malt character.
1Kg Light Malt 50/Dextrose 25/Maltodextrin 25 $7.50


will adding either of these two packets to a can of goo work better or worse than using other sugars?

 

[brendanos]

The Budget will add some body (maltodextrin is mostly unfermentable for most brewing yeasts), and alcohol (from the dextrose, which is completely fermentable), without much of an influence on the flavour (other than providing nearly no nutrients for the yeast, thus the possibility of poor yeast performance/character).

The Mega will add more malt flavour, colour, body and possibly produce a bit better head retention, and provide a bit more food for the yeast.

As far as simple sugars go, Dextrose has superior flavour and is more favourable in brewing.

To answer your question yeah they will be better than (I presume you're referring to) supermarket white sugar, though you can really experiment with any kind of sugar you want (raw, partially refined, honey, etc), depending on your preference in beer. If you like malty beers, use light/amber/dark malt extract (dry or liquid) instead of sugar, if you want a light tasting beer with modest alcohol go for dextrose, and if you want additional body/head use maltodextrin/lactose. I know you don't want to get technical, but it helps to at least understand what your adding to your brew.

 

[boingk]

The Mega Booster [500g light dried malt extract, 250g dextrose & 250g maltodextrin] will be a good base for a wide range of ales and lagers. I've tried it on several myself, and was pleased with the results. Try it with a Lager kit [any decent brand] and one of the following additions:

1. 12g Hallertau hops @ 12 minutes and 12g Hallertau @ 2 minutes
2. 12g Tettnanger hops @ 12 minutes
3. or 12g Pride of Ringwood @ 15 minutes

What this means is that for the 3rd example you will fill a coffee mug with boiling water and then dunk in the hops to soak for 15 minutes while you're mixing the other ingredients in the fermenter. After you've mixed everything up in the fermenter and 15 minutes has passed, tip the whole contents of the mug into the fermenter. Stir once or twice. Add the yeast and stir again. Close the lid. Thats it!

You'll notice a marked improvement with these recipes, and they are dead simple. The first one will come out a bit like Cascade Lager, the second kinda like Heineken, and the third will be a fairly pleasing basic Aussie-style Lager. I've done them all and wasn't dissapointed with any. Just leave for 8 to 10 days in the fermenter [below 20'C if you can] and then bottle with 6g sugar per 750ml bottle. Shake a bit to dissolve the sugar. Leave somewhere warmish [bedroom floor will do] for 2 to 4 weeks, and then refridgerate and sample your efforts! Dead easy.

Good luck, and good drinking - boingk

 

[xknifepointx]

okay so I went down to Marrickville and the guy working there (Ross I think) guided me through the basic steps as to what I have to do, I bought the Mega Booster Kit ([500g light dried malt extract, 250g dextrose & 250g maltodextrin]) and also a 1kg bag of Dextrose, he also reccomended I use a yeast he had in the fridge which is specifically for Lagers. Saflau or something I think if I can remember properly, the packet says made in either E for Europe and C for Croatia.

I'm going to either use this with Cascade Spicy Ghost or Coopers Pale Ale, I want to hit ~5-6% and I want it to taste nice, unlike my previous failures I'm determined to get this one 100% right.

the temperature in my unit keeps my fermenter at 20 degrees almost 24 hours a day, dropping to the lowest of 18c early mornings when it's cold outside. I could probably fix this by placing the fermenter right up the back in the spare bedroom where there's no natural light coming in and it's not cold. Which would be the best one to try for a n00b? the Spicy Ghost and my ingredients or the Pale Ale ?

I've used a calculator on the site, www.brewhaus.com.au , worked out that I need to add some more dextrose along with the Mega Booster kit to get it up to ~5% and I was told to use about 1/3rd of the 1kg bag.


anyone got any tips for me before I start throwing away this junk in the fermenter and start sanitizing everything?

 

[boingk]

the temperature in my unit keeps my fermenter at 20 degrees almost 24 hours a day, dropping to the lowest of 18c early mornings when it's cold outside. I could probably fix this by placing the fermenter right up the back in the spare bedroom where there's no natural light coming in and it's not cold.

What do you mean by the last part of this? The yeast you've got is probably a saflager [S-23] yeast - in a yellow foil sachet right? It will brew up to 20'C easy, but will do best at under 16'C. Basically, if you've got a cold room somewhere in your place, just throw it in there and let it 'chill out'. If you can't get this, don't worry too much, it'll still do the job at the 18 to 20'C range.

The tips on the dextrose seem pretty spot-on, it will increase the alcohol, but don't add too much of it because it makes the beer's body thinner [more watery]. You'd probably be better off just adding the Mega Booster kit, and only 200 to 250g of the dextrose bag if you must add some. As it is, with the Mega Booster itself and no extra dextrose you'll be punting for around the 4.5% mark anyway.

The Cascade Spicy ghost seems to have mixed reviews, but the bad reports are in the minority, and from people who didn't use a good yeast [ie: they used the one in the can]. You'd do well with either kit, its really up to you on this one. Heres a site to give you a bit of an idea about different kits: Kit Reviews

 

[xknifepointx]

okay gonna make a pale ale tonight fermenter is just sitting in sterilizing now with the rest of the crap and I'll bang it all up and see how it goes.

thanks for all your advice guys

sorry for all the stupid questions, it must be annoying

 

[Sammus]

Howdy, just for the added value of another opinion, I'd recommend against the straight twocan brews for now. I got much better results with a can plus a brew enhancer from the super market/local homebrew store.
I've done several straight twocan brews (ie no hops added) and all of them were pretty gross. There was just a lot of pure bitterness, with no hop aroma or flavour. it was a big strong bitter beer, with very little flavour, quite hard to drink.

If your willing to play with hops, you can throw a few in with a kit and kilo (ie can + packer of brew enchancer sugars) and get good results, or throw lots into a twocan (to give it some flavour to balance all that raw isohop bitterness) and get also get good results - a much stronger beer though

 

[Sammus]

Oops I hadnt caught up on posts before writing my last one

Just a note, if you do have the saflager yeast, try and keep the temp down. I did a few of my first brews using this and was sorely disappointed, it was afterward I learned that you should keep your brew in a temp controlled unit at about 12C for optimum performance. It's probably a bit late to hear it now, but I would have gone for one of the safale yeasts.
I would personally use the yeast under the cap instead of a saflager if i didnt have somewhere temp controlled to ferment h34r: if you read this after youve dropped a lager yeast in, don't fret though, I'm could be alone on that thought... That said, if your brew tastes unusually fruity you can put it down to the yeast and try something different next time

 

[brendanos]

Handy formula:

(SUGAR+WATER)xYEAST/WATER=BEER(units %ALC)

Instead of adding dextrose, try reducing the batch size, or the "top up to" level to reach the desired alcohol strength.

 

[xknifepointx]

sorry I have been pretty busy lately and haven't had a chance to put a batch down yet, so I will do it today on the rainy crappy long weekend off.

I mentioned before I had Saflager, but it was SafAle sorry, I've had that kept in the fridge and I'm going to add the following:

1 x Coopers Pale Ale goo (throw away the yeast in the can)
500g light dried malt extract
500g dextrose
250g maltodextrin
sprinkle on SafAle yeast

will let you all know how I go, is there an easier way to get a gravity reading? I've heard there's an electronic device that measures it properly each time?


*edit*

Okay I did it all perfect, boiled 4 litres of water, sat the Coopers can in there for about 10 minutes to get it all gooey, tipped 4 litres of hot water in fermenter and then poured in the goo and 500g LDME, 250g Dextrose and 250Malto-Dex, gave it a stir then filled up to 20litres with cold water to get me to the temperature of 24 Degrees, I sprinkled ontop the SafAle 04 yeast and off she goes. Now to wait and see if this works, it smelt a lot better than the other two attempts I have made. Hopefully this works how it's meant to. Now I just need another fermenter so I can do two at once.

 

[boingk]

knifepoint, sounding good! That one should keep you out of trouble once its bottled and carbed - you'll notice the difference from your first brew for sure. Only thing I can recommend is maybe adding some hops next time - but see how you go anyways.

The gravity reader you're talking about is a refractometer - they're really a bit uneccesary for basic brewing, and complicated once you start fermenting. So just stick with the hydrometer for now really.

Cheers and good luck - boingk