Muntons Imperial Stout Ideas.

[pbrandonvirg]

I was wondering if anyone had some ideas on making this stout a bit more potent. The package says it get's to about 4.5% , but I want to give it a bit of a kick. I am still relatively a beginner at this( about 12 brews so far).Would adding dextrose affect it's taste a great deal? any ideas would be great.

 

[joecast]

a few questions:

is this the one you want to brew?
http://www.muntons.com/homebeer/countries/...ld_imperial.htm

what do the directions that come with the kit say? add dex? add dme? add nothing? how much water?

and give yourself some credit, 12 brews isnt a bad effort.
if the kit above is the one you are talking about, i would guess the best way to give it some "kick" is just dump in a second can (yeah, thats the expensive option).
adding dextrose would definitely give you some added %abv. but after a certain point it will affect the taste and body, both negatively.
of course you could use dry or liquid malt extract. how much and what kind (light or dark) would be up to you.
joe

 

[Jovial_Monk]

This would be a good one to do a partmash with--the beer is dark and strong flavored so any mistakes in the mash, like starch haze, would be practically unnoticed.

Kilo pale malt, 700g amber malt, 300g oatmeal will add flavor and smoothness to the beer along with about 20 gravity points. Add a can of liquid malt extract and the gravity gets within view of where it should be.

Pitch a proper dried ale yeast stored in the fridge by your HBS, two packets wouldn't be too much. Try not to let the ferment get too warm, 17-19C is ideal.

Jovial Monk

 

[Linz]

Simplest way of strenthening it would be to look at the final volume. If it says it makes 23 lt, only add water to make 18-19 litres.

 

[pbrandonvirg]

Cheers guys guys thanks for all the tips. Joecast, the kit already comes with 2 cans already, so throwing an extra one might be out of the question. I might add some DME along with a little dextrose, this. I think I will try and be a little adventurous with this one..........

 

[nonicman]

a little dextrose

the dextrose may thin the body a bit depending on how much you add.
Either more malt (and some bittering hops to balance) or as Linz suggests lower the water volume. Just finished drinking a batch of stout 7.4% alc/v.