Toucan = Too Weak?

[The Big Burper]

DBPD,

You took readings after 5 days.
1016 is too high, I suggest leaving ALL brews in the fermenter for
14 days. After that time the yeast will clean up and the wort will
start to clear.

I reckon 1008 -1010 with that brew.

Also, 500g dextrose would not go astray, put a bit more ooooomph into it.



cheers
BB
King of the Kans.

 

[Bribie G]

B.B. so that's why we ended up rat-arsed on that toucan the other week :icon_drunk:

 

[Gulpa]

Getting into the advanced mathematics here, a 1.7L beer kit actually weighs 1.3 kg.

Hi Bribie,

Surely that cant be right. Ive never weighed on but if the contents of the 1.7L can are less than 1.7kg that means the malt extract is less dense than water (and it should float on top of the water).

Sure you dont mean 2.3kg?

Cheers
Andrew.

 

[glaab]

the K&K spreadsheet says should be around 1040 OG and 1010 FG which is about 4%. I think Bribie meant to say a 1.7kg can is 1.3litre

 

[Bribie G]

OOps .. dead right, I got the K and the L transposed.
Ok that being the case then the 'toucan' from the malt should work out a wee tad less in gravity than the beer kits. I fed it into my copy of the KnK spreadsheet, and sure enough 1040 which should still give a quaffable strength beer.

I've obviously been drinking too many toucans :wacko: :blink:

 

[Adamt]

Typical kits are 1.25L, or 1.7kg.

This corresponds to a SG of 1.36, which in turn approximately corresponds to 80 Brix - standard malt extract is 80% sugar, 20% water.

 

[Gulpa]

I've obviously been drinking too many toucans :wacko: :blink:

Me too. That should have been obvious :icon_cheers:

Cheers
Andrew.

 

[Nick JD]

No becauuse it's suggested that hop extraction is best done (by that I mean 'most efficient') at a sugars to water ratio (ie OG) that is way less than two cans in a pot of water. Unless your pot is 30 litres of course.

Edit - search engine found this old thread http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=29509 on the subject

For an extract toucan, I steep 300-500g of grain in 4L and then boil my hops in that pot once the grain is steeped out. In 60 minutes boiling a teaspoon of the liquor is so damned bitter I nearly roll on the kitchen floor. It's a great way to "test" your final bitterness in extract brewing. After a heap of brews, I've got to the point where the mouth-puckering teaspoon test, and the resulting beer taste can be matched. Twice now I've done the teaspoon test and stopped the boil early so as not to let it get too bitter.

 

[The Big Burper]

B.B. so that's why we ended up rat-arsed on that toucan the other week :icon_drunk:

BG,

That was "The Black Death", toucan of Coopers Stout and Dark Ale.

A formidable drop.

Lucky we got to drink some, as most of it climbed out of the fermenter and on to
the laundry floor.

I also do brews to 19L now for the keg, and so it would have been a tad stronger than normal.



cheers :icon_cheers:

BB

 

[dbod]

Just to update - did a taste test on this one last night - only 3 weeks in the bottle from bulk priming so not ready but good enough to try and... it's excellent, best beer I've done in my short career, chuffed to bits. Malty base seems perfect, clearly did stuff up my OG reading.
And it's got lovely hoppy notes, yum.

Will take heed of advice mentioned on this thread on amount of malt - water - hops for getting maximum bitterness, i could go much more bitter but I'm just relieved to get a good Toucan under my belt (literally - may need new belt in coming months lol) and have a base to try refining and experimenting.
Thanks again for feedback/advice. Toucan to Victory! \o/

 

[The Big Burper]

Just to update - did a taste test on this one last night - only 3 weeks in the bottle from bulk priming so not ready but good enough to try and... it's excellent, best beer I've done in my short career, chuffed to bits. Malty base seems perfect, clearly did stuff up my OG reading.
And it's got lovely hoppy notes, yum.

Will take heed of advice mentioned on this thread on amount of malt - water - hops for getting maximum bitterness, i could go much more bitter but I'm just relieved to get a good Toucan under my belt (literally - may need new belt in coming months lol) and have a base to try refining and experimenting.
Thanks again for feedback/advice. Toucan to Victory! \o/

db,

Thanks for the update, it's good that it turned out OK. :icon_cheers:

If you are using the same recipe again, I would boil the hops with the crystal
malt extract, 1 litre would do. Maybe add a tablespoon of the Caramalt. Put
the rest into the fermenter.

Also, the general rule of thumb for adding sugars to a brew is the 3:1 ratio, that is 3 kg of malt can take up to 1kg of sugar/dex
without making it too "watery".

cheers
BB