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Help needed, I have ingredients with gaps in the instructions

Started by dmorrow30855, September 05, 2020, 04:52:59 PM

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dmorrow30855

Hi all,
I am new to brewing, I am trying to start my 3rd brew but have hit problems.

I bought a Festival Razorback IPA kit bought from https://www.geterbrewed.ie/, there were a few drop-down menus with optional extras that I included that are not in the instructions. Below is what I have:

2 bags of LME (I think that's what its called
650g of dextrose that is included at the start
100g of priming sugar
The above are in the instructions so all good there.

But I have another 1kg of Brewing Sugar and 1kg of Brew Enhancer, neither of which are documented in the instructions.

From the research I think I add the Brew Enhancer at the same time as the priming sugar, hopefully this is correct.

Now I have 1kg of Brewing sugar with no idea how or when to use.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

LordEoin

Brew Enhancer is usually a mix of dextrose and maltodextrin. your plan to add it while priming will just give you overcarbonated bottle bombs
brewing sugar is most likely just dextrose. add it on brewday if you want more alcohol.

to be honest, I'd probably just put them both in the bin. I don't know why anyone would recommend them to you as worthwhile additions apart from to gouge you. the standard razerback kit brews good beer as-is

pob

You could swap the 650g of dextrose from the kit with the 1kg of Brew Enhancer (Coopers Brew Enhancer 2 contains dextrose, maltodextrin and Light Dry Malt) when you're mixing it up into the FV (fermenting vessel).

Or swop it out for a 1 kg bag of the DME (D=Dry, L=Liquid Malt Extract)

Either option will give you similar ABV as using the dextrose (aka Brewing Sugar) as per instructions.

Personally I'd use the DME at the beginning & dextrose/brewing sugar for priming, this will give a better result.

The 'priming sugar' is probably just standard table sugar.

Robbiedrog

I've brewed a number of the festival brew kits and unlike many of the other companies they include all that is required to make your brew and for bottling within the box, if it is your first festival kit I would ignore the additional items you got and stick to the items that came in the box.
This way you can try the IPA as it should taste as per festival ingredients and if you enjoy it try swapping out the brewing sugar for the brew enhancer the next time you brew.
So if you just follow the instructions by adding the 2 liquid malt pouches and 650g brewing sugar to 3 litres of boiling water and top up to 23 litres with cold water (if I'm remembering correctly)

Then use 100g of priming for when you are bottling your beer, I generally boil 250ml of water and dissolve the priming sugar. Let it cool fully and add to your bottling bucket, then just Syphon the brew on top of the sugar in the bottling bucket and bottle from there.

Festival also provide a handy sediment filter for over the top of your syphon.

The additional items you got, i.e. 1kg brew enhancer and 1kg of brewing sugar can be used for making your next brew.

Hope this helps and it's not too late.