Hey guys I've just started homebrewing, on my second batch, first one went really well, it wad a bitter can kit. My next attemptis a lager/ pilsner kit I bought from Wilkinsons, I've added a kilo of brewing sugar aswell as a kilo of beer enhancer, was just after some general advice and tips, would be much appreciated.
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- Thread starter mikeyboy
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Hi, Mikeboy! My advice: Pick a beer like a blonde ale, something that makes it hard to hide flaws, and brew it over and over until it tastes the same each time. Then start with different recipes. The advantage to this method, we have to control a lot of our variables with process. If you can make a blonde ale taste the same every time, you know you have a reliable process and can expand to other recipes with confidence.
Welcome to the fold.
Welcome to the fold.
Thanks for the advice buddy will try this from the next batch till I get it right, however will I have done my current brew any harm by adding extra sugar, as the last batch had lots of foam/scum on top and this one hasn't, any ideas?
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Adding sugar will thin the beer's body and increase its alcohol content. Not ruined - lots of Belgian beers do exactly that to get their signature body and alcohol content. I can't see how this would harm the beer or, if you're not doing a high gravity brew, particularly how it will help it. Time will tell.... A kilo seems like a lot and there may be a way you've "harmed" your beer - sometimes if you give them too much simple sugar they get lazy and won't digest the maltose in the wort. If your beer has stopped - no foam on top - and the gravity is still too high, get some highly active yeast like WLP 090, make a starter and pitch it while the starter is still going. If you pitch it while it's still active, it'll eat through the rest of the sugars in your wort. I have no idea what this "beer enhancer" is (off to the Google next) but I've never used anything like it.
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Found "Beer Enhancer". If you're making beers from high quality grain and extract, are using either steeping grains or mashing the character malts, you don't need that stuff. All I can see it would be good for is at need, dumping into a thin American-style lager to bring it up to having some definable flavor. And a kilo! Seems to me to be like adding a pint of soy sauce to take-out Chinese. Make high-quality beer from good ingredients with a sound process and we can leave beer enhancers to those who think Bud Select is actually drinkable.
Yeah that's fairly sound reasoning, oh well suppose it's trial and error at this point, I was trying t boost the abv of this one so thought the enhancer might balance it out but a kilo does seem a bit over kill now I think of it, the (OG) was at 1.056 when a took hydrometer reading.
