Wattuz

Recipes 

I'm about to brew my second batch. It's going to be a light honeybitter -stylish beer. I talked with my LHBS and they told me that i could use a 1,5kg (3,3lb) of bitter malt extract and some spraymalt (i bought Medium, 18EBC) for good results. The malt extract instructions say that i should add 1kg (2.2lb) sugar for one extractpack (23liters or 5gallon of brewed beer).

How should i deal with honey and sugar? I've heard that I should add 1 lb of honey per 5 gallon. Should i add sugar and honey in a ratio of 50/50 or in a different way? Can i completely replace sugar with honey?

I'm also going to boil all the "original" hops away from the maltextract and add around 50grams of saaz pellets (3,0% alpha). How long should i boil the hops after the hot break.

And how about spraymalt. I've never used it before, am i supposod to add it with the malt extract to create the wort, or add it later on when i continue boiling the wort?

I appreciate if you have time to read and reply, thank you.

Joker

Recipes 

You have a lot going on in this post and Im not sure I understand all of it or exactly what the kit is asking you to do. However, I will say you need to add some malt before you add hops or you will not get the proper utilization from the hops.

As for the sugar usually just adding straight sugar is bad, it will add a dryness to the brew and not help with a balance good tasting ale, typically.

Have you read all the required books to assist you in making good brew.

www.howtobrew.com

Tommish

Recipes 

I want to understand-- is the Spraymalt included with the bitter malt extract as part of a kit? If not, then the instructions on the malt extract will pretty much not apply.

The combination of those 2 maltsin those amounts for a 5 gallon batch will make something approximating an English Special Bitter (O.G. about 1.043). You probably don't need to add sugar or honey.

If you were to add additional fermentables, I would go with the honey. You can add 10% percent by weight without affecting the character of the brew (I have added up to 30% before with only a lightening of flavor and a mild floral character, but the recipe was balanced to take this into account).

Also, I am not sure if you can boil out hop bitterness since the bitterness is in the form of oil. If you save your Saaz for the aroma hops you will have what sounds like a very interesting beer, but then I love Saaz.

__________________

Wattuz

Recipes 

Thanks for the replies.

I do know that i'm asking alot, i wanted to see if there would have been a simple solution. I will read the book, i've done some research on websites for newbie instructions, but have realized that there is no easy way to master these things.

The spraymalt was not included with the malt extract. I was thinking to give up with the spraymalt and stick with the maltextract, hops and honey. So what im trying to do here is to alter the maltextract with saaz pellets and honey in order to create a light honeybitter.

And yes, i will read the book as i have time(im having exams this week), i'm not trying to rush with any brewing as it's the worst option. That's why i came up with this post, to clarify things.

So thanks for your advices and please tell me if you know what i need to remember when converting a maltextract kit.

shafferpilot

Recipes 

definitely true when you are going far away from established recipes as a noob.

AFTER you read the book, try out this recipe calculator to help establish the ins and outs of your brew:

http://www.beercalculus.com/recipe

__________________
A great man knows that he knows NOTHING