Why not use dextrose/beer enhancer?

I'm playing around with taking a cheap, lightly hopped LME and turning it into something. Geographically and financially speaking LME is the easiest fermentable to get my hands on, don't want to get into all-grain at this point.

I'd posted something about it before (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/help-adventurous-noob-287426/) and Yooper mentioned I shouldn't use dextrose or "beer enhancer", so what could I/should I use for increasing OG and eventually the finished body of my beer?

Thanks!

You can use dex all you want. Just make sure you have enough base malt in there. Craigtube uses it on every batch because of the cost of malt extract in Canada. It will just be thinner and possibly taste a little less body and dryer.

As an alternative, use more LME. More LME = higher OG, plain and simple.

But that's only part of the equation.

Consider using some steeping grains, if you can get your hands on some. Steeping a half pound of light colored crystal malt, for instance, should provide a little more body and a little more color to boot to your finished product.

stratslinger said:

As an alternative, use more LME. More LME = higher OG, plain and simple.

But that's only part of the equation.

Consider using some steeping grains, if you can get your hands on some. Steeping a half pound of light colored crystal malt, for instance, should provide a little more body and a little more color to boot to your finished product.

Click to expand...

Any chance I'd find something I could use as a steeping grain in the baking aisle?

LTownLiquorPig said:

Any chance I'd find something I could use as a steeping grain in the baking aisle?

Click to expand...

i'm guessing no. you'll find steeping grains at a HBS.

A cheap way to do this could be to use the LME and order in some pellet hops from somewhere, and possibly a few pounds of medium crystal malt to keep as stock. Then experiment with different aroma and flavouring with hops and adjust crystal. Many permutations available to you.

B

LTownLiquorPig said:

Any chance I'd find something I could use as a steeping grain in the baking aisle?

Click to expand...

Where do you plan to get the LME? I'd expect that you'd find the steeping grains at the same place.

If you find extract prohibitvely expensive, you really should rethink your switch to AG. It cut the cost of my big recipes in half. Not to mention with AG you can but together something like a simple wit for $10-15. On top of that, there are a few places who will ship for a flat rate, so if you buy a few batches at once you'll more or less negate the cost of shipping.

plumbob said:

If you find extract prohibitvely expensive, you really should rethink your switch to AG. It cut the cost of my big recipes in half. Not to mention with AG you can but together something like a simple wit for $10-15. On top of that, there are a few places who will ship for a flat rate, so if you buy a few batches at once you'll more or less negate the cost of shipping.

Click to expand...

I have never seen a 'decent' shipping rate in Canada. Our postal system is really expensive so quite often the cost of shipping is more than the cost of the supplies.

B

Well that stinks, I suppose the $5 UPS/FedEx rates don't cover Canada either?

Yeah guys, that's my issue, cost of shipping to get quality down here. I don't have need to travel far very often, so making a trip just to get supplies for my beer wouldn't fly far with swmbo. I don't want to wait a couple months until I'm in a larger center with a good hbs to get my ingredients either. That's why I'm trying to tinker with a bland, cheap kit to get something decent out of.

I'm not proud, it doesn't pay to be, so even if I can come up with something that fairly rivals major label beer I'm happy for now. The winter conditions in my house are almost perfect on their own, 58*-60* in the basement, 50*-55* in the "mud room". I want to take advantage of the conditions!

My next shot is going to use Notty for the yeast, not the no name with the kit, and I;m thinking I'll wash and re-use it as long as I can.

Also, playing with using two cans of the LME, then different hopping plans to sort of match extract recipes is where I'm headed.

Thanks for all the input!