Sooooo Malty

After reading a few books I had decided to ditch dextrose in my kit beers and start using extract malts instead (for a little more flavor and body). I recently made a Morgans Bitter kit with 1Kg of Liquid Light Malt Extract. The results at 3 weeks after bottling are a very sweet malty brew and hardly bitter at all. Should I go back to Dextrose? Is there something else that will do a better job? Unfortunately I dont have the time to be doing partial or full grain mashes.

Post the complete recipe for your brew. The simple remedy for sweetness is to add more hops.

Simple recipe:
1.7Kg Morgans Bitter (hopped kit can)
1Kg Liquid Light Malt

Your problem isn't the dextrose vs. malt extract. Its using prehopped LME. You'll never know how much/little bitterness will be in your beer if you use them.

The problem you ran in to is that kit is hopped under the assumption that you are using dextrose, which ferments out completely and leaves no residual sweetness. When you substituted for malt extract it put the malt/hops ratio out of balance towards the malt side.

You would need to add more hops to compensate for the added maltiness. How much is a tough call without knowing the makeup of the kit in question.

Damn! I havent seen a kit manufacturer that lists the ingredients with quantity so adding extra hops would be a guess.
Will adding extra hops just turn it into a bitter sweet beer? I think I read I would need to boil the hops to add bitterness as it isnt for aroma or flavor?? The recipe is in the style of an Aussie bitter I think I would use Pride of Ringwood hops. Im not really all that confident in adding hops to all extract brews which is why I was sticking with the kits.

ask your homebrew shop owner. most of the LME's my guy stocks are NOT hopped, giving you total control over bitterness, flavor and aroma.

Ya figuring out the hops amount would definitely be guesswork. Yes you would need to boil the hops to get the bittering aspects. I would suggest for this batch you just enjoy it as it is. Next batch try going to a recipe that uses all extract and add your own hops. Makes it easier when you know exactly what is in your beer.

Some of the pre-hopped kits actually have hop particles and you can change the bitterness by boiling longer. As everyone is saying, doing an extract with steeped grains and your own hops is an easy step up from pre-hopped.

I have been boiling kits for at least 15 mins but the prospect of the full extract and steeping is still a little daunting. I have The Complete Joy of Home Brewing which has led to my experiments so far. Unfortunately my LHBS is really supply only and is not much help with anything other than kits. I was planning to do a kit with extract and grains steeped but this brew has stopped that in its tracks. I think my first extract only brew will need to be very basic - any suggestions?

My suggestion would be to look at the ingredients list of many of the kits that are available. Go to www.northernbrewer.com and look at their kits and then check out the ingredients listed. Find a recipe you like, say the British Bitter, Mild Ale, or Irish draft ale, and then look at the individual ingredients. Model a similar recipe off one of those with ingredients you can get.

There are some nice and simple recipes there - thanks!

Aside from buying recipe books, that's the easiest way to find tried and true recipes, extract or all grain. Online recipe databases can sometimes be sketchy. You don't know if it's been brewed before or if it's any good. Hope that helps.

Brewsmith said:

...Online recipe databases can sometimes be sketchy. You don't know if it's been brewed before or if it's any good...

Click to expand...

Except for the HBT recipe database of course, nothing but gold here.

Of Course! Check out my recipes, they're the best, and have been brewed at least once.

G'day Cfresh
I noticed you were from Melbourne

Where in Melbourne are you??? If you are near Mulgrave
there is a ripper homebrew shop on wellington road in mulgrave (sorry the name slips my mind ATM)

Go see the lady in there - she is an absolute fountain of knowledge
and will help you get the recipe/ingredients you disire


Hope this helps

Excellent Buddykin!
Im in Melbourne and work in Mt Waverley so Wellington Road is very close.
I didnt know there was one around here so if you can provide any other info that would be cool. I was reading Charlie P's book again last night and I think I will start off easy with his Stella/Heineken extract recipe.

Cfresh
The place i was talking about is
Australian Winemakers
Unit 4, 158 Wellington Road, Clayton, Victoria 3800

Phone: +61 3 9574 8222
Fax: +61 3 9574 8244




Like i said earlier - talk to the lady, she is fantastic

Cool - picked up heaps of advice from the lady and I now have an English Bitter kit with grains and extra hops