My first real batch of WUSS.

I've got a lot of friends that just can't handle good homebrew. In other words, anything darker that buttweiser. So, I brewed a simple batch for them, basically a pilsner style weak ale.

4 lbs light DME
2 oz sterling hops, 1 oz boil, 1/2 oz 30 mins, 1/2 oz 15 mins
WL East coast ale yeast
Primed with corn sugar

Now, they're going ape-crap over my new brew, calling it my first real brew. I put the pig in the fridge, and it went empty in a weekend. Ironic, as I think this might score a whopping 3.5 on the alcohol content. It goes down like water. This is what my friends like.

So, I want to brew them a "better" batch. I think that I'm going to ween them off of that buttweiser slowly. For my next batch, I'm going with a light steep of maybe crystal 20 and a pound of corn sugar (got to get that alcohol content up there). Simple and easy. I might bump the DME to 5 lbs.

Does anybody have any better ideas on weening my wussy friends? Anybody brew with corn sugar before? Is that "booster" stuff better than corn sugar?

ive never used corn sugar before for brewng, just primimng. i would use extra light extract instead. probably a cleaner flavor. but the booster stuff is supposed to give no flavor, just alcohol (which i find hard to believe). i just heard that using corn sugar gives a slight off taste. why not try them on a golden ale (which i guess is basically what youre doing) or an amber, or if you can lager then a light bock, or a real bohemian pilsner. BTW, shouldnt they be drinking coors

Sounds like a plan to me.

If I had to wager, I'd say that the "booster" stuff is either corn sugar or invert sugar. Both should ferment completely. As long as you keep it to 20% of your total fermentables or so, you shouldn't have to worry about off flavors. Adding that sugar will keep the body of the beer on the light side, make it a bit drier tasting, and bump your ABV.

Low ABV beers aren't necessarily a bad thing though, at least for "session" beers.

LupusUmbrus said:

Low ABV beers aren't necessarily a bad thing though, at least for "session" beers.

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true. i have an ordinary bitter thats very low in alcohol (probably too low, i cant seem to get a buzz from it) but its great for when theres a 10 am kickoff on saturday, or any of those times when you drink all day long. unfortunately its almot gone. also good for beer pong.

drengel said:

also good for beer pong.

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wtf is that?

-walker

remember i'm a college kid if you happen to think its stupid...us college kids like to play drinking games. you take aping pong table, a couple ping pong balls, lots of cheap beer, and some plastic cups. arrange the cups in a pyramid on both sides of the table. fill them about a 1/3 of the way with beer. try to throw the ping pong ball into the cups frrom across the table. if you make it, the other team drinks it. first one out of cups loses. make up your house rules.

You might want to substitute a higher AA bittering hop, just a few percent more.

Some good ideas. The Sterling hops are 6.5%, and I'm very pleased with their outcome as both boiling and finishing. I might switch to cascade (5.9%) for finishing, and use more sterling for boiling in the next batch. I'll probably use 5lbs extra-light DME and a single pound of corn sugar next time, just to see how it works.