I made a beer that I really liked but it was a tad bitter for me. I did not use any brewing sugar but I think next time I will. Can anyone advise me on how much sugar to add to a 5 gallon batch? Will a tablespoon or 2 be enough?
How much sugar?
- Thread starter sidebung
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SumnerH
Well-Known Member
Plain sugar (corn or cane) will not help, it'll be converted to alcohol. Use less hops or more malt, or lactose, sucralose, or another unfermentable sweetener.
McGarnigle
Well-Known Member
A tablespoon or two is nothing. Maybe 1/2 pound or a full pound. But as Sumner says, sugar isn't really what you'd use to make beer less bitter. Sugar makes beer dry is it all ferments out.
Bitterness also mellows with time, so you could age it longer.
I used a hopped malt extract and 1 oz sterlins pellet finishing hops alpha acid 6.0%
jpsexton
Member
Did you boil the hopped extract?
SeamusMac
Well-Known Member
I often find that my pre-hopped kits taste better when I don't boil the canned extract. Also, adding more hops to a pre-hopped kit will tip the balance of flavour towards the hoppier end of the scale, which can often mean more bitterness.
jpsexton
Member
Boiling hopped extract actually increases the bitterness. Most are designed to be used as no-boil kits. If you use them with other ingredients that must be boiled, add the hopped extract after flameout.
SeamusMac
Well-Known Member
Boil the DME on its own for 15 minutes. The pre-hopped extract in the can only needs to be softened up, its contents have already gone through all the necessary steps. Like jpsexton said, add the can after your DME has come down below boiling temp.
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