Noob question about English Bitter

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gabmg

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Hi,
I did my first brew over the weekend and I'm pretty sure I messed it up.

The guy at my local brewer's store sold me a can of cooper's english bitter and a 1kg bag of dextrose. He told me that was all I needed. When I got home I noticed the requirements were of 500g of light dry malt and no sugar, but I figured the guy at the store knew what he was talking about, so I just mixed the can with the sugar in hot water (like I had seen on youtube). I then added the mix in my fermenter with cold water and added the yeast.

Now that I've been doing some reading I'm not so sure I should have added the dextrose. I would like to know if this is going to be a flop before I waste more time bottling the brew. Any thoughts on adding sugar like this to a pre-hopped malt extract?

Thanks!
 
It probably won't turn out great, but you might as well keep fermenting it for 3 weeks in total and then bottle it. What's the volume of beer you're fermenting? It should still taste OK.
 
Welcome to HBT!
You will make beer but it won't be the best beer you will ever make. It may taste a little thin but no worries, just consider this your "practice" batch.
I don't think you should take any more advice from that employee at your LHBS. ;)
 
gabmg said:
Hi,
I did my first brew over the weekend and I'm pretty sure I messed it up.

The guy at my local brewer's store sold me a can of cooper's english bitter and a 1kg bag of dextrose. He told me that was all I needed. When I got home I noticed the requirements were of 500g of light dry malt and no sugar, but I figured the guy at the store knew what he was talking about, so I just mixed the can with the sugar in hot water (like I had seen on youtube). I then added the mix in my fermenter with cold water and added the yeast.

Now that I've been doing some reading I'm not so sure I should have added the dextrose. I would like to know if this is going to be a flop before I waste more time bottling the brew. Any thoughts on adding sugar like this to a pre-hopped malt extract?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

That's a 1930's Prohibition homebrew method. Homebrewing technology has improved in the last 80 years. It will make beer but you can do a lot better. Check out the extract brewing section and Wiki here at HBT for some up-to-date methods and recipes. Owning and reading a modern homebrewing book like John Palmer's "How to Brew" is also highly recommended. Don't throw the first batch out but get ready for a big improvement on your next batch. :mug:
 
SMOKEU said:
It probably won't turn out great, but you might as well keep fermenting it for 3 weeks in total and then bottle it. What's the volume of beer you're fermenting? It should still taste OK.
Click to expand...

I'm doing 27 liters (6 gallons?). Thanks for the replies, I supppose I might as well bottle it and see what can go wrong during that step too...

Cheers!
 

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