Pale Malt Extract to Increase Volume

[Mike_McBrew]

Hi,

I normally all grain brew but I want to get a beer done quickly to clear space (fermenter) and time (wife negotiations) for my christmas ale and since my kegerator is getting low on choice

So I bought a kit - should be interesting since I've never done a kit beer before. The kit makes about 15 litres whereas my kegs take 19 litres so I want to bump up the volume with some pale malt extract. However I don't know the right water / extract ratio.

I don't want to change the alcohol content etc., just bump up the volume so that boil losses and fermentation losses leave me with about 19 litres...

So, how do I do the calculation?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[ncbrewer]

You can just factor up from what the kit has. 19/15 X original extract weight - this gets you the new total - subtract the kit extract. This assumes both original and extra extract are the same - both liquid or both dry. It probably won't taste exactly the same since it won't have extra specialty grains and might not be the same style of extract, but it should be fine.

 

[chickypad]

Don't forget to adjust your hops as well. You're essentially upping the batch size by about 25%, so to keep the beer the same you need to adjust all the ingredients. The easiest thing is probably to plug into software with your boil size, batch size, etc.

 

[Mike_McBrew]

You can just factor up from what the kit has. 19/15 X original extract weight - this gets you the new total - subtract the kit extract. This assumes both original and extra extract are the same - both liquid or both dry. It probably won't taste exactly the same since it won't have extra specialty grains and might not be the same style of extract, but it should be fine.

Sadly the kit was liquid and the pale malt extract was powder.
I used Brewersfriend.com to work out 7 litres of pale malt extract only beer at the same OG as the kit was targeting.

I made 11 litres of the extract, boiled it.
I made 11 litres with the sugar demanded by the recipe and the extract calculated from above and boiled it.
Mixed the two.
Currently cooling from 30 deg C (post being chilled) to 20 deg C so I can start fermenting.

Will post the OG once cooled to see if I got it right.
Came out at 1056 instead if the target 1060. That'll do for a quick and cheap brew.

M

 

[Mike_McBrew]

Don't forget to adjust your hops as well. You're essentially upping the batch size by about 25%, so to keep the beer the same you need to adjust all the ingredients. The easiest thing is probably to plug into software with your boil size, batch size, etc.

You're right but sadly I don't know the recipe in any way so couldn't have figured how much of what style if hops too add when (it also would gave upped the boil time from a 10 minute sterilisation to a1 hour boil). It's a darkish Belgian beer so probably more sweet than hoppy anyway. Fingers crossed.

M