alcohol level malt vs sugar

[delly]

Thanks for answering my questions before about malt and hops.

Now i have a couple more!

Will substituing sugar with malt, and I assume this means you dont put ANY sugar in (confirm please), alter the alcohol content of the brew?

How much water do you guys boil up a kg of malt in if adding hops in the boil?

Does boiling the malt affect it at all?

Many thanks for your time in your replies.

[Oliver]

Delly,

Yes, if you're substituting glucose/dextrose or malt, don't add any cane/white sugar. Just add the same amount of those ingredients instead of the cane sugar.

Because some of the sugars in malt are unfermentable, you'll get less alcohol from it than from the same weight of cane sugar or glucose/dextrose. (And less from liquid malt than dry malt, as the liquid contains water, too.)

Someone will be able to give you the exact amount of fermentables in various ingredients.

If you're worried about losing alcohol content by using all malt, just add a few hundred grams of glucose/dextrose to make up for it.

When boiling up hops, just put the hops and 100g or so of malt in a couple of litres of water and boil. Hops release their oils better in the presence of malt, but if there's too much malt (ie too syrupy) it will inhibit the hop oils being extracted.

If you're just making kit beers (ie from a can), you don't need to worry about the effect that boiling has on malt.

Cheers,

Oliver

[Oliver]

OK, I just found some figures, from Home Brewing by Mike Rodgers-Wilson. I'd take these figures as only a rough guide.

Code: Select all

                             Fermentable         % alcohol per kg
                            sugars per kg         in 22.5 litres
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Liquid malt and beer kits      600g                  1.5%
Dried malt extract             700g                  1.75%
Sugar, glucose and dextrose    1kg                   2.5%
Malted barley                  500g-600g             1.25%-1.5%


Cheers,

Oliver

[Dogger Dan]

Maybe its just me but those seem a bit high.

This would make a Coopers beer kit with 1 kilo dex have a concentration of 7 percent.

Dogger

[Oliver]

Naaaaah

1.8kg (can) * 1.5% = 2.7%
+ 1kg (glucose) * 2.5% = 2.5%
Total = 5.2%

Oliver

[delly]

Thanks Oliver-thats good stuff.

[Dogger Dan]

Read the friging table

600 grams fermentable in a kilo not 1.5 percent per 600 grams of malt

Friggin Canadians, no wonder we have so much money

Stick with me guys, I will have you pissed on a glass of water by the end of it all


Dogger.

[Oliver]

No worries, Dogger. Maths has never been one of my strong points, so I'm surprised I wasn't wrong

Cheers,

Oliver

[BPJ]

Try
http://www.liquorcraft.com.au/3-beer_info_calculators-03.htm

It is a simple calculator that may be handy. I saved the link in my Favourites for quick reference.