Marty_G Posted November 22, 2019 Share Posted November 22, 2019 Hi Guys, I have to start brewing mid strength beers and was just wondering how much will the ABV reduce in my existing recipes when I use 500g of dry malt rather than the kilo 1kg Dry malt I currently use. For example a brew that was 4.4% ABV with 1kg of Malt will be ?ABV with 500g Dry Malt. Also if my beers lose a bit of body with the reduction will adding 200g crystal Malt boil to the brew increase body and would I have to reduce the 500g malt further to maintain the same ABV reduction. Gee I hope that all makes sense. Thanks in advance guys, i have been searching the forums for a while to try to find a previous topic like this but no joy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted November 22, 2019 Share Posted November 22, 2019 At a guess I think it'll drop it by about 1%, maybe a bit more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty_G Posted November 22, 2019 Author Share Posted November 22, 2019 3 minutes ago, Otto Von Blotto said: At a guess I think it'll drop it by about 1%, maybe a bit more. Wow that much? That surprises me I thought it would be less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted November 22, 2019 Share Posted November 22, 2019 Yeah, pretty sure I remember reading somewhere that each 250g is worth about 0.5% ABV. You probably wouldn't really get any ABV from the crystal steeped by itself as the sugar extracted from it is mostly unfermentable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Lao Posted November 22, 2019 Share Posted November 22, 2019 Try and get hold of the Ian H spreadsheet on AHB forum. it is excellent for extract brewing. Predicting ABV, IBUs etc. A bit of extra crystal mightn’t hurt it I spose. Think you have to be a member of AHB though, but that’s no big deal joining . I would have a look but it’s on my laptop and I can’t get to it at the minute. Cheers James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Journeyman Posted November 22, 2019 Share Posted November 22, 2019 (edited) Playing with the spreadsheet shows reducing dry malt by 500 g reduces the ABV by .75. I can't help with the boil side of things. I've attached the latest(?) version of IanH's SS. 2016 Kit & Extract Beer Designer V4.2.xls Edited November 22, 2019 by Journeyman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty_G Posted November 22, 2019 Author Share Posted November 22, 2019 5 minutes ago, James Lao said: Try and get hold of the Ian H spreadsheet on AHB forum. I have Ian's spreadsheet and I actually think it is pretty useless, sorry to Ian. Unless i have an old version that doesn't function properly on my 2019 office version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naughty Corner Brewing Posted November 22, 2019 Share Posted November 22, 2019 Plug it all into the IanH spreadsheet or Beersmith and it will tell you. It all depends on the volume. I just made a quick extract recipe based on 23l and by dropping 500g LDM it dropped by .7%. In 19l the difference is about .9%, so pretty spot on with @Otto Von Blotto guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty_G Posted November 22, 2019 Author Share Posted November 22, 2019 I am so bloody stupid sometimes.... The Nelson's Light Recipe has no extract is uses 1.5 kg of malt and hop boils only and the ABV is 2.9% so that is 0.96% per 500g. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty_G Posted November 22, 2019 Author Share Posted November 22, 2019 (edited) 16 minutes ago, Journeyman said: I've attached the latest(?) version of IanH's SS. Thanks will see if this works better. Yep looks like that is working better than the other version I had. Edited November 22, 2019 by MartyG1525230263 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Journeyman Posted November 22, 2019 Share Posted November 22, 2019 5 minutes ago, MartyG1525230263 said: Thanks will see if this works better. I run LibreOffice on Linux Mint v19 - some of the macros don't work properly but the Lookup functions do. As the Save Recipe doesn't work, I just save a different SS for each thing I'm trying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shamus O'Sean Posted November 23, 2019 Share Posted November 23, 2019 Hey @MartyG1525230263 The Coopers Recipe Spreadsheet could help you out too. Just released a new version with the recent ROTM added. Sort the recipes by ABV to get some ideas. Cheers Shamus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thirsty Jim Posted November 23, 2019 Share Posted November 23, 2019 It depends on the volume of the brew of course. At 23 litres one can of extract (any style) produces brew at 2.7% (2 drops per bottle) One Can of extract and 500g of Light Dry Malt produces brew at 3.6% (2 drops per bottle) One Can of extract and 1000g of Light Dry Malt produces brew at 4.5% (2 drops per bottle) It is actually written on the box (at least it is for BE2 - I don't have any LDM on hand). Note : Results for LDM may be slightly higher given the unfermentable portionod Maltodextrin in BE2. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty_G Posted November 23, 2019 Author Share Posted November 23, 2019 10 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said: Hey @MartyG1525230263 The Coopers Recipe Spreadsheet could help you out too. Just released a new version with the recent ROTM added. Sort the recipes by ABV to get some ideas. Cheers Shamus Yep have been onto that before i started the thread! The info was more for my own knowledge bank. I just wanted to know what the adjustment would be. I know it also depends on the yeast as well but a ball park of about 0.75% will work at treat for my situation. I will just reduce the malt content by 500g for any recipes used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty_G Posted November 23, 2019 Author Share Posted November 23, 2019 7 hours ago, James of Bayswater said: It is actually written on the box (at least it is for BE2 - I don't have any LDM on hand). I don't buy the boxed LDM I get it in kilo+ packets from the LHBS. It saves a bit of coin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thirsty Jim Posted November 24, 2019 Share Posted November 24, 2019 So do I, but I do use BE2/3 for mid strength beers. My LHBS makes up his own 'Head and Body Improver' but is more expensive that the Cooper's box. His LDM is cheaper though. Reducing the volume to a 20 litre brew will increase the quoted ABV by 0.5% using 500g of LDM (compared to a 23 litre brew) and you wont be mid strength anymore. The reason I mention this is that 23 litre brews with 500g of dry malt can be a bit 'thin' and my instinctive response is to lower the brew volume but that forces the ABV up and that defeats the purpose of only using 500g in the first place, It is a question of personal taste but when brewing mid strength I prefer to use a maltodextrin/dextrose/malt blend (like BE2 or BE3) just because it adds body to the beer without lifting the ABV as much as a straight malt or dextrose addition. (by about 0.2%, 500g in 23 litres). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marty_G Posted November 24, 2019 Author Share Posted November 24, 2019 10 minutes ago, James of Bayswater said: It is a question of personal taste but when brewing mid strength I prefer to use a maltodextrin/dextrose/malt blend (like BE2 or BE3) just because it adds body to the beer without lifting the ABV as much as a straight malt or dextrose addition. (by about 0.2%, 500g in 23 litres). Thanks for the info. It is something I will try but I think I will do a 250 g Crystal Malt steep to alleviate loss of body first. Now that i have a fully functioning copy of IanH's spreadsheet I will have a play around with volumes, malts and grains to try to get the ABV for the volume I need. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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