Draught Kit Observations

[*****]

This was my fourth Brew and the first brew that I didn't add BE1 to. It is now 3 months bottled and I thought I would share some observations with others who will be looking to move on from the ingredients supplied with the DYI kit.

 

Recipe

Basic

1.7kg Coopers Draught

1kg BBY Light Malt Extract

500g Dextrose

kit yeast pitched at 24'C, fermented at 18 - 20'C with 10 days in FV.

 

%ABV

IanH's spreadsheet predicted 4.9% and the Brewcraft Calculator 5.6%. My hydro returned an OG of 1.045 and an FG of 1.008, giving 5.45% in the bottle. It certainly feels like 5.5% after a couple.

 

Taste and Balance

After 1 month in the bottle this was barely drinkable, SWMBO said it tasted like soapy water. At 2 months it had shown a huge improvement. At first I attributed this to the 500g of Dex, but then I read that BE1 is 600g of Dex, therefore it must be the combination of the higher ABV and the Dex.

At 3 months the balance is malty, there is an initial hint of bitterness, with each mouthful, but then the malt dominates. My son sampled this last week and even though he liked the previous three brews, said this was by far the best one yet.

 

Head and Retention

It pours with a nice head, however last night I shared three longnecks with my Daughter's partner prior to and after dinner. Being keen to demonstrate responsible consumption of alcohol, ie going slowly, I noted that the head retention (with same priming rate) is nowhere near as good as the brews with BE1. Within minutes it has totally subsided.

 

Improvements

Given the positive feedback on this brew and my own impressions [love] I am keen to see where I can take it.

First up I am going for a short boil with 25g of Hallertau (trying to avoid citrus notes with this one), just want to change the balance slightly. Also will add some specialty grain, most likely Carapils as this will not bring anything else to the beer except improved head retention.

 

Cheers

[ColmR]

Three whole months. Patience surely must be the most difficult skill to master when brewing. I just had one of my lagers there which had zero head and followed it with an O'hara's pale ale in the same glass. That beer lost it's head almost as quick as my home brew which I used table sugar in. I blame the glass.

[Guest]

To get what you seem to be after then yes, about 300g of Carapils would be a good edition and maybe reduce the dextrose to 300g. Alternatively you could use caramalt which would set it off nicely as well.

[*****]

....maybe reduce the dextrose to 300g..

 

Thanks Bill

It is probably a bit overdone on the ABV and 300g would be a better quantity.

[AndyG4]

I'd really interested on opinions as to what, if any, commercial beers the draught is similar to.

 

brewing 10 years ago, and getting into it again now, it's not a can that I've ever seriously considered, because "draught" covers such a broad gamut of favours.

[Guest]

for a lovely head on a beer you cannot go past Wheat Malt Extract, 200g or so adds a lovely lacing head and nice firm little bobbles.. I couldnt achieve a head that I liked until I started adding a small bit of wheat.

 

All my brews, wether it be all grain or Kits get the wheat malt addition and get lovely lacing all the way down the glass.

 

Yob

[*****]

for a lovely head on a beer you cannot go past Wheat Malt Extract' date=' 200g or so adds a lovely lacing head Yob[/quote']

 

I'll keep that in mind Yob. There are many iterations for these brews and I am glad I keep this one simple and I now have a baseline to work with. I have know put down 12 brews and the last eight have contained either hops or specaialty grains or a combination of both. Keeping it simple initially to start with is a good idea but I wanted to build some stocks but at the same time didn't want to end up with 200 litres of boring beer. I am confident the beers will be good though as I went for some tried and proven recipes as well as two inventions of my own. The first experiment was using the OS lager kit is going to be sampled this afternoon once the cricket starts, and hopefully I can supply some positive feedback to all OS Lager naysayers.

[jasond4]

I give 2 thumbs up to the wheat malt as well. Works all the time[happy] .